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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What About the Parents?
Katie Salen Tekinbaş outlines strategies and activities that New York City public school Quest to Learn has implemented to ensure that families are engaged in the digital learning life of students.
A Day in the Life: Family Engagement in Citizen Schools
Emily Schneider-Krzys, the Deputy Program Director of Citizen Schools in Texas, explains how the Citizen Schools program’s focus on creating networks, building intentional relationships, and establishing consistent communication helps to engage families and support student learning.
Lessons From Museums and Libraries: Five Ways to Address Families’ Digital Learning Needs
Culture expert Marsha L. Semmel notes that museums and libraries are increasing their offerings for families in support of such vital 21st-century learning skills as problem solving, digital media literacy, and creativity. Learn how these institutions play important roles in addressing our children’s digital learning needs.
Complementary Learning Connections With Out-of-School Time Programs in Nebraska
When families, schools, and out-of-school supports work together, children are more likely to succeed. Lisa St. Clair writes about how the Nebraska State Parental Information and Resource Center is using a complementary learning approach to link family support programs with schools, early childhood programs, and out-of-school time programs.
Why, When, and How to Use Evaluation: Experts Speak Out
This brief offers expert commentary on the implications of the first-year report of the national evaluation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program for future evaluation and research. It includes a methodological critique of that study, written by Deborah Vandell.
Free. 8 Pages.
Understanding and Measuring Attendance in Out-of-School Time Programs
This brief reviews developmental research and out-of-school time program evaluations to examine three research-based indicators of attendance—intensity, duration, and breadth—offering different models for how attendance in out-of-school time programs can influence youth outcomes.
Free. Available online only.
Strengthening Out-Of-School Time Nonprofits: The Role of Foundations in Building Organizational Capacity
Commissioned by the Wallace Foundation as part of a three-part series, this paper looks at the role that foundations can play in building out-of-school time (OST) nonprofits' organizational capacity. In it, we suggest seven possible approaches to strengthening OST organizations, including methods to ensure that providers become stronger partners with other groups and more adept advocates for their field.
Society for Research on Adolescence Annual Meeting
This symposium featured findings from several studies funded by the William T. Grant Foundation on youth participation in out-of-school time activities, including contextual predictors, youth engagement, program quality, duration of participation, and youth outcomes.
Free. Available online only.
The Federal Role in Out-of-School Learning: After-School, Summer Learning, and Family Involvement as Critical Learning Supports
Four decades of research demonstrate that it is necessary to redefine learning—both where and when it takes place—if the country is to achieve the goal of educating all of its children. This report from Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) makes a research-based case for federal provision of out-of-school complementary learning supports, so that all students gain the skills necessary for success in the 21st century.
American Youth Policy Forum
In this presentation, Engaging Adolescents in Out-of-School Time Programs: Learning What Works, Priscilla Little reported on the benefits of participation in out-of-school time activities, contextual predictors of youth participation in such activities, and strategies for improving recruitment and retention in out-of-school time programs. Remarks were presented at a session on engaging adolescents in out-of-school time programs at the American Youth Policy Forum in Washington, D.C., on October 7, 2005.
Free. Available online only.
Strengthen What Happens Outside School to Improve What Happens Inside
This article by Harvard Family Research Project in the April 2009 issue of Phi Delta Kappan offers research-based recommendations for federal education legislation.
Free. Available online only.
Family Engagement as a Shared Responsibility in a Digital Learning Environment
HFRP director Heather B. Weiss examines how families and others involved with children and youth can ensure that children obtain the access, supports, and opportunities that they need to get the full benefits of digital media for learning.
Participation in Youth Programs: Enrollment, Attendance, and Engagement
This is a special issue of New Directions for Youth Development journal edited by Heather B. Weiss, Priscilla M. D. Little, and Suzanne Bouffard, Vol. 2005, No. 105, Spring 2005. This issue unpacks the construct of participation in out-of-school time programming, posing a three-part equation: participation = enrollment + attendance + engagement.
The Federal Role in Out-of-School Learning: After-School, Summer Learning, and Family Involvement as Critical Learning Supports (Voices in Urban Education, Summer 2009)
Our article in Voices for Urban Education makes a research-based case for the federal provision of out-of-school complementary learning supports.
New Strategies in Foundation Grantmaking for Children and Youth
This report examines trends in foundation grantmaking for children and youth among 19 foundations. The foundations include most of the largest and wealthiest and those whose grantmaking heavily focuses on children and youth. Survey results indicate that, because the problems of youth are interconnected and require comprehensive solutions, foundations are shifting their grantmaking strategies. Several are concentrating more resources on long-term, place-based community strategies designed to improve outcomes for children and youth.
$10.00 . 67 Pages.
Effective Interventions and School Reforms for At-Risk Children
What are effective interventions for at-risk children? This course will address this question with a focus on children in poverty and children suffering social and emotional risks. We will examine several school initiatives—including the movement to implement standards and high-stakes tests, promising charter and pilot schools, and efforts to improve teaching, as well as selected early childhood initiatives, mentoring programs, and after school interventions. While the primary focus of the course will be on the impact of interventions on children's academic development, we will also look at their impact on children's social and ethical development.
Free. Available online only.
MAKESHOP: Family Engagement in Exploration, Creativity, and Innovation
Jane Werner and Lisa Brahms, from the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, discuss the Museum’s innovative MAKESHOP studio space, which invites children and families to co-create projects and transforms the traditional museum visit experience.
Exploring Quality Standards for Middle School After School Programs: What We Know and What We Need to Know Summit
This summit, made possible through a grant from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, brought together after school staff, administrators, researchers, and funders to discuss how quality assessment looks and feels different for after school programs that serve middle school youth.
Free. Available online only.
Family Involvement Across Learning Settings
Families play important roles in supporting children’s learning not just in school but also in the many out-of-school contexts in which they learn. Harvard Family Research Project’s Helen Westmoreland talks about how families and nonschool learning settings, such as out-of-school time programs, museums, and libraries, can work together to promote student achievement.
Research Update 7: Out-of-School Time Programs for Older Youth
This Research Update addresses the benefits, challenges, and successful strategies of OST programs for older youth, based on data from eight recent evaluations and research studies profiled in our OST Research and Evaluation Database.
Free. Available online only.
Measurement Tools for Evaluating Out-of-School Time Programs: An Evaluation Resource
This Snapshot describes instruments used by current out-of-school time programs to evaluate their implementation and outcomes.
Free. Available online only.
Harnessing Technology in Out-of-School Time Settings
This Snapshot reviews the role of technology in OST programs, highlighting the evaluation methods and findings about implementation and youth outcomes.
Free. 8 Pages.
Learning from Small-Scale Experimental Evaluations of After School Programs
This Snapshot reviews small-scale experimental evaluations of after school programs, highlighting these studies' evaluation strategies and results.
Free. 8 Pages.
Selection Into Out-of-School Time Activities: The Role of Family Contexts Within and Across Neighborhood
This poster examined disadvantage at the family and neighborhood level and their associations with participation in out-of-school time activities. Specifically, the authors demonstrate that neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) characteristics (i.e., income, education, and employment) mediate the association between family income, parent education, and ethnicity and children's participation in a variety of activities outside of school. Family income and parent education, for example, are positively associated with an increased probability of youth participating in before- and after-school programs, community programs, and community center activities, but this increased probability is explained entirely by the fact that children in higher income and more educated families live in higher SES neighborhoods. Poster session submitted to Society for Research on Adolescence 2006 Bienniel Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
Youth Out-of-School Time Participation: Multiple Risks and Developmental Differences
This paper examines whether youth who are at risk, according to child-, family-, school-, and neighborhood-level factors, are less likely to participate in out-of-school time activities, and whether the predictors depend on youth's age or socioeconomic status. Findings reveal that child- and family-level risks are most consistently related to youth's OST participation. However, these relationships emerge only in early and late adolescence, when youth have more autonomy in their decisions about non-school time use. For certain types of activities, namely those that require fees and financial commitments, contextual risks are more strongly associated with OST participation for higher SES families than for lower SES families.