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.
The Build Initiative: An Evaluation of State-Level System-Building Efforts
Barbara Gebhard of Build describes the initiative's interactive evaluation approach.
Evaluating Early Childhood Services: What's Really Behind the Curtain
Jack Shonkoff, dean of the Heller School at Brandeis University, describes the highly politicized environment of program evaluation and its attendant challenges.
Early to Read: A Local Emergent Literacy Initiative
This article describes a Knight Foundation early literacy initiative in Philadelphia and its ongoing evaluation.
Transitioning to School: Policy, Practice, and Reality
Robert Pianta of the University of Virginia's the Curry School of Education discusses helping young children to better transition from preschool to kindergarten and into the early years of grade school.
North Carolina's Smart Start Initiative: A Decade of Evaluation Lessons
Donna Bryant and Karen Ponder describe the past 10 years of evaluating North Carolina's nationally recognized early childhood initiative.
Closing the Achievement Gap: Head Start and Beyond
Ed Zigler, Ron Haskins, and G. Reid Lyon discuss the past and future of Head Start, the country's first federally funded early childhood program.
The Road From Research to Outcomes
Jana Martella, from the Council of Chief State School Officers, describes a data-driven approach to developing and integrating policy into the nation's school systems.
African-American and Chinese-American Parent Involvement: The Importance of Race, Class, and Culture
African-American and Chinese-American parents use alternative forms of social capital to support their children's education.
Free. Available online only.
Parents Write Their Worlds: A Parent Involvement Program Bridging Urban Schools and Families
A participatory research project examines a school-based writing workshop in which parents write stories for a literary magazine that is circulated in the school and community.
Free. Available online only.
Engaging With Families in Out-of-School Time Learning
This Snapshot provides an overview of how researchers are evaluating out-of-school time programs’ engagement with families.
Hard copy out of stock. Available online only.
Leveraging Resources to Promote Positive School-CBO Relationships
This article in the Spring 2004 edition of Afterschool Matters (pp. 15–23) uses information in our Out-of-School Time Program Research and Evaluation Database to examine how community-based organizations and schools can work together to build and leverage resources in creating successful after school programming.
Social Capital
This issue of the FINE Forum features some examples families, schools, and communities coming together to enrich children's learning and social development opportunities.
Free. Available online only.
Quality Youth Interventions Through Community Assessment: Evaluation of the School Success Profile Intervention Package
Gary L. Bowen from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill describes the evaluation of an intervention system that uses assessment to design and implement high quality individualized youth services.
A Conversation With Howard Bloom & Stephen Raudenbush
Howard Bloom and Stephen Raudenbush talk about using randomized trials to assess youth programming.
From the Director's Desk
An introduction to the issue on Evaluating Out-of-School Time Program Quality by HFRP's Founder & Director, Heather B. Weiss, Ed.D.
Using Technology to Link Evaluation and Funding: San Francisco’s Contract Management System
Tajel Shah and Nani Coloretti of the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families describe a web-based contract management system for youth programs.
Evaluating Out-of-School Time Program Quality
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange is the fourth devoted to exploring issues in the out-of-school time (OST) field. Its focus is assessing and improving the quality of out-of-school time and youth development programs. Articles cover innovative methodologies and new technology systems for assessing quality, strategies for recruitment and retention, and understanding and measuring participation.
Free. 32 Pages.
Characterizing and Measuring Participation in Out-of-School Time Programs
Sandra Simpkins Chaput from HFRP summarizes recent developmental research examining dimensions of participation in out-of-school activities.
Program Evaluation Across the Nation Using Technology
Sarah Levin Martin, currently with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, describes an innovative, cost-effective way to collect and report evaluation data for program quality improvement.
Attracting and Sustaining Youth Participation in After School Programs
Sherri Lauver from HFRP proposes a set of strategies for recruiting and retaining youth participation in out-of-school time programs.
The New 3Rs — Reading, Resilience, and Relationships in Afterschool Programs
Gil Noam describes an evaluation to discover how well the New 3Rs, a proven school-based reading and risk prevention intervention, works in after school contexts.
Getting Inside the “Black Box” to Measure Program Quality
Nicole Yohalem, Karen Pittman, and Alicia Wilson-Ahlstrom from the Forum for Youth Investment provide an overview of program quality assessment tools.
Life on the Ground: Balancing Youth Ownership With Adult Input
Kathrin Walker and Reed Larson from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign explore the dilemmas adult leaders in youth programs face and how they address them to improve program quality.
Investigating Quality: The Study of Promising After-School Programs
Deborah Lowe Vandell and Elizabeth R. Reisner discuss whether and how participation in high quality after school programs matters for youth outcomes.
Building Quality in Out-of-School Time in the United Kingdom
Ian Fordham, Pam Boyd, and Tony Apicella of ContinYou, a leading youth development organization in the United Kingdom, describe their efforts to improve quality in OST programming nationwide.