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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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As told to the FINE team by Linda Foote, Technology Integration Specialist for Poway Unified School District, this article discusses how data helps students create their learning goals and helps parents create family goals to support their children’s learning. The article also shares ideas for how to build community around data.
This resource from HFRP offers a compilation of articles on families’ use of data to support, guide, and advocate for student achievement and schoolwide improvement. Resources are grouped into three categories: Perspectives that offer lessons learned from family and community use of data, program examples that illustrate what it takes to make data actionable for families, and tools that help everyone understand how data can be analyzed.
In this Research Digest, Barbara Starkie highlights key findings from her recent study that examined why and how parents use online parent portals to view student data.
Molly is surprised when her son's teacher recommends he attend summer school. She thought he was doing just fine and the family had been doing a lot to make the home a rich reading environment. How can teachers better communicate academic progress with parents? How can administrators support teachers in this effort?
Free. Available online only.
This paper examines whether demographic differences exist in getting youth “in the door” of OST activities, as well as in the number of activities and the amount of time youth spend in activities. Results from two nationally representative datasets show that disadvantaged youth were less likely to participate in a variety of activities than their peers and that they participated in fewer activities.
Design Thinking cultivates fertile ground for promoting deep understanding and action-oriented partnerships between families and educators to support student learning. Discover five steps that enable families and educators to create meaningful strategies for family engagement.
This issue of the FINE Forum provides some promising approaches to preparing teachers to partner with diverse families and communities.
Free. Available online only.
Latino parents become more involved in their children's education when they understand the school system and know how to help their children.
Free. Available online only.
A collaboration with the Finance Project, this brief provides practitioners of local out-of-school time programs with techniques, tools, and strategies for improving their program and tracking their effectiveness over time.
Free. Available online only.
Trise Moore, Family Partnership Advocate for Federal Way Public Schools Washington state, discusses her work in the district’s Family Partnership Office to promote strong partnerships among parents and district- and school-level staff.
Jenny Ocón, Executive Director of Parent Services Project (PSP) in San Rafael, California, describes how her work with PSP supports family engagement at schools and in the community.
As we celebrate the Week of the Young Child, the FINE Forum presents some innovative ideas and practices in family involvement in early childhood education.
Free. Available online only.
This report examines local examples of successful implementation of reforms. It provides useful information to early childhood practitioners who work directly with children and families, managers who direct early childhood agencies and programs, and policymakers who make decisions about program designs and funding strategies.
Free. Available online only.
This course will focus on the role of community organizing in fostering school change. We will examine the large range of ways community groups and schools are promoting the active engagement of participants to improve education. Within that context, we will examine efforts to foster collaborations among and between a wide array of stakeholders in education, including community organizations, school personnel, school system administration, unions, the business community, faith institutions, civil rights organizations, and youth. We will also examine the role of political organizing in addressing structural inequalities in education in America, and consider that ways that education organizing strengthens broader community building efforts.
Free. Available online only.
Not all home–school communication succeeds in supporting student learning. In this article, Duke University's JoBeth Allen offers tips for effective communication between schools and families that can help children to learn and grow.
This review of current literature on community development is a resource for people hoping to gain insight into the common ground and potential for collaboration that exist between family support and community development initiatives. A brief introduction to the bibliography explains what the eight themes are, why they are important, and what special challenges are raised for community development practitioners.
$7.00 . 28 Pages.
In this Commentary, Harvard Family Research Project’s Heidi Rosenberg discusses how continuous improvement processes can strengthen family engagement strategies, and outlines the mindset and key practices that organizations need to adopt in order to use data to understand and improve upon their work.
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.
An urban public school successfully engages parents by offering a variety of school-based activities, a welcoming environment, and frequent communication between staff and parents.
Free. Available online only.
Lori Takeuchi—Director of Research for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and author of the recent report Families Matter: Engaging Families in a Digital Age—discusses her research on how children use technology across the various settings of their lives, and the implications of her findings for practitioners who work with young children and their families.
This Snapshot provides an overview of how researchers are evaluating out-of-school time programs’ engagement with families.
Hard copy out of stock. Available online only.
Research suggesting links between parenting goals and cognitive ability informs a goal-based parenting intervention program for low-income families.
Free. Available online only.
Erik's first grade teacher is concerned about his intentional aggression towards other children and communicates regularly with Erik's mother about it. Subtle differences in beliefs between Erik's mother and teacher leave both feeling unsatisfied in their attempts to help Erik. How can the two build a partnership to change Erik's behavior?
Free. Available online only.
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange brings together the current knowledge base of programs in family support and family involvement, providing a continuous perspective on family processes with regard to children's learning and development, from a child's early years through adolescence. Articles address the challenges of evaluating family programs, such as the need for conceptual clarity, methodological rigor, accountability, and contextual responsiveness. Rounding out the issue are examples of ongoing evaluations of parent leadership and organizing to ensure that schools serve all children at high standards.
Evaluation plays a major role in shaping new directions for the field of family support. In her keynote address at the Participatory Evaluation and Parent Engagement Institute, sponsored by Family Support America and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, in Kansas City, Missouri, September 20–22, 2004, Heather Weiss, Founder and Director of HFRP, described how evaluation can support learning, continuous improvement, and innovation. The four components of a family support evaluation strategy that she outlined were experimental studies to show program impact on families, utilization-focused evaluation to support policy and practitioner decision making, action research and empowerment evaluation, and performance standards based on solid research and evaluation.
Free. Available online only.