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.
Webinar Brief: Data Driven—Making Student and School Data Accessible and Meaningful To Families
This is a briefing on the third webinar in the series Achieving Excellence and Innovation in Family, School, and Community Engagement brought to you by the U.S. Department of Education in partnership with United Way Worldwide, National PTA, SEDL, and Harvard Family Research Project. The webinar, which took place on August 10, 2010, featured Kevin Jennings from the U.S. Department of Education and a number of speakers from across the country discussing examples of how data can be used to engage families in programs, schools, and school districts.
What About the Parents?
Katie Salen Tekinbaş outlines strategies and activities that New York City public school Quest to Learn has implemented to ensure that families are engaged in the digital learning life of students.
What Are Kids Getting Into These Days? Demographic Differences in Youth Out-of-School Time Participation
This research brief examines demographic differences in youth's OST participation rates. It first provides information on current demographic differences in OST participation rates, and then looks at whether there is any evidence that such differences have changed in recent years. The brief concludes with implications for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers.
Free. Available online only.
What is Complementary Learning?
This short publication will give you a quick overview and some concrete examples of complementary learning. It includes information about what complementary learning looks like, some examples of complementary learning systems in practice today, and a description about what is different about complementary learning from traditional programs and services. Finally, we'll introduce you to Marcus, a fictional teenager whose story illustrates how complementary learning can positively affect the lives of students from birth through adolescence.
What Words Don't Say
Martin, an African-American student struggles with peer problems at his elementary school. He experiences racism and classism. How can Martin's mother and his teacher dialogue about sensitive issues?
Free. Available online only.
What's Going on With Tomasito?
Tomasito's embarrassment at having his parents drop by the school limits the development of a strong, trusting, and communicative parent-teacher relationship. Shy and quiet Tomasito does not share information about his home life with his teacher who in turn holds many misconceptions about his home context. How can teacher and family communicate better?
Free. Available online only.
Why Thinking of Family Engagement as Continuous Across Time Matters
A key principle in the definition of family engagement is that it is continuous across time. In this commentary, we explore why thinking of family engagement in this way matters, and we learn about tools educators can use to develop the skills to promote it.
Why We Need a Human Centered Approach to Family Engagement
Cultivating empathy can inspire educators to respond with more inclusive and equitable practices to engage families.
Why We Need to Slow Down When It Comes to Evaluation
Read about lessons HFRP has learned from supporting evaluation efforts in the field. This commentary highlights the value of investing time to carefully consider the theory behind a program for evaluation to yield usable and actionable information.
Why, When, and How to Use Evaluation: Experts Speak Out
This brief offers expert commentary on the implications of the first-year report of the national evaluation of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program for future evaluation and research. It includes a methodological critique of that study, written by Deborah Vandell.
Free. 8 Pages.
Working It Out: The Chronicle of a Mixed-Method Analysis
Chapter in Discovering Successful Pathways in Children's Development: Mixed Methods in the Study of Childhood and Family Life. Edited by Thomas S. Weisner. Published by University of Chicago Press. This chapter chronicles a mixed-method analysis of family involvement in children's learning, drawing observations about the process and added value of combining methods.
Working With Families in the Rural South: Findings From the REA-Funded Promising Readers Program
In an elementary school in the rural south, parents, preservice teachers, and others come together to strengthen children's literacy and learn from their experiences with children and one another.
Free. Available online only.
Year-Round Learning: Continuity in Education Across Settings and Time Through Expanded Learning Opportunities
This brief provides examples of year-round learning programs along with recommendations for policymakers looking for ways to increase youth engagement in learning,
Free. Available online only.
Year-Round Learning: Linking School, Afterschool, and Summer Learning to Support Student Success
There is growing national discussion about the need to create a more expansive definition of learning to include all the ways that youth can access educational opportunities—not just through the traditional school model, but also through afterschool activities, time spent with the family, and increasingly, through interaction with digital media. This brief introduces and analyzes one approach to expanded learning that provides students—often in distressed areas—with access to quality learning environments across the year.
Young Latino Infants and Families: Parental Involvement Implications from a Recent National Study
This study provides a deeper understanding of how cultural practices combine with other factors to shape parenting behaviors among families in the United States in the first year of children's lives. Several findings provide information about ways in which practitioners and Latino families can more effectively engage with young Latino children to influence their cognitive, social, language, and literacy development—and therefore facilitate their school readiness.
Free. Available online only.
Youth Involvement in Evaluation & Research
This brief draws on information collected from focus group interviews with representatives of 14 programs that are involving youth in their evaluation and research efforts. It examines the elements of successful youth involved research projects and offers short profiles of the 14 organizations included in the study.
Hard copy out of stock. Available online only.
Youth Out-of-School Time Participation: Multiple Risks and Developmental Differences
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.
“As Long as I Got Breath, I'll Fight”: Participatory Action Research for Educational Justice
A participatory action project in the South Bronx explores how young people, their parents, and community members have mobilized for educational resources, opportunities, and the fulfillment of their dreams.
Free. Available online only.
“Daddy Says This New Math Is Crazy”
Beth Martin, a fourth grade teacher, finds her students respond well to the new mathematics curriculum she is using in her class, but at home parents struggle to understand the new math and help their children with homework. How should Beth and her colleagues respond to parents' skepticism about the new curriculum and support their involvement at home?
Free. Available online only.
“Do Your Best and Make Us Proud”: Family Engagement and Latino Students’ Decisions About College
Sylvia Acevedo, chair of the Early Learning Subcommittee of the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, writes about the struggles first-generation students and their families face when making decisions about college, interwoven with her own personal story.
“For the first time I understand what it takes for my own child to graduate”: Engaging Immigrant Families around Data
D’Lisa Crain, Grant Administrator for the Nevada State Parent Information & Resource Center and Parent Involvement Coordinator for the Washoe County School District, talks about using case studies to help immigrant families better understand data as well as training parents to use an online data tool to track student learning and attendance.
“I'm Poor, I'm Single, I'm a Mom, and I Deserve Respect”: Advocating in Schools as/With Mothers in Poverty
Using role-play with school staff, poor single mothers reveal school prejudices toward parents and catalyze changes in the conduct of parent meetings.
Free. Available online only.
“Syneducation” (Synekpaidefsis): Reinforcing Communication and Strengthening Cooperation Among Students, Parents, and Schools
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 Is Their House, Too”: An Afterschool Space Designed for and by Teenagers
Engagement in afterschool programming is one way to keep middle and high school youth engaged in their education. Learn about how the Everett Boys & Girls Club located just outside of Boston, uses intentional informality to keep students coming back and wanting more.