The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
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Putting an Equity Lens on Family Engagement in Oregon
Creating high-quality early childhood systems necessitates a strong focus on family engagement. Check out how Oregon is adopting an equity lens and building a strong foundation to engage families by leveraging federal funds, community leadership, and philanthropic investments.
Learning Together—Exploring a Nonprofit-Museum-Preschool-Family Partnership Model
Through a resourceful museum-preschool-family partnership involving cultural institutions across the city, an organization in New York City is providing rich anywhere, anytime learning opportunities for young children from low-income households. Learn how the Literacy Through Culture program hopes to increase families’ enthusiasm and appreciation for learning in a variety of contexts and build strong parent–child interactions around fun learning activities.
Transforming Pittsburgh Into Kidsburgh!
Dynamic Pittsburgh! Hundreds of the city’s PreK–12 educators, artists, technologists, and families are working together to remake learning.
SPARKing Innovation
Tony Berkley of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation describes the application of a theory of change to a complex initiative to facilitate team learning, strategic management, and program improvement.
An Impact Evaluation of Academic Instruction for After School Programs
Alison Black and Fred Doolittle from MDRC describe the evaluation of an enhanced academic instruction approach for after school programs.
Linking School and After School: Strategies for Success
Julie Bott reviews the strategies she and her colleagues use to link the Gardner Extended Services School's after school program with the school day.
Parenting Behaviors and Adolescent OST Participation
Harvard Family Research Project discusses the connection between parents' behavior and adolescents' participation in out-of-school time activities.
Complementary Learning in Action: Jacksonville Children's Commission
This profile from the Complementary Learning in Action series describes how the Jacksonville Children's Commission aims for a coordinated system of care from birth through adolescence.
Free. Available online only.
Complementary Learning: Recommended and Related Readings
This annotated bibliography compiles recent publications on complementary learning and related concepts, demonstrating a growing national momentum for connected nonschool supports.
Building and Evaluating Out-of-School Time Connections
Suzanne Bouffard, Priscilla Little, and Heather Weiss build a research-based case that a network of supports, with out-of-school time programs as a key component, are critical to positive learning and developmental outcomes for children and youth.
Book Excerpt: Promising Practices for Family Engagement in Out-of-School Time
This new book on family involvement in out-of-school time (OST), edited by former HFRP staff members Holly Kreider and Helen Westmoreland, includes information on promising practices, benefits, and concerns related to family involvement in OST, and features a chapter written by former HFRP staff members Suzanne Bouffard, Kelley O’Carroll, Helen Westmoreland, and Priscilla Little.
Thinking Big: A New Framework for Family Involvement Policy, Practice, and Research
Suzanne Bouffard and Heather Weiss reframe family involvement as part of a broader complementary learning approach to promoting children’s success in education and in life.
Framing Program Evaluation: Why We Should Tinker With Theories of Change and Logic Models
While evaluation needs may vary, all organizations can benefit from utilizing theory-based evaluation tools to frame evaluation efforts. This article explores how three organizations developed their program’s theory of change and logic model.
Learning for All: The Value of Field Experience in Training a New Generation of Program Evaluators
Field experience in evaluation inquiry is a promising approach to preparing the next generation of evaluators. Learn what one group of student consultants and organizations did to make a field experience in evaluative inquiry a positive one.
Bridging Worlds: Family Engagement in the Transition to Kindergarten
This teaching case explores the complex issues surrounding the transition to kindergarten and the importance of family engagement in the process. Three expert commentaries and discussion questions are included. An interactive version is also available.
Free. Available online only.
Family Involvement in Elementary School Children's Education
This research brief synthesizes the latest research that demonstrates how family involvement contributes to elementary-school-age children's learning and development. The brief summarizes the latest evidence base on effective involvement—specifically, the research studies that link family involvement during the elementary school years to outcomes and programs that have been evaluated to show what works.
Free. 12 Pages.
Lessons From Family-Strengthening Interventions: Learning From Evidence-Based Practice
Examine how effective family-strengthening interventions can positively impact families and children in this practitioner-friendly brief from Harvard Family Research Project. Lessons From Family-Strengthening Interventions: Learning From Evidence-Based Practice is based on our review of interventions that have been rigorously evaluated through experimental and quasi-experimental studies. We offer educators, service providers, and evaluators recommendations for creating successful programs and evaluations.
Free. Available online only.
Engaging Families in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Project-Based Learning
To be successful, children need a strong science, technology, engineering, and math foundation. Learn how Iridescent, a project funded in part by the National Science Foundation, connects families, engineers, and children to develop these skills early on in school.
Finding Time Together: Families, Schools, and Communities Supporting Anywhere, Anytime Learning
How do families spend time supporting their children’s informal and formal learning beyond the school day and across settings? Find out how educators and institutions are helping families promote their children’s learning experiences anytime, in school and beyond.
The C. S. Mott Statewide Afterschool Networks: Statewide Collaboration to Further After School Policies
An-Me Chung of the C. S. Mott Foundation describes the Statewide Afterschool Networks, and three Statewide Afterschool Network coordinators—Jennifer Becker Mouhcine from Illinois, Zelda Waymer from South Carolina, and Janet Frieling from Washington—discuss how their Networks support and promote systems of after school program quality.
A Conversation With Richard Rothstein
Richard Rothstein argues that narrowing the achievement gap requires substantial changes in social policy in addition to extensive school reform.
Evaluating Partnerships: Seven Success Factors
Dr. Hector Garza of the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships describes what he looks for when evaluating educational partnerships.
Bridging Multiple Worlds: Building Pathways From Childhood to College
Students' pathways through school can be seen as moving through an academic pipeline to adulthood. The Bridging Multiple Worlds model focuses on how diverse youth, beginning in their middle childhood years, navigate across their worlds of families, peers, schools, and communities as they move along their pathways to college, careers, and family roles in adulthood.
Free. Available online only.
School Community Leadership
This course will address the identification and utilization of community resources and the creation of family engagement partnerships, community linkages, and collaborative efforts to provide for the educational, cultural, health, lifelong learning, vocational, and out-of-school needs of students and citizens in a community.
Free. Available online only.
“This Is Their House, Too”: An Afterschool Space Designed for and by Teenagers
Engagement in afterschool programming is one way to keep middle and high school youth engaged in their education. Learn about how the Everett Boys & Girls Club located just outside of Boston, uses intentional informality to keep students coming back and wanting more.