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.
Kindergarten Home Visit Project
The need for home–-school collaboration begins even before a child’s the first day of school. Researcher Amy Schulting shares data from a recent evaluation study to describe how one home visiting project eases children's transition to kindergarten.
Early Childhood Reform in Seven Communities: Front-Line Practice, Agency Management, and Public Policy
This report examines local examples of successful implementation of reforms. It provides useful information to early childhood practitioners who work directly with children and families, managers who direct early childhood agencies and programs, and policymakers who make decisions about program designs and funding strategies.
Free. Available online only.
Supporting Parents of Learning Disabled Children: Creating a New Norm
The purpose of this module is to explore an understanding of how parents of learning disabled (LD) children make sense of their parenting experiences and the ways in which they might be better supported within school communities. Students will also become familiar with the principles of dialogue, a form of communication that values the multiple truths that parents and educators bring to discussions about a child's learning.
Free. Available online only.
Lessons From Museums and Libraries: Five Ways to Address Families’ Digital Learning Needs
Culture expert Marsha L. Semmel notes that museums and libraries are increasing their offerings for families in support of such vital 21st-century learning skills as problem solving, digital media literacy, and creativity. Learn how these institutions play important roles in addressing our children’s digital learning needs.
Resolving Issues at Johnson Elementary School
The director of a Parent Resource Center is concerned to hear that a number of parents are boycotting the program because they think the parent coordinator used her school connections to place her son in a gifted science class. How can the director and principal ease the tension?
Free. Available online only.
Setting Standards at Porter Road School
A fourth grade teacher weighs the advantages and disadvantages of a mandated state educational test on her students. She must weigh the conflicting perspectives of parents, students, community members, and her teaching colleagues to define her own stance in regard to the test and to present her thoughts to the school principal.
Free. Available online only.
Suspension at Aurora Middle School
Khoi, a well behaved student who recently emigrated from a Vietnamese refugee camp, is suspended from Aurora Middle School because he stood near a fight. His mother Mai feels helpless because she speaks limited English, and only knows that her son was unjustly suspended. What is the school's role in supporting culturally diverse families?
Free. Available online only.
Generating Family-School Partnerships Through Social Marketing
The outgrowth of a meeting of six national organizations promoting family-school partnerships, this article discusses methods to enhance family involvement through social marketing. By arguing that schools should view parents as “customers,” teachers and administrators can reach out to parents in effective and successful ways.
Free. Available online only.
Community Education as a Home for Family Support and Education Programs
Public policy makers and program developers who are considering family support programs need to find appropriate administrative and service-delivery organizations at local and state levels. This study provides examples of family support programs.
Hard copy out of stock.
Sharing Assessment Data With Preschool Families in Preparation for Kindergarten
What are the benefits and challenges of sharing assessment data with preschool families? How can you do so effectively? A preschool teacher writes about her experiences, and provides valuable tips on how to share data with families in preparation for kindergarten.
New Skills for New Schools: Preparing Teachers in Family Involvement
This report reviews teacher certification requirements for all 50 states and the District of Columbia and examines 60 teacher education programs that mention family involvement. The report also identifies nine teacher education programs that focus on family involvement as an important concept, engage students in hands-on activities, and promote a broad concept of family involvement that recognizes the value of home-school collaboration.
Free. 76 Pages.
Supporting Latino Families: Lessons From Exemplary Programs Vol. 1
This report investigates 11 family support programs that have addressed the needs of vulnerable Latino families. The report clearly demonstrates the need to incorporate culture and family values into the very design of a program. Volume One provides detailed analysis of the various strategies and distills lessons for practitioners; Volume Two provides an in-depth profile of each program.
Hard copy out of stock.
Supporting Latino Families: Lessons From Exemplary Programs Vol. 2
This report investigates 11 family support programs that have addressed the needs of vulnerable Latino families. The report clearly demonstrates the need to incorporate culture and family values into the very design of a program. Volume One provides detailed analysis of the various strategies and distills lessons for practitioners; Volume Two provides an in-depth profile of each program.
Hard copy out of stock.
Challenges in Evaluating Comprehensive School-Linked Services: Toward a More Comprehensive Evaluation Framework
Presented at the 1995 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, this paper discusses the evaluation challenges facing complex school-linked services and describes and assesses how 18 such initiatives have been evaluated. Includes detailed charts and tables.
$10.00 . 40 Pages.
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.
Conjoint Behavioral Consultation: A Model to Facilitate Meaningful Partnerships for Families and Schools
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.
The Welfare-to-Work Transition and Parent Involvement in Education: A Southern Case Study
This exploratory case study examines whether the transition from welfare to work influences parental involvement in elementary school education.
Free. Available online only.
Social Contexts of Education
This class has an experimental design. It has been planned in collaboration with the leaders from the Boston Public Schools (BPS) in general and Brighton High School faculty and Garfield Elementary School faculty in particular. In this class we will endeavor not only to understand specific social contexts of education, but also to play a proactive role in improving communication between two schools and the communities they serve.
Free. Available online only.
Teacher, Family & Community: Relationships and Resources
Examination of how the relationship between schools, families, and communities impacts the school adjustment of children during middle childhood and early adolescence as well as the roles of school personnel, parents, and community agents. Models and methods for facilitating positive relationships are considered. Resources for the education of children within families and communities are investigated.
Free. Available online only.
How Does Parenting Matter in Adolescence? Insights From Variable- and Person-Centered Approaches
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.
Society for the Study of Human Development Annual Meeting
This presentation, Supporting Children's Development in and out of the Classroom, examined parenting behaviors and their associations with one another and with children's outcomes in early and late adolescence.
Free. Available online only.
A New Approach to Transitions: Welcoming Families and Their Ideas into Kindergarten Classrooms
Ken Smythe-Leistico is the director of Ready Freddy: Pathways to Kindergarten Success at the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Child Development. In this profile, Ken discusses the Ready Freddy program—created in collaboration with Pittsburgh Public Schools, families, and community partners to increase the likelihood that children will have a successful kindergarten year.
Successful Family Engagement in the Classroom: What teachers need to know and be able to do to engage families in raising student achievement
HFRP invited the Flamboyan Foundation—a private foundation focused on improving educational outcomes for children in Washington, DC and Puerto Rico—to share its classroom family engagement rubric with FINE. This rubric, and accompanying article, provides districts, school leaders, and teachers with a clear picture of what effective family engagement looks like in the classroom through concrete descriptions of how teachers demonstrate strong family engagement through their conversations and daily practice.
Complementary Learning Connections With Out-of-School Time Programs in Nebraska
When families, schools, and out-of-school supports work together, children are more likely to succeed. Lisa St. Clair writes about how the Nebraska State Parental Information and Resource Center is using a complementary learning approach to link family support programs with schools, early childhood programs, and out-of-school time programs.
Voices from the Field: How Can Elementary Teachers Collaborate More Effectively with Parents to Support Literacy Learning?
In this FINE Newsletter Voices from the Field article, Carol St. George, EdD, a visiting assistant professor at the University of Rochester and Title I Family Involvement Coordinator for the Greece Central School District in New York, discusses her use of the Collegial Circle, a professional development activity that engages teachers with parents.