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.
Teaching Cases on Family Engagement: Early Learning (Ages 0–8)
HFRP's teaching cases involve real world situations and consider the perspectives of various stakeholders, including early childhood program and elementary school staff, parents, children, and community members. This handout provides a detailed list of our teaching cases on family involvement, focusing on the earlier years of a child's learning and development.
Afterschool Evaluation 101: How to Evaluate an Expanded Learning Program
Afterschool Evaluation 101 is a how-to guide for conducting an evaluation. It is designed to help out-of-school time (OST) program directors who have little or no evaluation experience develop an evaluation strategy. The guide will walk you through the early planning stages, help you select the evaluation design and data collection methods that are best suited to your program, and help you analyze the data and present the results.
Free. Available online only.
Book Excerpt: Promising Practices for Family Engagement in Out-of-School Time
This new book on family involvement in out-of-school time (OST), edited by former HFRP staff members Holly Kreider and Helen Westmoreland, includes information on promising practices, benefits, and concerns related to family involvement in OST, and features a chapter written by former HFRP staff members Suzanne Bouffard, Kelley O’Carroll, Helen Westmoreland, and Priscilla Little.
Engaging Students and Families in a Digital Age: Lessons for Educators and Practitioners
Lori Takeuchi—Director of Research for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and author of the recent report Families Matter: Engaging Families in a Digital Age—discusses her research on how children use technology across the various settings of their lives, and the implications of her findings for practitioners who work with young children and their families.
New Learning Opportunities Mean New Opportunities for Engagement
Today’s children and youth are increasingly exposed to new forms of learning beyond the classroom, especially in the form of out-of-school time programs and digital media. Developments in these areas have opened up new ways that families can become involved in their children’s education and development. In this FINE Newsletter Commentary, HFRP’s Heidi Rosenberg and M. Elena Lopez discuss the new roles for families in supporting student learning.
Holding Schools Accountable: Using Data to Engage Parents in School Improvement Efforts
Nita Rudy is a Program Director for the Mississippi Schoolhouse to Statehouse program developed by Parents for Public Schools (PPS), a national organization supporting community-based groups that work with parents to improve public schools. In this Voices from the Field, Nita shares her experience using data to engage families around school improvement efforts.
More Than a Gut Feeling: The Real Value of Family and Community Engagement
Eric Dearing, Associate Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, discusses the need to use data-based evidence, rather than intuition, to create successful family and community engagement strategies.
Family Involvement News: December 2011
We at Harvard Family Research Project are committed to keeping you up to date on what's new in family involvement. This list of links to current reports, articles, events, and opportunities will help you stay on top of research and resources from HFRP and other field leaders.
Bringing Families to the Table: Recommendations and Next Steps from the National Policy Forum for Family, School, and Community Engagement
One year after the National Policy Forum on Family, School, and Community Engagement, this report looks back at the major themes of the Forum discussions and offers a set of recommendations for driving family engagement in education as we move forward.
The Family Engagement for High School Success Toolkit: Planning and implementing an initiative to support the pathway to graduation for at-risk students
The Family Engagement for High School Success Toolkit is designed to support at-risk high school students by engaging families, schools, and the community. Created in a joint effort by United Way Worldwide and HFRP as part of the Family Engagement for High School Success initiative, the toolkit consists of two parts—Part 1: Planning, and Part 2: Implementation.
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.
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.
Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Framework: Promoting Family Engagement and School Readiness from Prenatal to Age 8
This framework is a vital tool for early childhood education and care providers seeking to build effective family engagement strategies. It was developed by the Office of Head Start with the assistance of the National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement for the Office of Head Start
Resource Guide for Early Childhood Transitions: Annotated Bibliography
This annotated bibliography provides a selected listing of journal articles, research briefs, and reports that focus on early childhood transitions and school readiness. They cover a variety of topics central to the issue of early childhood transitions, including family engagement and home–school and program–school partnerships. Because the Head Start program is one of the most frequently studied early childhood initiatives, many of the resources focus on the transition from Head Start to preschool/kindergarten.
Making Data Matter in Family Engagement
HFRP’s Heather Weiss and M. Elena Lopez authored a chapter on using performance data to engage families in the Handbook on Family and Community Engagement, published by the Academic Development Institute and Center on Innovation & Improvement, and available on the families-schools.org website.
Strategy Guide: Collecting and Using Information to Strengthen Citywide Out-of-School Time Systems
Cities around the country are building systems that seek to make the most of public and private resources to provide widespread, high-quality, out-of-school time (OST) opportunities. Participation in OST programs not only benefits young people, but also the cities in which they live—with the potential to help reduce crime and create a more skilled workforce. This guide by the National League of Cities and HFRP provides municipal leaders and their key partners with strategies for collecting and using information to strengthen citywide OST systems.
Helping Older Youth Succeed Through Expanded Learning Opportunities
In the first brief in our ELO Research, Policy, and Practice series with the National Conference of State Legislatures, we examine the benefits of expanded learning opportunities (ELOs) for older youth as well as the policy implications of recent research. Helping Older Youth Succeed Through Expanded Learning Opportunities provides examples of positive youth outcomes, common characteristics of high quality programs and initiatives, and policy recommendations based on these findings.
Family Involvement News: August 2011
We at Harvard Family Research Project are committed to keeping you up to date on what's new in family involvement. This list of links to current reports, articles, events, and opportunities will help you stay on top of research and resources from HFRP and other field leaders.
Book Review: The Influence of Teachers: Reflections on Teaching and Leadership
In this review of The Influence of Teachers: Reflections on Teaching and Leadership, Ashley Chu, an early childhood teacher in Washington, DC and a former research assistant for Harvard Family Research Project, provides her personal reflections on the book's messages and her views on the book's implications for family engagement in education.
Resource Guide for High School Transitions: Annotated Bibliography
This bibliographic resource provides a selected listing of journal articles, research briefs, and other resources that focus on the transitions into and out of high school as well as general high school and college readiness. These resources address a variety of topics related to high school transitions including family engagement, school practices, and student outcomes.
Year-Round Learning: Linking School, Afterschool, and Summer Learning to Support Student Success
There is growing national discussion about the need to create a more expansive definition of learning to include all the ways that youth can access educational opportunities—not just through the traditional school model, but also through afterschool activities, time spent with the family, and increasingly, through interaction with digital media. This brief introduces and analyzes one approach to expanded learning that provides students—often in distressed areas—with access to quality learning environments across the year.
Family Involvement News: May 2011
We at Harvard Family Research Project are committed to keeping you up to date on what's new in family involvement. This list of links to current reports, articles, events, and opportunities will help you stay on top of research and resources from HFRP and other field leaders.
Coming Full Circle: Drawing On Personal Experiences to Create a Vision for System-Wide Change
Mishaela Durán, Interim Executive Director of the National PTA, sets the stage for this special issue about the emerging leaders in our field by getting at the heart of why family and community and engagement is so important in education: giving students the opportunity to succeed.
The Power of Community Organizing: Creating Parent Advocates to Work Toward Educational Change
Zakiyah Ansari, a parent and community organizer with the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) in New York City, shares how CEJ empowers parents and community members to advocate for education reform at the local, state, and federal levels.