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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.
This is a chapter in Developmental Pathways Through Middle Childhood: Rethinking Context and Diversity as Resources. Edited by Catherine R. Cooper, Cynthia T. Garcia Coll, W. Todd Bartko, Helen M. Davis, & Celina Chatman. Published by Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ. This chapter uses mixed methods to examine associations between school context, family educational involvement, and child literacy outcomes from kindergarten through third grade.
This study explores the reading concepts held by urban families and how home reading practices intersect with school literacy practices.
Free. Available online only.
This study examines how the topic of school, parent, and school partnerships are incorporated into preservice teacher education. Preservice teacher comfort levels with parent involvement is documented.
Free. Available online only.
This study explores the experiences of British Bangladeshi and Pakistani parents in their interactions with schools and their involvement in children’s education.
Free. Available online only.
Article in Urban Education, 40(1), 78–105.
In this article the authors argue that intermediary organizations play a crucial role in capacity building for family involvement, by providing alternatives to school-centered approaches to family involvement and engaging families with intensive support that schools seldom offer.
This is a special issue of New Directions for Youth Development journal edited by Heather B. Weiss, Priscilla M. D. Little, and Suzanne Bouffard, Vol. 2005, No. 105, Spring 2005. This issue unpacks the construct of participation in out-of-school time programming, posing a three-part equation: participation = enrollment + attendance + engagement.
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.
This article offers promising recruitment and retention strategies to school administrators seeking to boost participation rates in their school-based after school programs.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln studied the effectiveness of a behavioral intervention model where parents, educators, and service providers work collaboratively to address children's developmental needs in a Head Start program.
Free. Available online only.
This panel session at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association in Montreal, examined the current knowledge base and future directions for family involvement research and evaluation. Heather Weiss identified priority areas for future research and evaluation and criteria for selecting these areas. Panelists Kathleen Hoover-Dempsey, William Jeynes, Joyce Epstein, and Anne Henderson discussed research and evaluation on parent–child and parent–student–school relationships, home–school communication and parental expectations, school-based partnership programs, and community organizing, respectively.
Free. Available online only.
This poster examined disadvantage at the family and neighborhood level and their associations with participation in out-of-school time activities. Specifically, the authors demonstrate that neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) characteristics (i.e., income, education, and employment) mediate the association between family income, parent education, and ethnicity and children's participation in a variety of activities outside of school. Family income and parent education, for example, are positively associated with an increased probability of youth participating in before- and after-school programs, community programs, and community center activities, but this increased probability is explained entirely by the fact that children in higher income and more educated families live in higher SES neighborhoods. Poster session submitted to Society for Research on Adolescence 2006 Bienniel Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
This study found that perceived academic support from teachers and parents contributes indirectly to the academic achievement of Hong Kong students.
Free. Available online only.
With the implementation of welfare reform, government's increasing reliance on block grants rather than categorical funding, increasing devolution of responsibility for service delivery to the state and local level, increasing use of contracted services, and growing budget shortfalls at all levels of government, the social safety net in the United States is undergoing rapid transformation. How well the emerging “system” will protect children and support families is unknown. This course is designed to examine current and proposed child and family policies.
Free. Available online only.
This article examines both the incentives and barriers that affect adolescents' participation in out-of-school time programs.
The Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) Out-of-School Time Program Evaluation Bibliography and Out-of-School Time Program Research and Evaluation Database both provide information on evaluations that have been conducted on sports/recreation and health-related out-of-school time (OST) programs, among other categories.
Educators need to develop an effective synergy between parents and schools to promote student success. We use the term syneducation (synekpaidefsis;3 synergy + education) as the acquisition of a common educational experience (simultaneously and in cooperation) by individuals of different ages and educational backgrounds (Mylonakou, 2004). Our approach focuses mainly on how schools can give clear messages to parents about the necessity of their collaboration with schools.
Free. Available online only.
This study found that teachers with National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification have more positive attitudes, are more tenacious in their approaches, and have more strategies for engaging families than noncertified teachers.
Free. Available online only.
Priscilla Little presented the workshop Learning What Works: An Evaluation Overview, providing an overview of what we know about after school evaluation. It examines how programs are collecting meaningful data for accountability and program improvement and what they are finding.
Free. Available online only.
This exploratory case study examines whether the transition from welfare to work influences parental involvement in elementary school education.
Free. Available online only.
Five community-based education organizing groups use various strategies to build trust and commitment among parents and teachers.
Free. Available online only.
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange brings together the current knowledge base of programs in family support and family involvement, providing a continuous perspective on family processes with regard to children's learning and development, from a child's early years through adolescence. Articles address the challenges of evaluating family programs, such as the need for conceptual clarity, methodological rigor, accountability, and contextual responsiveness. Rounding out the issue are examples of ongoing evaluations of parent leadership and organizing to ensure that schools serve all children at high standards.
This four-session discussion guide by the Everyday Democracy (formerly the Study Circles Resource Center)is intended for communities trying to close the achievement gap in their schools.
Free. Available online only.
An urban public school successfully engages parents by offering a variety of school-based activities, a welcoming environment, and frequent communication between staff and parents.
Free. Available online only.
See other organizations' publications and resources related to community youth development and youth civic engagement, and The National 21st Century Community Learning Centers program evaluation.