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.
Valuing Parents as Co-Educators: A Teacher-Parent Partnership Project in Cyprus
A classroom-based family involvement project in Cyprus offers multiple roles for parents in the classroom, and benefits students, parents, and the teacher.
Free. Available online only.
Videotaped Interactions in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project
Rebecca Ryan, Christy Brady-Smith, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn describe the use of videotapes in the national evaluation of Early Head Start.
Voices from the Field: How Can Elementary Teachers Collaborate More Effectively with Parents to Support Literacy Learning?
In this FINE Newsletter Voices from the Field article, Carol St. George, EdD, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Rochester and Title I Family Involvement Coordinator for the Greece Central School District in New York, discusses her use of the Collegial Circle, a professional development activity that engages teachers with parents.
We Were a "Hard-to-Reach" Family
Former Head Start parent, Nikia Parker, started out as a “hard-to-reach” parent but developed a strong, positive relationship with her family’s Early Head Start home visitor, which enabled her to not only effectively support her own children, but also take on advocacy and leadership roles within the larger Head Start community.
Wearable Computers and Evaluation
Edward Dieterle, from Harvard University's Handheld Devices for Ubiquitous Learning Project, discusses the potential of using wireless handheld devices for evaluation.
Webinar Archive—OST Data and Evaluation: Collecting and Sharing Data to Support Communities
This presentation examines the “essential data” that OST providers and intermediaries should consider collecting for an evaluation, and the important role families can play throughout the process.
Webinar Brief: Data Driven—Making Student and School Data Accessible and Meaningful To Families
This is a briefing on the third webinar in the series Achieving Excellence and Innovation in Family, School, and Community Engagement brought to you by the U.S. Department of Education in partnership with United Way Worldwide, National PTA, SEDL, and Harvard Family Research Project. The webinar, which took place on August 10, 2010, featured Kevin Jennings from the U.S. Department of Education and a number of speakers from across the country discussing examples of how data can be used to engage families in programs, schools, and school districts.
Welfare, Information, and the New Federalism
Thomas Gais of the Rockefeller Institute of Government discusses the use of information technology in welfare reform.
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.
What Are Kids Getting Into These Days? Demographic Differences in Youth Out-of-School Time Participation
This research brief examines demographic differences in youth's OST participation rates. It first provides information on current demographic differences in OST participation rates, and then looks at whether there is any evidence that such differences have changed in recent years. The brief concludes with implications for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.
Free. Available online only.
What do evaluators of public communication campaigns need to do to advance their work and this field?
Gary T. Henry is a professor in Policy Studies and Political Science at Georgia State University, co-editor-in-chief of the journal New Directions for Evaluation, and co-author of Evaluation: An Integrated Framework for Understanding, Guiding, and Improving Policies and Programs (2000, Jossey-Bass).
What does monitoring and evaluation look like for real-life advocates?
Stephanie Schaefer, codirector of research at Fight Crime: Invest in Kids—a national nonprofit, bipartisan organization of law enforcement leaders and violence survivors—describes how they use evaluation to inform their advocacy and demonstrate their impact.
What Is a Learning Approach to Evaluation?
Rosalie T. Torres, Ph.D. is Director of Research, Evaluation, and Organizational Learning at the Developmental Studies Center in Oakland, California. Her 24-year career in evaluation has focused on researching, teaching, writing about, and practicing a learning approach to evaluation.
What is Complementary Learning?
This short publication will give you a quick overview and some concrete examples of complementary learning. It includes information about what complementary learning looks like, some examples of complementary learning systems in practice today, and a description about what is different about complementary learning from traditional programs and services. Finally, we'll introduce you to Marcus, a fictional teenager whose story illustrates how complementary learning can positively affect the lives of students from birth through adolescence.
What Is Participatory Evaluation (PE)? What Are Its Roots?
HFRP posed this question to Carole Upshur and Esterla Barreto-Cortez, researchers at the Mauricio Gastón Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
What is strategic learning and how do you develop an organizational culture that encourages it?
John A. Healy, Director of Strategic Learning and Evaluation at The Atlantic Philanthropies, shares ways to position learning as an organizational priority.
What is the Campbell Collaboration and how is it helping to identify “what works”?
Robert Boruch, a founder of the Campbell Collaboration and professor of education and statistics at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses how the Campbell Collaboration and randomized trials contribute to evidence-based policy.
What is the Evidence of the Effectiveness of School-Linked Services?
HFRP posed this question to Mary Wagner, Ph.D., who is the program manager of educational and human services research at SRI International, and James Davis, Ph.D., who is a professor in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of Delaware.
What Matters in Family Support Evaluation?
M. Elena Lopez of HFRP interprets themes from a participatory evaluation and parent engagement institute.
What Words Don't Say
Martin, an African-American student struggles with peer problems at his elementary school. He experiences racism and classism. How can Martin's mother and his teacher dialogue about sensitive issues?
Free. Available online only.
What's Different About Evaluating Advocacy and Policy Change?
Julia Coffman of HFRP describes four ways evaluators may need to adjust their approaches when evaluating advocacy and policy change.
What's Going on With Tomasito?
Tomasito's embarrassment at having his parents drop by the school limits the development of a strong, trusting, and communicative parent-teacher relationship. Shy and quiet Tomasito does not share information about his home life with his teacher who in turn holds many misconceptions about his home context. How can teacher and family communicate better?
Free. Available online only.
When Parents Assess Schools
M. Elena Lopez, from Harvard Family Research Project, discusses the role that data plays in helping parents assess, and then work to change, the performance of their children’s schools.
Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going: Experts Reflect and Look Ahead
Six experts share their thoughts on how the evaluation field has changed in the past decade and consider what may be in store for the future.
White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation
HFRP describes the functions of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, created by President Obama last year in response to the perceived lack of innovation and use of rigorous approaches to identifying “what works” in the nonprofit sector. The new office seeks to address the need to identify and scale up successful nonprofit initiatives.