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.
Working With Families in the Rural South: Findings From the REA-Funded Promising Readers Program
In an elementary school in the rural south, parents, preservice teachers, and others come together to strengthen children's literacy and learn from their experiences with children and one another.
Free. Available online only.
Measurement Tools for Evaluating Out-of-School Time Programs: An Evaluation Resource
As part of HFRP's continuing effort to help practitioners and evaluators choose appropriate evaluation methods, this guide describes measurement tools and assessments that can be obtained and used for on-the-ground program evaluation. Whether you are conducting first-time internal evaluations or large-scale national studies, these evaluation instruments can be used to assess the characteristics and outcomes of your programs, staff, and participants, and to collect other key information.
Transforming Family Engagement
In this Commentary, Harvard Family Research Project’s Evelyn Brosi Semenza and Heidi Rosenberg examine how innovative approaches and tools—including digital media—are helping to transform family engagement. Approaches include community–school partnerships that help promote school readiness; the integration of digital media in educators’ family engagement strategies; and the use of online tools to gather information about parents’ perspectives.
Continuous Improvement: Being Responsive When There is Need for Change
Deborah J. Brown, external evaluator for Save the Children, discusses how continuous improvement processes have helped strengthen one of Save the Children’s language development and pre-literacy programs, Early Steps to School Success.
Engaging the Media as Partners in Teen Pregnancy Prevention
Sarah Brown, Director of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, describes the unique way in which the Campaign has enlisted the support of “unusual suspects” in its efforts to improve child well-being and reduce child poverty.
The Child Trends DataBank: An Evolving Resource for Policymakers, Researchers, and Practitioner
Brett Brown, Kristin Moore, and Sharon Bzostek describe Child Trends' “one-stop data shop” for the latest indicators on child and youth well-being.
Rethinking the Evaluation of Family Strengthening Strategies: Beyond Traditional Program Evaluation Models
Charles Bruner of the Child and Family Policy Center outlines three factors of good family strengthening programs that evaluators are not adequately measuring in their evaluations.
North Carolina's Smart Start Initiative: A Decade of Evaluation Lessons
Donna Bryant and Karen Ponder describe the past 10 years of evaluating North Carolina's nationally recognized early childhood initiative.
Investing in Those Who Invest in our Youth
Linda Lausell Bryant, Director of Training at Partnership for After School Education, describes their New York City-based coalition committed to quality after school programs.
Identifying School Readiness Indicators to Stimulate Policy Action
Elizabeth Burke Bryant and Catherine Walsh, of Rhode Island Kids Count, give an account of the School Readiness Indicators Initiative.
Building an Evaluation Tool Kit for Professional Development
Jennifer Buher-Kane, Nancy Peter, and Susan Kinnevy of the Center for Research on Youth and Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania share their experience of creating a tool kit designed specifically for those who provide professional development to out-of-school time program staff.
Insights From Teaching a Graduate Evaluation and Improvement Science Course
In teaching Learning From Practice: Evaluation and Improvement Science at Harvard Graduate School of Education, Candice Bocala creates ample opportunities for students and partner organizations to work together as they explore the complexities of program evaluation. Discover the three insights Bocala has learned about program evaluation along the way.
Advocating for the Rights of Undocumented Families
Moria Cappio and Melanie Reyes from The Children’s Aid Society share their experiences reinventing family engagement strategies in their East Harlem Early Head Start/Head Start program to reach out to immigrant families by including parent civic advocacy. Cappio and Reyes also describe how using an advocacy evaluation tool helped them navigate these uncharted waters.
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.
Why We Need to Slow Down When It Comes to Evaluation
Read about lessons HFRP has learned from supporting evaluation efforts in the field. This commentary highlights the value of investing time to carefully consider the theory behind a program for evaluation to yield usable and actionable information.
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.
NSACA Accreditation: Building Capacity for Continuous Improvement in After School Programs
Mark Carter, Executive Director of the National School-Age Care Alliance (NSACA), describes how the NSACA accreditation process helps after school programs build evaluation capacity.
Bilingual Voices and Parent Classroom Choices
Ines, a Spanish speaker feels responsible for her daughter's trouble in an all-English first grade classroom. Based on advice from her daughter's teacher, who believes a bilingual placement might be best, Ines reads with Nina in Spanish, but is uncertain this is the right thing to do. How can parents and teachers reconcile their differences about bilingual education?
Free. Available online only.
How Teachers Come to Understand Families
Two key processes whereby teachers working in a low-income rural New England town come to understand families include gathering information and meaning making.
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.
Home-School Communication—What's All the Commotion?
This workshop, developed by Margaret Caspe for Harvard Family Research Project, helps teachers understand different approaches to home-school communication and how these shape relationships with families. Concepts are taken from a research study of first and second grade teachers in three sites.
Free. Available online only.
New & Noteworthy
This section features an annotated list of papers, organizations, initiatives, and other resources related to the issue's theme of Evaluating Education Reform.
Family Literacy: A Review of Programs and Critical Perspectives
This paper reviews the literature on family literacy and describes critical perspectives. It also explores guiding principles and examples of their application in three different programs.
Free. Available online only.
Six Activities to Spice Up the Teaching Case Method Discussion
Margaret Caspe discusses how college and university instructors can use the teaching case method to prepare future educators for family engagement. She offers a suite of activities that instructors can combine with the cases to help students dive deeply into the family engagement issues and dilemmas of practice that are presented in each case.