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.
Family Involvement News: October 2010
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.
Family Involvement News: September 2012
We are committed to keeping you up to date on what's new in family engagement. 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.
Family Involvement News: September 2013
We are committed to keeping you up to date on what's new in family engagement. View our list of links to current reports, articles, resources, and events in the field.
Family Involvement News: September 2014
How can “two-generation” programs help parents influence children’s development? What five ongoing family activities can help children’s literacy development? What project will explore the effectiveness of new reading technology used by early education and parenting initiatives? Read to find out!
Family Involvement News: September 2015
Explore how libraries are taking a leading role in learning, discover ways to reimagine learning in your community, and learn how parents—through policy and advocacy—are being empowered to engage in their children’s learning.
Family Involvement News: Summer 2015
In our Family Involvement News, discover who is thinking about families in the reauthorization of ESEA, how home visits support engaged families, and why collaboration among schools, communities, and families is important for student success.
Family Involvement Storybook Corner
A unique source for information on using children's storybooks with family involvement themes to engage families in their children's education and encourage family–school–community partnerships, all while supporting literacy.
Free. Available online only.
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.
Family Resource Centers
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange, Harvard Family Research Project's quarterly evaluation periodical, explores alternative ways of evaluating family resource centers.
Family Resource Centers: Where School Readiness Happens
Family resource centers are places where you can get information on raising and educating your child. This issue of the Early Childhood Digest describes family resource centers and how they can help you get your child ready for school.
Free. Available online only.
Family Strengthening Interventions: Evidence-Based Practices
The purpose of this class is to provide professional skills that will help students to select, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of evidence-based family strengthening interventions. Students will increase their knowledge, skills, and expertise in the most up-to-date information on effective family strengthening interventions in their area of primary interest.
Free. Available online only.
Family Support
The Spring 2002 issue looks at family support evaluations and their role in moving the field forward. This issue features a conversation with Michael Quinn Patton about historical and emerging trends in evaluation practice, descriptions of national and local evaluations that are underway, a discussion of using “effect size” to measure program effectiveness, advice on how to bring family research to legislators' attention, a look at how data can help parents assess schools, and much more.
Family Support and Education Programs and the Public Schools: Opportunities and Challenges
This study examines the advantages and disadvantages of school-based family support and community education programs. The paper analyzes the contexts that engender successful outcomes in community-based educational programs that are situated in school settings.
Hard copy out of stock.
Family Support Services Promote School Readiness
This study demonstrates that a wide variety of parent and child factors are linked to school readiness and that parenting education and support services promote family activities that relate to positive child outcomes.
Free. Available online only.
Family, Child & Teacher Interaction in Diverse and Inclusive Educational Settings
We will examine the role of the teacher in the classroom and school community with the intention of developing insight, understanding, and personal style which will support the teacher in his/her interaction with families. The class will study the techniques of family-school collaboration, constructive methods of evaluation, and the parameters of the federal law (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act).
Free. Available online only.
Family, School, & Society: The Social Context of Development and Learning
In this course we will consider the social and cultural contexts which shape developmental and educational processes. The primary focus will be on understanding the nature of contemporary social problems including racism, sexism, ethnic prejudice, social class oppression, and ability discrimination as they affect children, families, and schooling. Emphasis will be given to the special role of education in linking community resources for an integrated approach to addressing problems in children's lives.
Free. Available online only.
Family, School, and Community Connections Symposium: New Directions for Research, Practice, and Evaluation
We teamed up with the National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools at the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) to present this 1-day Family, School, and Community Connections Symposium: New Directions for Research, Practice, and Evaluation.
Free. Available online only.
Family-Centered Child Care
This report provides a training framework to support families through child care programs. It describes six areas of practice through which providers can develop the knowledge and skills to partner with families. The report contains profiles of family-centered programs and examines how they have applied family support principles in their practice.
$10.00 . 115 Pages.
Family-School Partnerships
The goal of the module is to prepare educators to engage parents and family members in children's school success. Students enrolled in the module will learn about the major theoretical approaches to family involvement (e.g., developmental, sociocultural, psychological, and political). They will understand the range of ways families and schools can work together as well as the dilemmas of practice. The module will give students an opportunity to problem solve and reflect on the issues regarding family-school partnerships and to assess the benefits of family involvement for students, families, and schools.
Free. Available online only.
Family-School Partnerships for Students' Reading Success
Written by Sandy Christenson for the Minnesota Reading Excellence Act training sessions, the two modules in this workshop focus on home-school strategies to enhance students' reading success.
Free. Available online only.
Family-School-Community Partnerships: A Compilation of Professional Standards of Practice for Teachers
This report summarizes the current family involvement standards of practice for teachers and other educators, as described by a variety of professional associations, including the National Parent Teacher Association, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, and the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Free. Available online only.
Fast Forward: What Education Could Be in 2043
In this Guest Commentary, GreatSchools founder and CEO Bill Jackson offers a vision for the future of family engagement in which parents demand more from both the educational system and themselves to help prepare their children for a complex, globally-connected workforce. He also lays out the steps that educators need to take to realize this vision and help students succeed.
Featured Teaching Case: "Daddy Says This New Math Is Crazy"
Harvard Family Research Project’s Teaching Cases support teacher training and professional development by highlighting challenges that schools, families, and communities may encounter in supporting children’s learning. In this issue, we feature "Daddy Says This New Math Is Crazy," which highlights the dilemmas that arise when innovations in teaching methods and curriculum are neither developed in collaboration with families and communities nor well-communicated to these critical stakeholders.
Featured Teaching Case: After School for Cindy
Harvard Family Research Project’s Teaching Cases support teacher training and professional development by highlighting challenges that schools, families, and communities may encounter in supporting children’s learning. In this month’s FINE newsletter, we feature After School for Cindy, which explores the roles that family members, school staff, and community organizations play in one child’s out-of-school time and demonstrates the importance of family engagement across learning contexts.
Featured Teaching Case: Defining “Fine”—Communicating Academic Progress to Parents
Harvard Family Research Project’s Teaching Cases are designed to support teacher training and professional development by highlighting challenges that schools, families, and communities may encounter in supporting children’s learning. In this month’s newsletter, we feature Defining “Fine”—Communicating Academic Progress to Parents, a case that highlights one elementary school’s efforts to use and understand data about student progress toward state standards and to communicate the meaning of these data clearly to parents.