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.
Academic Achievement
This issue of FINE Forum explores new forms of and strategies in family involvement, all of which share a common goal: expanding and deepening family and community roles to help students meet high standards.
Free. Available online only.
Social Media—Engaging Families in Children's Learning and Use of Digital Media
Are you interested in using social media to find out how families can navigate digital media to enhance children’s learning? Start here—we guide you to organizations and individuals that bring the latest DML research into public focus!
Parent–Teacher Conference Tip Sheets (Hojas de Consejos Para Las Reuniones de Padres y Maestros)
Even with technological advances that allow parents to track their child’s academic progress remotely, and more transparency in student data (such as test scores and attendance rates), face-to-face interaction between parents and teachers is still the cornerstone of school family engagement efforts. These newly revised tip sheets provide key strategies for both parents and teachers to walk into conferences informed and prepared, in order to ensure the most successful outcomes. A tip sheet aimed at school principals also outlines how school administrators can support parents and teachers to that end. Now available in Spanish, this tool is a powerful resource for families and educators alike.
Early Childhood Education
As we celebrate the Week of the Young Child, the FINE Forum presents some innovative ideas and practices in family involvement in early childhood education.
Free. Available online only.
Redefining Family Engagement for Student Success
This paper offers an expanded definition of family engagement based on research about children’s learning and the relationships among families, schools, and communities in support of such learning. The topics presented in this paper were originally introduced as commentaries in the August 2009, November 2009, and April 2010 issues of the FINE Newsletter.
Data on Data: A Resource Guide to Engaging Families with Student Data
This resource from HFRP offers a compilation of articles on families’ use of data to support, guide, and advocate for student achievement and schoolwide improvement. Resources are grouped into three categories: Perspectives that offer lessons learned from family and community use of data, program examples that illustrate what it takes to make data actionable for families, and tools that help everyone understand how data can be analyzed.
Tips for Administrators, Teachers, and Families: How to Share Data Effectively
This new set of tip sheets helps administrators, teachers, and families identify the best ways to share student data in meaningful ways, on a regular basis, to strengthen family–school partnerships and promote student learning. The tips can be used to guide the formal conversations that take place during parent–teacher conferences, but they are especially designed to help promote less formal, ongoing conversations about student progress among teachers, families, and students throughout the year.
New & Noteworthy
The New & Noteworthy section features an annotated list of papers, organizations, initiatives, and other resources related to the issue's theme of Advocacy and Policy change.
Evaluations to Watch
HFRP provides a quick run-down of 12 current out-of-school time program evaluations.
University–Community Partnerships
This FINE Forum features the Jane Addams School for Democracy, a university-community partnership in which Hmong and Latino immigrants, professors, high school teachers, parents, and students all work together on public issues.
Free. Available online only.
Raising Our Future: Families, Schools, and Communities Joining Together
This book provides one of the most thorough and complete analyses of innovative family support and education programs to date. Seventy-three profiles taken from around the country vividly illustrate the key elements of a successful program, while detailed charts, tables, and cross-referencing indexes give quick and easy access to information.
Hard copy out of stock.
Aiming for Accountability: Lessons Learned From Eight States
This report highlights some of the important lessons in designing and developing results-based accountability (RBA) systems, based on the insights gained from studies of eight states: Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, and Vermont. The report includes information on how these states overcame challenges in developing effective RBA systems and what the characteristics of promising RBA efforts are.
$7.00 . 54 Pages.
Q & A With S. Craig Watkins: Family Engagement in Connected Learning
In this Q & A, S. Craig Watkins discusses the family’s role in the connected learning model, and how students can link what they learn in schools, afterschool programs, and their communities using digital technology.
Ten Takeaways on Evaluating Advocacy and Policy Change
HFRP summarizes key observations raised in this issue of The Evaluation Exchange. Note that the focus here is on advocacy that informs public policy at the local, state, or federal levels.
Quilting Stories of Innovation in Family Engagement
A collection of innovative family engagement practices with a link for you to share with us your family engagement story!
Ask the Expert
Karen Walker, director of community studies at Public/Private Ventures (P/PV), reveals what evaluation approaches can be used to understand the connection between academic outcomes and program activities.
Family Involvement in Mathematics
This issue of the FINE Forum focuses on promising practices to engage families and communities in supporting students' mathematical proficiency.
Free. Available online only.
Commentary from Harvard Family Research Project on the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund
HFRP submitted recommendations to the National Register Notice regarding the i3 fund’s proposed priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria. The recommendation included an endorsement of the comments submitted by the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group, a collaborative of leaders in the family engagement field including HFRP’s Heather Weiss, and emphasized the need to direct development and validation grant funding toward promising family and community engagement initiatives, isolate and recognize the added value of parental involvement in interventions, and take a nuanced view of effect size when selecting innovations for funding.
Free. Available online only.
New & Noteworthy
A list of new resources on participatory evaluation.
Family Involvement News: March 2012
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.
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.
Teaching Cases on Family Involvement
Teaching cases are a valuable tool in preparing teachers and school administrators to engage effectively with families. This handout provides a detailed list of HFRP's teaching cases in family involvement, sorted by topic, gender, and age-group, as well as ethnicity, of the students discussed.