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.
Making a Decision About College Interactive Case: Meet Linda Ruiz, Biology Teacher
Marisela’s biology teacher, Linda Ruiz, can really relate to Marisela. From her own story of deciding whether to go away to college or stay home, Linda has advice she’d like to offer Marisela.
Making a Decision About College Interactive Case: Meet Marisela, High School Senior
Marisela is at the center of the Making a Decision About College Interactive Case. A senior in high school who dreams of becoming a doctor, Marisela is conflicted about whether to go away to college or stay close to home for her education.
Making a Decision About College Interactive Case: Meet Ricardo Vargas, University Admissions Counselor
One of Johns Hopkins University’s admissions counselors is Ricardo Vargas. Ricardo works with students in the admissions process. He describes his personal experience with college as needing to “get away from my family.”
Making a Decision About College Interactive Case: Piecing It All Together
In the final section of the Making a Decision About College Interactive Case, we piece it all together. We think about the principles guiding the decision to go away to college, assumptions people in the case make, and how difficult issues might be resolved.
Making a Decision About College Interactive Case: Supporting Data
In this section, we examine data and policies surrounding immigrant and ethnically diverse high-school graduates’ decisions to go to college.
Making a Decision About College: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Marisela Castillo, a high school senior, looks forward to going to a good college to prepare her for medical studies, but she knows that she will have to leave her family in order for that to happen. Should Marisela forgo her dreams for the sake of a family who depends on her household contributions? Should she leave her family to pursue those dreams? An interactive version is also available.
Free. Available online only.
Making Data Come Alive for Families through Young Children’s Play
Amy Horenbeck, training director from the Tools of the Mind program based at the Center for Improving Early Learning at the Metropolitan State College of Denver in Colorado, discusses a different approach to early childhood education and using children's work as a unique type of student data to track development and share children's progress with parents.
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.
Making Data Meaningful
In this Commentary, Harvard Family Research Project’s Christine Patton explores how the conversations that people are having about education data have changed, and outlines key components of effective data-sharing practices.
Making Families Matter at Two-Year Colleges: Training the Early Childhood Workforce to Support Families
$10.00 . 75 Pages.
Making Family and Community Connections
This workshop is part of the Concept to Classroom series of multimedia workshops for teacher professional development. In this workshop, Heather Weiss and Joyce Epstein provide expert insights on creating partnerships among schools, parents, and members of the local community.
Making It Work: Low-Income Working Mothers' Involvement in Their Children's Education
Article in the American Educational Research Journal , Vol. 40 , No. 4, December 2003, pp. 879–901.
Using a mixed method analysis, this article looks at the relation between employment and family involvement in children's elementary education for low-income women, and finds that work is both obstacle to and opportunity for family involvement. This article may be downloaded only. It may not be copied or used for any purpose other than scholarship.
Free. Available online only.
Making It Work: Low-Income Working Mothers' Involvement in Their Children's Education, Digest Version
This study finds that maternal employment is associated with low-income mothers' involvement in their children's education in complex ways and that working mothers use a variety of strategies to stay involved in their children's education.
Free. Available online only.
Making the Case for Family–School–Community Partnerships: Linking Partnerships with Student Achievement
Steve Sheldon, Research Scientist with the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University and Director of Research with the National Network of Partnership Schools, addresses the need for a stronger evidence base to support the role of school–family–community partnerships in education reform.
Making the Case for Parental Involvement and Engagement: Part I: Parental, Family, School, and Community Partnerships Make a Difference (Workshop)
Engaging families in education holds tremendous potential for boosting children's achievement, but also ranks among educators' greatest challenges. Staff at Harvard Family Research Project paired up with staff at the Institute for Responsive Education at Cambridge College to make the case for family involvement to educators. Research and evaluation findings on the benefits, challenges, and effective strategies in family involvement were reviewed and illustrated with descriptions of established program models and exemplary practices from local schools.
Free. Available online only.
Math Is Everywhere, When We Know What to Look For
Learning mathematics starts in infancy and happens anywhere, anytime. In this commentary, Taniesha Woods explores what young children need to know about math, what environments rich in mathematics learning look like, and how families can support children’s math development.
Math Teachers' Use of Class Websites to Support Parent Involvement
Interviews with 84 math teachers about the use of their class websites suggest that sites could be used more effectively to share information with parents and to support parent involvement.
Free. Available online only.
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.
Measurement Tools for Evaluating Out-of-School Time Programs: An Evaluation Resource
This Snapshot describes instruments used by current out-of-school time programs to evaluate their implementation and outcomes.
Free. Available online only.
Methodology
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange, Harvard Family Research Project's quarterly evaluation periodical, investigates evaluation methodologies.
Methodology (#15)
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange includes several articles on methodological topics, particularly those involving complex initiatives or problems. Topics inlcude the logic model approach to evaluate large and diverse foundation initiatives, the difference between cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis, the challenges to evaluation in the coming years, and community action research.
Mobile Technology and Family Engagement: Texting Intervention Increases Head Start Parents’ Engagement in Parent‒Child Activities
Text messaging parent‒child activity tips to families with young children is an effective way to support family engagement, especially among fathers. In this Research Digest, learn about a successful Head Start text-messaging program designed to complement ongoing family engagement services.
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.
Mothering the Mind and Soul: African American Mothers' Beliefs and Practices to Ensure Academic and Social Success for Their Daughters in High School
Interviews with African American mothers of successful high school daughters show that mothers maintain intense interest and direct involvement in multiple aspects of their daughters' educational lives but keep little contact with school officials.
Free. Available online only.
Moving Beyond the Barriers: Attracting and Sustaining Youth Participation in Out-of-School Time Programs
This brief culls information from several implementation and impact evaluations of out-of-school time programs to develop a set of promising strategies to attract and sustain youth participation in the programs.
Free. 16 Pages.