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.
Reaching More Parents Through a Complementary Learning Approach
Lisa St. Clair and Barbara Jackson describe how the Nebraska State PIRC connects with 21st Century Community Learning Centers to foster family involvement.
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.
Building Complementary Learning: School and 4-H Linkages
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.
Building Support for Statewide Outcomes: Lessons From Florida
Karen Stanford of the Commission on Government Accountability to the People in Florida reveals techniques to engage important stakeholders in the discussion about public outcomes.
Multi-Level Evaluation Design: California’s Proposition 10
Pablo Stansbery, Senior Research Associate at Harder+Company Community Research, describes the process of developing an evaluation design that addresses the unique challenges created by California’s Children and Families Act.
Data Sharing Through Parent Portals: An Exploration of Parental Motivation, Data Use, and the Promise of Prolonged Parent Involvement
In this Research Digest, Barbara Starkie highlights key findings from her recent study that examined why and how parents use online parent portals to view student data.
Schools in Communities
In this course, we deepen the preparation of teachers in training, focusing on schools as organizations in specific political communities wherein people exercise more or less democratic voices in public policies that govern their economic, housing, and education opportunities. Teachers make and influence policies in their classrooms, at their campuses, and in the institutions and/or districts in which they work.
Free. Available online only.
YouthLearn: Using Technology to Create Meaningful Learning Experiences for Youth
Tony Streit, from Education Development Center, discusses the challenges and potential rewards of using technology to enhance learning in both formal and informal settings.
Necessity Leads to Innovative Evaluation Approach and Practice
Innovation Network describes their methodological innovation—the intense-period debrief—use to engage advocates in evaluative inquiry shortly after a policy window or intense period of action.
Reading, Writing, and Reform in the Bronx: Lessons for Community Engagement in Schools
Five community-based education organizing groups use various strategies to build trust and commitment among parents and teachers.
Free. Available online only.
How can evaluations of public communication campaigns be of more use to social change efforts?
Dr. Sharyn Sutton and Elizabeth Heid Thompson of the social marketing firm, Sutton Group, in Washington D.C. have worked on the research, strategic planning, and execution of numerous social change efforts and public service campaigns.
“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.
Valuing Parents as Co-Educators: A Teacher-Parent Partnership Project in Cyprus
A classroom-based family involvement project in Cyprus offers multiple roles for parents in the classroom, and benefits students, parents, and the teacher.
Free. Available online only.
Engaging Students and Families in a Digital Age: Lessons for Educators and Practitioners
Lori Takeuchi—Director of Research for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and author of the recent report Families Matter: Engaging Families in a Digital Age—discusses her research on how children use technology across the various settings of their lives, and the implications of her findings for practitioners who work with young children and their families.
Math Is Everywhere, When We Know What to Look For
Learning mathematics starts in infancy and happens anywhere, anytime. In this commentary, Taniesha Woods explores what young children need to know about math, what environments rich in mathematics learning look like, and how families can support children’s math development.
New Visions for Public Schools: Using Data to Engage Families
Barbara Taveras and Caissa Douwes from New Visions for Public Schools and Karen Johnson from BASE High School in New York City share how high schools in New York City have begun to engage families in students’ academic success and college readiness by supporting parents in understanding achievement data. This case study makes clear that supporting parents in grasping and utilizing this information is a shared responsibility among schools, families, and students.
Free. Available online only.
An Emerging Framework for Assessing Nonprofit Networks
Based on their new handbook Net Gains, Madeleine Taylor and Peter Pastrik offer guidelines on how to evaluate nonprofit networks that are used to achieve social change goals.
Evaluating Collaboratives: Challenges and Practice
Ellen Taylor-Powell from the University of Wisconsin-Cooperative Extension examines the challenges of collaboratives, and how they stretch us to think about evaluation in new ways.
Seattle School District's Community Alignment Initiative
Sara Tenney-Espinosa, of the Seattle School District, describes the evaluation goals and early findings from a collaboration between the district and local after school providers.
National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group: Recommendations for Federal Policy
This policy brief offers a definition of family, school, and community engagement that builds on the definition in the No Child Left Behind Act (Title IX, section 9101, 32) and is based on research about when and how children learn and the relationships among families, schools, and communities in supporting that learning. We also lay out some of the elements we believe are necessary to enable states, districts, schools, families, and community organizations to develop effective approaches to family engagement from birth to young adulthood.
Free. Available online only.
Blending Evaluation Traditions: The Talent Development Model
Veronica Thomas and Velma LaPoint describe the Talent Development approach to evaluating an urban family-school-community partnership program.
Using Evaluation Results: The Program Staff Perspective
Alfredo Tijerina of School of the Future explains the program staff perspective of using evaluation results.
Youth Reframe Questions of Educational Justice Through Participatory Action Research
María Elena Torre and Michelle Fine describe the process and potential of participatory action research with youth researchers to investigate race, ethnicity, class, and opportunity gaps in education.
What Is a Learning Approach to Evaluation?
Rosalie T. Torres, Ph.D. is Director of Research, Evaluation, and Organizational Learning at the Developmental Studies Center in Oakland, California. Her 24-year career in evaluation has focused on researching, teaching, writing about, and practicing a learning approach to evaluation.
Engaging Stakeholders in Professional Development and Its Evaluation
Ila Desmukh Towery and Rachel Oliveri offer lessons for engaging teacher and student stakeholders in the evaluation of a professional development program.