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.
Building the Field
HFRP talks with five leaders in the family involvement arena about the current state of the field and promising areas for its future.
Building the Future of Family Involvement
This double issue of The Evaluation Exchange examines the current state of and future directions for the family involvement field in research, policy, and practice. Featuring innovative initiatives, new evaluation approaches and findings, and interviews with field leaders, the issue is designed to spark conversation about where the field is today and where it needs to go in the future.
Free. 40 Pages.
Building Theories of Change in Family Support Programs
Jean Layzer, Project Director of Abt Associates, examines theories of change in family support programs.
Building Villages to Raise Our Children: Collaboration
Written for program administrators and staff, this guide offers practical advice for establishing and managing community outreach in a family support program.
$10.00 . 66 Pages.
Building Villages to Raise Our Children: Community Outreach
Written for program administrators and staff, this guide offers practical advice for establishing and linking programs to service systems in a family support program.
$10.00 . 62 Pages.
Building Villages to Raise Our Children: Evaluation
Written for program administrators and staff, this guide offers practical advice for evaluating family support programs.
$10.00 . 66 Pages.
Building Villages to Raise Our Children: Funding and Resources
Written for program administrators and staff, this guide offers practical advice for funding and additional resources to support a family program.
$10.00 . 80 Pages.
Building Villages to Raise Our Children: Programs to Service Systems
Written for program administrators and staff, this guide offers practical advice for establishing and managing collaboration in a family support program.
$10.00 . 59 Pages.
Building Villages to Raise Our Children: Six Volume Set
This set of six volumes offers practical advice for establishing and managing a family support program.
Hard copy out of stock.
Building Villages to Raise Our Children: Staffing
Written for program administrators and staff, this guide offers practical advice for providing professional development to staff supporting family programs.
$10.00 . 68 Pages.
Can We Talk About Family?
Latoya Roberts, a new first grade teacher, worries about Keon, a student being raised by his grandmother, when he begins to share information about his family in school. Will encouraging such sharing strengthen Latoya's bond with Keon and help him succeed? Latoya wants his grandmother's permission to encourage his openness, but she wonders if pushing the issue might strain her relationship with Keon's grandmother.
Free. Available online only.
Canadian Social Services Senior Managers Forum
Diane Schilder of Harvard Family Research Project reports on findings from the recent Social Services Senior Managers Forum, held in Alberta, Canada.
Case Study of the First Year of Sports4Kids at the Ohrenberger Elementary School in Boston, Massachusetts: 2006-2007 School Year
Harvard Family Research Project completed a a case study evaluation of Sports4Kids, a school-based program that that provides opportunities for physical activity and safe, meaningful play at elementary schools. This study examined one program site in Boston, to provide data to test whether Sports4Kids was implemented as planned and achieved its intended outcomes. Data were collected through a variety of instruments, including observations, interviews, and surveys and from a variety of sources, including from teachers, the principal, students, and the program site coordinator.
Challenges and Opportunities in Moving Family Involvement Research Into Practice (Presentation)
This presentation by HFRP staff was part of a conference entitled “Family–School Relations During Adolescence: Linking Interdisciplinary Research and Practice.” The conference was held July 20–21 and was hosted by the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University, sponsored by the American Psychological Association. The goal of the conference was to establish better links among research, practice, and policy related to family educational involvement during adolescence, particularly for families from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds.
Free. Available online only.
Challenges in Evaluating Comprehensive School-Linked Services: Toward a More Comprehensive Evaluation Framework
Presented at the 1995 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, this paper discusses the evaluation challenges facing complex school-linked services and describes and assesses how 18 such initiatives have been evaluated. Includes detailed charts and tables.
$10.00 . 40 Pages.
Challenges in Evaluating Systems Reform
Kathleen Shaw, Senior Researcher at Harvard Family Research Project, summarizes a new HFRP work in progress, Systems Reform: Challenges for Evaluation Research.
Challenges to Data Capacity for Outcome-Based Accountability
Nancy Dunton of the New York State Department of Social Services discusses the challenges to data capacity for outcome-based accountability.
Challenging the Norm in Welfare Reform Reporting
Danielle Hollar and Julia Coffman of HFRP reveals the results of HFRP's review of the ethnic media's coverage of welfare reform and how it suggests the messages can be framed for a greater effect.
Changing the Conversation About Home Visiting: Scaling Up With Quality
The purpose of this paper is to determine what the evidence and conventional wisdom say about scaling up home visiting as one of the best ways to support parents and promote early childhood development. To answer this question, we examined the available research evidence, interviewed leaders from six of the national home visiting models, and interviewed researchers who have studied home visiting. The area of interest for guiding future research, practice, and policy is whether home visiting can be delivered at broad scale and with the quality necessary to attain demonstrable, positive outcomes for young children and their parents.
Free. Available online only.
Characterizing and Measuring Participation in Out-of-School Time Programs
Sandra Simpkins Chaput from HFRP summarizes recent developmental research examining dimensions of participation in out-of-school activities.
Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies: Training Child Care Providers to Support Families
Presents a framework of family-centered training.
$10.00 . 111 Pages.
Children and Youth
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange is devoted to the evaluation of youth programs that support positive youth development. Topics include evaluating strength-based approaches to youth development, youth participation in evaluation, lessons learned from the international community on evaluating youth programs, and foundation grantmaking for children and youth.
Civic Participation and the Citizens Research Method
Serene Fang of Harvard Family Research Project explains the Citizen Research method to better inform and engage citizens in understanding and influencing policymaking.
Classroom Observation, Professional Development and Teacher Quality
Robert Pianta from the University of Virginia describes a classroom assessment scoring system that measures teacher–child interactions and serves as the basis for individualized professional development to strengthen teachers' classroom practice.
Closing the Achievement Gap: Head Start and Beyond
Ed Zigler, Ron Haskins, and G. Reid Lyon discuss the past and future of Head Start, the country's first federally funded early childhood program.