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.
Evaluating Education Reform
Education reform is complex and so are its evaluations. This issue of The Evaluation Exchange explores key dimensions of reform, including standards-based reform, technology in education, Comer schools, and new forms of public accountability. It addresses the links among education policy, practice, and evaluation and how research and evaluation can inform policy and practice.
Free. 24 Pages.
Evaluating Education Reform: Early Childhood Education
Over the past three decades, an enormous body of research literature has been amassed on early childhood education, parent education, and family support programs. This review summarizes these three areas of research and reports on relevant research in progress.
Free. Available online only.
Evaluating Family Involvement Programs
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.
Evaluating Family Support: Thinking Critically, Thinking Internationally (Keynote Address)
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.
Evaluating Municipal Out-of-School Time Initiatives
To inform municipal leaders who are developing out-of-school time evaluations, HFRP scanned the city-level initiatives in its evaluation profiles database and prepared this short brief that describes the evaluation approaches, methods, and performance measures that some cities are using for evaluation.
Free. Available online only.
Evaluating Out-of-School Time
This is the third issue of The Evaluation Exchange (Harvard Family Research Project's quarterly evaluation periodical) devoted to exploring the challenges and solutions associated with evaluating out-of-school (OST) programs. This issue includes articles on what we know from existing research and evaluation about the results that are possible from OST programming, expert commentary on what the future OST research and evaluation agenda should look like, and information about hands-on research and evaluation tools and resources. It is also includes a special report with expert commentary on the implications of the first year findings in Mathematica's evaluation of the national 21st Century Community Learning Centers program. To read the previous issues on out-of-school time, go to our issue archive.
Free. 24 Pages.
Evaluating Out-of-School Time Program Quality
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange is the fourth devoted to exploring issues in the out-of-school time (OST) field. Its focus is assessing and improving the quality of out-of-school time and youth development programs. Articles cover innovative methodologies and new technology systems for assessing quality, strategies for recruitment and retention, and understanding and measuring participation.
Free. 32 Pages.
Evaluating School-Linked Services
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange, Harvard Family Research Project's quarterly evaluation periodical, focuses on how to evaluate school-linked services.
Evaluating School-Linked Services: Considerations and Best Practices
Nine evaluators of school-linked services programs identify considerations and best practices related to evaluating outcomes, sustainability, and collaboration to help determine how school-linked services programs work, what their impact is, and whether they should be expanded.
Free. Available online only.
Evaluation for Continuous Improvement
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange examines the use of evaluation for continuous improvement. It incorporates advice from well-known experts, such as Paul Light, Rosalie Torres, and Joe Wholey, outlines innovative evaluation practices, and provides insights into the evaluations of a wide range of initiatives.
Free. 20 Pages.
Evaluation in the 21st Century
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange, Harvard Family Research Project's quarterly evaluation periodical, investigates new themes for evaluation in the 21st century. It focuses on new voices, new methods, and new relationships. It compiles a variety of perspectives and provocative and thoughtful ideas about where evaluation is heading.
Evaluation Methodology
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange periodical focuses on evaluation methodology, covering topics in contemporary evaluation thinking, techniques, and tools. Mel Mark, president-elect of the American Evaluation Association, kicks off the issue with a discussion about the role that evaluation theory plays in our methodological choices. Other voices in the issue include Georgia State University evaluator Gary Henry, who makes the case for a paradigm shift in how we think about evaluation use and influence, and Robert Boruch, a Campbell Collaboration founder, who discusses the role of randomized trials in defining “what works.” Other contributors to the issue respond to various “how to” questions, such as how to foster strategic learning, how to find tools that assess nonprofit organizational capacity, how to select and use various outcome models, how to increase the number of evaluators of color, how to enhance multicultural competency in evaluation, and how to measure what we value so others value what we measure. Finally, the issue explores theory of change, cluster evaluation, and retrospective pretests—methodological approaches currently generating much interest and dialogue.
Free. 20 Pages.
Evaluation of 21st Century Community Learning Center Programs: A Guide for State Education Agencies
This brief offers an in-depth look at the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) evaluation requirements (both performance measurement for accountability and program evaluation) and provides practical suggestions about how to implement 21st CCLC evaluation at the state and local level. It includes a checklist of issues to consider when designing state and local 21st CCLC evaluations.
Hard copy out of stock. Available online only.
Evaluation Options for Family Resource Centers
This report examines different evaluation designs and their respective strengths and limitations. Using a realistic prototype of a child and family resource center, the authors present three alternative plans for evaluation.
$10.00 . 112 Pages.
Evaluation's Role in Supporting Initiative Sustainability
This paper offers ideas for the roles that evaluation can play in helping ensure a discussion about sustainability is started early enough and maintained throughout an initiative. The ideas in this paper are based on Harvard Family Research Project's broad spectrum of experience in the past two decades with large-scale initiatives.
Free. Available online only.
Expanded Learning Opportunities in New Jersey—Pathways to Student Success
This Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELO) policy brief, prepared for New Jersey After 3’s Expanded Learning Time Summit in September 2010, describes the potential benefits of participation in a range of well-implemented ELO programs and initiatives for students of all ages, including afterschool and summer programming, and underscores the benefits of strong partnerships for learning between schools and out‐of‐school learning supports. It concludes with a set of key policy factors to consider when adopting different ELO approaches.
Expanded Learning Opportunities — Pathways to Student Success
This paper highlights research on the promise of expanded learning approaches — including after-school, summer, extended day, and community networks—for education reform.
Expert Commentary to “Daddy Says This New Math Is Crazy”: Three Tips for Teachers
Based on her work with the Nana y Yo y las Matemáticas project, Marlene Kliman writes about three strategies teachers can use to engage families in their children’s math education, especially when today’s math curriculum diverges from traditional practices.
Explore More: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Resources
Children can develop 21st-century skills, even outside of the classroom. This resource guide offers hands-on, maker-inspired activities, along with advice from museums, libraries, and afterschool programs, for educators and families to use when exploring STEM topics with children.
Explore: Resources to Strengthen Program Evaluation
Interested in developing a logic model, learning more about improvement science, or advancing your program evaluation? This guide offers valuable resources practitioners can utilize to strengthen their evaluative work and develop more productive relationships with evaluators.
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.
Exploring the Parent, Family, Community Engagement Simulation: A Conversation With Brandi Black Thacker and Guylaine Richard
What you say to families and do with them matters! In this Q & A with Brandi Black Thacker and Guylaine Richards, we learn about how the Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Simulation can be used as a professional development tool in Head Start/Early Head Start programs and beyond.
Faith-Based Organizing for School Improvement in the Texas Borderlands: A Case Study of the Alliance School Initiative
At two public schools in the Texas borderlands, a faith-based organization and a school–community partnership come together to improve parental engagement.
Free. Available online only.
Families and Expanded Learning Opportunities: Working Together to Support Children’s Learning
This is the second brief in our ELO Research, Policy, and Practice series with the National Conference of State Legislatures. In this brief, we explore the ways that families and expanded learning opportunities (ELOs) must work as equal partners in order to ensure ELOs are contributing to children's learning in meaningful ways.
Families and Teachers as Partners
This digest provides suggestions on how families and teachers can work together in schools to provide enriching experiences for children.
Free. Available online only.