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.
Electronic Mailbox
The Electronic Mailbox section features a list of useful resources on the Internet relating to the issue's theme of Children and Youth.
Children and Youth
This issue of The Evaluation Exchange is devoted to the evaluation of youth programs that support positive youth development. Topics include evaluating strength-based approaches to youth development, youth participation in evaluation, lessons learned from the international community on evaluating youth programs, and foundation grantmaking for children and youth.
From the Director's Desk
An introduction to the issue on Children and Youth by HFRP's Founder & Director, Heather B. Weiss, Ed.D.
Reflections on Evaluating Strength-Based Approaches to Youth Development
Dale Blyth, Director of the Center for 4-H Youth Development, discusses evaluating strength-based approaches to youth development, which focus on developing desired traits in youth.
The Juvenile Justice Evaluation Project
Revery Barnes and Kaira Espinoza of Rising Youth for Social Equity share the results of their youth-run organization serving as the youth evaluation team on a project to reform San Francisco’s juvenile justice system.
Youth Empowerment Evaluation
Kristen Zimmerman and Nancy Erbstein, Co-Directors of Community LORE, reveal how their organization promotes and supports youth participation in research, evaluation, and planning.
Family-Centered Child Care
This report provides a training framework to support families through child care programs. It describes six areas of practice through which providers can develop the knowledge and skills to partner with families. The report contains profiles of family-centered programs and examines how they have applied family support principles in their practice.
$10.00 . 115 Pages.
Helping Parents Communicate Better With Schools
Spanish Translation Available. Good communication between parents and teachers has many benefits. This Early Childhood Digest shares information on how to establish good parent-teacher communication.
Free. Available online only.
Latino Families: Getting Involved in Your Children's Education
Spanish Translation Available. This Early Childhood Digest provides tips on how families can support their children in childcare, preschool, Head Start, and kindergarten.
Free. Available online only.
Beyond the Parent-Teacher Conference: Diverse Patterns of Home-School Communication
Discussions about home-school communication generally focus on formal, scheduled school activities offered to all parents, such as parent-teacher conferences or back-to-school nights. In contrast, this paper examines a variety of alternative communication patterns that are important mechanisms for parents and teachers to gain information and make decisions about children.
Free. Available online only.
New Strategies in Foundation Grantmaking for Children and Youth
This report examines trends in foundation grantmaking for children and youth among 19 foundations. The foundations include most of the largest and wealthiest and those whose grantmaking heavily focuses on children and youth. Survey results indicate that, because the problems of youth are interconnected and require comprehensive solutions, foundations are shifting their grantmaking strategies. Several are concentrating more resources on long-term, place-based community strategies designed to improve outcomes for children and youth.
$10.00 . 67 Pages.
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.)
Learning From Logic Models: An Example of a Family/School Partnership Program
This brief offers a step-by-step approach for developing and using a logic model as a framework for a program or organization’s evaluation. Its purpose is to provide a tool to guide evaluation processes and to facilitate practitioner and evaluator partnerships. The brief is written primarily for program practitioners, but is also relevant and easily applied for evaluators.
Free. Available online only.
Aiming for Accountability: North Carolina
Efforts include the state's performance/program budgeting system, the Department of Health and Human Services, and Smart Start.
$5.00 . 42 Pages.
Parent-Provider Partnerships
This paper discusses ways of working with children and families from diverse backgrounds and highlights some of the challenging issues raised by working with families having differing values, cultural norms, and experiences.
Aiming for Accountability: Minnesota
Efforts include Minnesota Milestones, Children's Services Report Card, Performance Reporting, and Family Services and Children's Mental Health Collaboratives.
$5.00 . 50 Pages.
Eight Themes in Comprehensive Community Development: An Annotated Bibliography
This review of current literature on community development is a resource for people hoping to gain insight into the common ground and potential for collaboration that exist between family support and community development initiatives. A brief introduction to the bibliography explains what the eight themes are, why they are important, and what special challenges are raised for community development practitioners.
$7.00 . 28 Pages.
Transforming Training
This paper defines the characteristics of family support in the child care context, highlights research showing the need for provider training to raise program quality, and discusses five vital topics for training child care providers in family support. The author argues for the need to develop one cohesive training system for providers.
$7.00 . 33 Pages.
Learning From Starting Points
This report analyzes experiences of grantees involved in Carnegie Corporation's Starting Points grant program to encourage states and cities to engage in practices to improve children's well-being. This work examines these grantees' experiences implementing key components of a learning system and presents the overall lessons for other localities intent on using information to improve outcomes.
$10.00 . 47 Pages.
From the Director's Desk
An introduction to the issue on Learning Organizations by HFRP's Founder & Director, Heather B. Weiss, Ed.D.
Useful Learning for Public Action
Heather Weiss of Harvard Family Research Project and William Morrill of Mathtech discuss implementing knowledge development investments to solve the country's basic problems.
Making the Case for Children
William Novelli, President of the National Center for Tabacco-Free Kids, writes about implementing an information campaign to inform citizens and policymakers about children's health.
Civic Participation and the Citizens Research Method
Serene Fang of Harvard Family Research Project explains the Citizen Research method to better inform and engage citizens in understanding and influencing policymaking.
Interview With Patricia McGinnis
Patricia McGinnis, President and CEO of the Council for Excellence in Government, discusses the potential of and constraints to public sector organizational learning in the current climate of accountability.