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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.
In our last issue, we examined the evaluation of professional development in OST and other human service fields. Here, we highlight new resources that have come to our attention since the publication of that issue.
This double issue of The Evaluation Exchange focuses on creating and evaluating connections between out-of-school time (OST) programs and the other settings in which children and youth live, learn, and play.
Free. 40 Pages.
Tena St. Pierre and Claudia Mincemoyer from the Pennsylvania State University's Cooperative Extension Service1 describe lessons learned from implementation and evaluation of a complementary learning pilot program.
Audrey Hutchinson of National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education, and Families discusses the evaluation of linked after school services by cities.
An introduction to the issue on Building and Evaluating Out-of-School-Time Connections by HFRP's Founder & Director, Heather B. Weiss, Ed.D.
Elizabeth Devaney and Hillary Salmons from the Providence After School Alliance describe how a citywide data collection system helps track and improve after school services and strengthen linkages with community organizations, schools, and families.
Suzanne Bouffard, Priscilla Little, and Heather Weiss build a research-based case that a network of supports, with out-of-school time programs as a key component, are critical to positive learning and developmental outcomes for children and youth.
Helen Westmoreland from HFRP discusses how OST programs are using quality assessment tools to evaluate and promote linkages with families, schools, and communities.
Lucy Friedman describes how a collaborative after school initiative links with universities and families to promote college and career preparation among middle school youth.
Dishon Mills from the Boston Public Schools describes a new quality assessment tool that is designed to engage and facilitate collaboration among OST programs, schools, and families.
Rassan Salandy of the Posse Foundation explains how one after school program works with universities and businesses to prepare high school students for success in college and beyond.
Barton Hirsch and Larry Hedges present their innovative design for evaluating After School Matters, a Chicago initiative that draws on connections with community members, businesses, and schools.
Nathaniel Riggs describes the implementation and evaluation of the Generación Diez program, which connects Latino families with after school programming, social services, and the school community.
Alison Black and Fred Doolittle from MDRC describe the evaluation of an enhanced academic instruction approach for after school programs.
This paper examines relations between a variety of parenting behaviors and indicators of adolescent adjustment. Variable-centered analyses suggest that parents establish rules in the face of poor adolescent adjustment. Parenting behaviors focused on cognitive stimulation in the home and through school involvement were associated with positive adolescent adjustment. Person-centered analyses identified five distinct clusters based on the pattern of parenting behaviors and confirmed results found in the variable-centered analyses.
This paper examines whether youth who are at risk, according to child-, family-, school-, and neighborhood-level factors, are less likely to participate in out-of-school time activities, and whether the predictors depend on youth's age or socioeconomic status. Findings reveal that child- and family-level risks are most consistently related to youth's OST participation. However, these relationships emerge only in early and late adolescence, when youth have more autonomy in their decisions about non-school time use. For certain types of activities, namely those that require fees and financial commitments, contextual risks are more strongly associated with OST participation for higher SES families than for lower SES families.
This presentation by HFRP staff was part of a conference entitled “Family–School Relations During Adolescence: Linking Interdisciplinary Research and Practice.” The conference was held July 20–21 and was hosted by the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University, sponsored by the American Psychological Association. The goal of the conference was to establish better links among research, practice, and policy related to family educational involvement during adolescence, particularly for families from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds.
Free. Available online only.
This paper examines whether demographic differences exist in getting youth “in the door” of OST activities, as well as in the number of activities and the amount of time youth spend in activities. Results from two nationally representative datasets show that disadvantaged youth were less likely to participate in a variety of activities than their peers and that they participated in fewer activities.
This paper examines the bidirectional relationship between (a) parental involvement in education and out-of-school time (OST) activities and (b) youth participation in OST activities. Using longitudinal data from the National Education Longitudinal Study, the paper examines the direction of the parent involvement-youth participation relationship and whether youth OST participation mediates the relationship between parental involvement and youth academic and social outcomes.
This Snapshot reviews small-scale experimental evaluations of after school programs, highlighting these studies' evaluation strategies and results.
Free. 8 Pages.
Family involvement helps children get ready to enter school, promotes their school success, and prepares youth for college. This Research Brief presents findings from HFRP's ongoing, in-depth review of research and evaluated programs that link family involvement in children's education to student outcomes.
Free. Available online only.
This multiple paper symposium at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association followed up on our panel session in 2005. It featured four research studies that used nuanced definitions of family involvement and cutting-edge methodologies to address processes of family involvement and academic outcomes for disadvantaged children across the developmental continuum.
Free. Available online only.
This symposium featured findings from several studies funded by the William T. Grant Foundation on youth participation in out-of-school time activities, including contextual predictors, youth engagement, program quality, duration of participation, and youth outcomes.
Free. Available online only.
Thomas R. Guskey of the University of Kentucky discusses his five-step process for evaluating professional development in education and its connection to professional development planning.
Ila Desmukh Towery and Rachel Oliveri offer lessons for engaging teacher and student stakeholders in the evaluation of a professional development program.