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.
Promising Methodologies for Evaluating CBIs
Cami Anderson and Sybilla Dorros from Harvard Family Research Project describe four new approaches and innovations of established methods for evaluating CBIs with examples.
Promising Practices for Family Involvement
This ethnographic study examined 11 elementary principals who built relationships with low-income parents with limited resources . Effective principals set goals, expand services to children and families, provide parenting education, negotiate and celebrate cultural differences, build strong relationships, and support teachers. In Principal, 78(3), 16–19. (Also available through the ERIC Database, ERIC number EJ579351.)
Promising Strategies for Connecting Out-of-School Time Programs to Schools: Learning What Works
Priscilla Little reviews promising strategies to promote OST–school connections, culling lessons from a review of out-of-school time evaluations.
Promoting Educational Equity Through Family Engagement: The King Legacy
To honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of freedom and justice, we highlight key messages from our contributors about transforming family engagement to promote educational equity.
Promoting Family Involvement
This article looks at the role of family involvement during the middle and high school years, emphasizing implications and recommendations for principals and superintendents.
Promoting Involvement of Recent Immigrant Families in Their Children's Education
The purpose of this article is to present a conceptual framework and promote promising practices for involving Hispanic, immigrant parents/caregivers of students in their children's education. Toward this end, the article presents a model for how teachers and immigrant parents/families can be trained and encouraged to work as partners to improve student performance.
Free. Available online only.
Promoting Parent–School Relationships During the Transition to Kindergarten
Amy Schulting from Duke University explores the role of teacher outreach to families during the transition to kindergarten.
Promoting Quality Out-of-School Time Programs Through Professional Development
Suzanne Bouffard from HFRP discusses how staff development initiatives and evaluations contribute to quality youth programming.
Promoting Quality Outcome Measurement: A Home-Visitation Case
Audrey Laszewski, project director of the Early Years Home Visitation Outcomes Project of Wisconsin, describes how a stakeholder collaboration resulted in a common outcome measurement process.
Promoting Quality Through Professional Development: A Framework for Evaluation
Recognizing the critical role that staff play in promoting quality OST programs, in this brief we examine OST professional development efforts and offer a framework for their evaluation.
Free. 12 Pages.
Public Communication Campaign Evaluation: An Environmental Scan of Challenges, Criticisms, Practice, and Opportunities
This report presents what has been happening in the field of public communication campaign evaluation in recent years. It examines evaluation challenges, criticisms, and practice and includes sections on relevant theory, outcomes, and useful methods for designing evaluations. It ends with opportunities for the road ahead.
Free. Available online only.
Public Communications Campaigns and Evaluation
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange, Harvard Family Research Project's quarterly evaluation periodical, focuses on public communication campaigns and their efforts to achieve desirable social outcomes. Articles in the first half of the issue offer promising practices and tips for campaign designers and implementers. Articles in the second half examine how campaigns are being evaluated and associated issues, challenges, and innovations.
Free. 20 Pages.
Public Libraries: A Vital Space for Family Engagement
Harvard Family Research Project and the Public Library Association call for libraries to join together with schools and community organizations to establish a system of family engagement that extends throughout a child’s life, supports children and families, and prepares children for success.
Putting an Equity Lens on Family Engagement in Oregon
Creating high-quality early childhood systems necessitates a strong focus on family engagement. Check out how Oregon is adopting an equity lens and building a strong foundation to engage families by leveraging federal funds, community leadership, and philanthropic investments.
Q & A With Comienza en Casa: Using Technology to Smooth the Transition to School for Migrant Children and Families
In this Q & A, the developers of Comienza en Casa │“It Starts at Home,” talk about supporting migrant families to ensure their children have smooth transitions to school through the use of real-world and digital activities.
Q & A with Laura Overdeck of Bedtime Math: Helping Families and Children Cuddle Up to Math
In this Q & A with Laura Overdeck, learn how Bedtime Math is giving families and children comfort in talking about numbers in their daily lives, and helping families and afterschool programs get children excited about math in the world around them.
Q & A With Lori Takeuchi: Research Findings From Learning at Home: Families’ Educational Media Use in America
Lori Takeuchi, Joan Ganz Cooney Center Research Director, discusses the Center’s report findings on families’ and children’s educational-media use, including families’ selection of educational media for their children and ways that practitioners can support families in their choices. Takeuchi notes some of the following findings: when parents use media alongside their children, the educational value of the experience is enhanced; educational-media use varies based on the age of the child; and children are applying what they learn from educational media to nonmedia activities.
Q & A With Rebecca Parlakian: Learn Anytime With the Let's Play App
How can you turn daily bedtime and mealtime routines into learning opportunities for young children? How can commuting, shopping, and other everyday activities offer vibrant learning moments for children? Read about the Let’s Play app to learn how!
Q & A With S. Craig Watkins: Family Engagement in Connected Learning
In this Q & A, S. Craig Watkins discusses the family’s role in the connected learning model, and how students can link what they learn in schools, afterschool programs, and their communities using digital technology.
Q & A With Susan Leger Ferraro and Fran Hurley: Learning Through Technology-Infused Play
Creative anywhere, anytime learning experiences take center stage at Imajine That Museum and Educational Play Space, where families bring their children to play, socialize, and learn together as a family. Read this exciting Q and A with Susan Leger Ferraro and Fran Hurley, about how Imajine That provides an array of innovative learning opportunities to enthusiastic families.
Quality of Life: A Framework for Examining the Impact of Welfare Reform
Danielle Hollar of Harvard Family Research Project writes about the possibility of using an approach that provides a more comprehensive picture of the quality of people’s lives to examine the impact of welfare reform on individuals.
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.
Questions & Answers: Robert Pianta Talks About Kindergarten Transition
Ensuring children's smooth transition from early education programs to kindergarten requires that attention be paid to the resources and linkages among schools, child care and early education services, and families. In this Q+A, Robert Pianta, professor of Clinical and School Psychology at the University of Virginia, shares his recent research on children's transitions and gives tips on how to support families during this time.
Quilting Stories of Innovation in Family Engagement
A collection of innovative family engagement practices with a link for you to share with us your family engagement story!
Racing to the Top: Maryland's Promising Practices in Family Engagement
Maryland is embedding a new family engagement definition statewide as a foundation of policy and infrastructure. Through comprehensive partnerships, the state brings to scale family engagement approaches and launches new initiatives.