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One of the most powerful but neglected supports for children's learning and development is family involvement both in and out of school. Over 40 years of steadily accumulating evidence show that family involvement is one of the strongest predictors of children's school success, and that families play pivotal roles in their children's cognitive, social, and emotional development from birth through adolescence. However, resources for and commitments to promoting meaningful family involvement have been few, weak, and inconsistent. To reframe public understanding of the benefits of family involvement in children's education, this paper lays out a research-based definition and more equitable approach to family involvement and positions it as a key cross-cutting component of broader comprehensive or complementary learning systems in which families, schools, after-school and summer learning programs, school-based health clinics, and others have a shared responsibility for children's learning. Beginning with a brief historical overview of conceptions of family roles and responsibilities in children's learning, this paper next offers a review of recent research on the ways in which expectations and support for family involvement have shifted, particularly with respect to economically disadvantaged and racial and ethnic minority families. Research suggests that low-income families have fewer opportunities for involvement and are, indeed, less involved in many ways. The next section lays out a reframed approach to family involvement: Family involvement should be situated within larger complementary learning systems to facilitate continuity of learning across contexts and ages, increase the chances that families and other learning supports will share learning goals and commitments to the child's school success, and increase the opportunities to surround children with a linked network of supports so that if one area of support falters, others remain. Interventions that have been developed to increase parental involvement among low-income families and other at-risk populations are another important part of the knowledge base. The next section of the paper reviews the family involvement research and intervention literature, coupled with research on the barriers and supports for the involvement of disadvantaged and minority families. The interventions evidence provides much of the warrant for the authors' proposed reframing of family involvement: Continuous, cross-context family involvement is necessary to meet the goal of educational equity. The recommendations and conclusion to the paper argue for a research-based and broadly shared approach to family involvement to guide policy development and practice. Family involvement within a complementary learning system is necessary to achieve educational equity and close achievement gaps; differences in opportunities for family involvement precipitate or exacerbate unequal educational opportunities and outcomes. (Contains 10 notes.)

The paper begins with a challenge, namely: How do we work with families and communities to co-create the next generation of family and community engagement, providing equitable learning pathways--both in and out of school and from birth to young adulthood--that will enable all children to be successful in the 21st century? Exploring what it takes to meet this challenge, the document looks at what we have learned over the past 50 years of research and policy as well as the need for changes in mindsets. The paper identifies five promising, high-leverage areas that can serve as "building blocks" for the next generation of family engagement strategies: reducing chronic absenteeism, data sharing about student and school climate indicators, the academic and social development of youth in and out of school, digital media, and the critical transition periods in children's learning pathways. The report also concludes with suggestions on where to concentrate efforts to move the field of family and community engagement ahead--local community initiatives, capacity building and professional development, data pathways, public policy change, and public communication and engagement strategies. [For the executive summary to this report, see ED590437.]

This paper presents the initial findings from an ethnographic case study, focusing on the mixed-method research strategy used in the MacArthur Comprehensive Child Development Project Follow-up Study. The aim of the study was to expand the understanding of children's developmental trajectories as they traverse the elementary school years. Approximately 400 children, their families, schools, and communities are participating in a longitudinal study from kindergarten through third grade. Twenty-three children were selected from the larger sample for ethnographic case studies, involving in-depth interviews with teachers, other school personnel, parents or caregivers, and the children themselves; and participant observations in schools and classrooms. This paper presents three case study vignettes of children in the second grade, each highlighting a different aspect of family-school communication from the perspective of the children's parents, and highlights the methodological strengths of ethnography. The paper notes that participant observation revealed factors related to the effectiveness of parent-teacher conferences in supporting children's learning. An ethnographic interview revealed one' parent's construction of a school's attempts to address her child's behavior problems. The third vignette uncovered the complexity and contradictions and race, racism, and informal communication between home and child for one African-American child. (KB)

One important aspect of family involvement that has been consistently overlooked is the need to prepare teachers for intensive work with families and communities. This study investigated professional development and teacher education in the hope of providing a framework for developing more comprehensive approaches for family involvement in education. State teacher certification programs were reviewed to see which preservice teacher education currently includes parent involvement, and researchers looked at how teacher education programs are preparing teachers to work with families and to work in schools that are becoming increasingly responsive to families and communities. Case studies of programs strong in teacher preparation in family involvement were also undertaken. Based on the experiences of the model programs, a number of recommendations were made for the reforms needed to make meaningful connections among home, school, and community, including: (1) giving prospective teachers more direct experience with families and communities; (2) making school conditions conducive to family involvement; and (3) hiring more experts in family and community involvement. (WJC)

This document provides a historical framework for better understanding the emergence of community-based family support and education (CBFSE) programs, their place within the larger service delivery system, and their potential for meeting the needs of children and families living in poverty. The paper is organized into five sections. The first section outlines the core characteristics and underlying premises of the movement. The second section traces a history of CBFSE programs from the early nineteenth century to the present, including an examination of the continuities and discontinuities in underlying purposes and assumptions, social forces stimulating intervention efforts, and approaches to working with families. The third section focuses on the evolution of program evaluation in the field from the late 1960s to the present, approaches to research design and measurement, interpretation of data from selected studies, and current evaluation issues. The fourth section examines emerging patterns of organization and institutionalization among CBFSE programs, patterns of sponsorship and funding, states that are attempting to develop coherent strategies for program development, and related issues. The fifth section outlines the major policy, programmatic, and research issues for upcoming years. Includes 172 references. (JB)

This report focuses on the formulation and implementation of family support and education policies in four states, all of which have established programs that provide the core services of parenting education, early childhood development activities, parent support groups, and information about other community agencies. The initiatives are family-centered; preventive, as opposed to interventionist; nonbureaucratic; and community-based. This report is based on field and documentary research carried out over two years. Findings of the research are discussed in terms of placement of family support and education in policy agendas, funding, definitions of state and local roles, and suggestions for future research. Missouri's Parents as Teachers Program, Minnesota's Early Childhood Family Education Program, Connecticut's Parent Education and Support Centers, and Maryland's Family Support Centers are described in detail. Descriptions in each case include a historical overview, a discussion of program development and implementation, and a program evaluation. Appendixes provide a chronology of events for each program's development, and an overview of the states' evaluations. (BC)

To be effective, teachers must be prepared to collaborate with families to support student success. Many studies confirm that strong parent-teacher relationships relate to positive student outcomes, such as healthy social development, high student achievement, and high rates of college enrollment. Thus, by giving teachers the support they need to work with families, teacher education programs can have an even greater impact on student achievement. For this reason, some institutions of higher education are already taking innovative steps to prepare teachers to work with families through coursework and hands-on experience in schools during preservice and into their early years of teaching. "Teaching the Teachers" highlights those promising strategies through five case studies, and examines how teacher education programs can create the foundation for meaningful and effective family engagement. This brief describes five core elements necessary for a system of teacher training and professional development in support of family engagement, distilled from the case studies of existing teacher preparation programs. The brief also addresses the policies needed to support this type of teacher preparation system. The five core elements in the system are: (1) Standards for family engagement; (2) Curriculum that advances the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that teachers need to engage families; (3) Collaborations among various stakeholders; (4) Continuing professional development around family engagement; and (5) Evaluation for learning and continuous improvement. (Contains 35 endnotes.)

This brief describes how investments in student data systems are taking family engagement and student achievement to a whole new level. In addition to addressing areas where a student most needs improvement, the data can serve as a catalyst for home-school communication. Parents benefit from having information about key indicators on which they can have an impact, like student attendance, growth in learning, and achievement. The information opens the door for meaningful conversations with teachers and students so that parents can make informed decisions and take action to improve performance, school climate, graduation rates, and other important issues that affect their child's success. Breaking New Ground cites six case studies from across the country that reveal innovative efforts by early childhood programs and school districts to use student data systems to improve family engagement. Each profile illustrates a segment of a data pathway beginning in early childhood and continuing through students' academic careers. The brief also includes a set of policy recommendations to help support the current trends in education that focus on twenty-first century learning and the vital role of technology. (Contains 20 footnotes.)

The policy forum brought to the center what is now on the periphery of education reform: family, school, and community engagement (FSCE) as a strategy to support student success. The forum sought to serve as a catalyst for reframing what FSCE should look like in the twenty--first century, and for repositioning this engagement as a major contributor to twenty--first century learning and school turnaround efforts. There is a substantial amount of innovation intentionally linking family engagement to learning, as well as a strong base of practice experience on which to build more systemic, integrated, and sustained approaches. This paper set the stage for the forum by presenting a research-based framing of family engagement. It examines the policy levers for change in promoting systemic FSCE, and focuses on data systems as a powerful tool to engage families for twenty-first century student learning. Because education reform will succeed only when all students are prepared for the demands of the twenty-first century, the forum also aimed to examine the role of families in transforming low-performing schools. This paper aims to start the conversation and to help shape what role federal policy will play in supporting FSCE efforts in schools across the country. (Contains 6 textboxes and 36 footnotes.)

This brief offers lessons and best practices from foundations across the country on grantmaking to school districts. It offers advice to foundations that are considering school district investments for the first time. It also offers a useful "check" to more experienced foundations that want to examine their thinking and approaches against the lessons and practices of other foundations. Lists of Targeted Key Informants and GEO Listserv Respondents are appended. (Contains 9 footnotes.)

Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) and the National Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) have teamed up to bring you a ground-breaking policy brief that examines the role of school districts in promoting family engagement. "Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement" spotlights how six school districts across the country have used innovative strategies to create and sustain family engagement "systems at work." Drawing from districts' diverse approaches, we highlight promising practices to ensure quality, oversight, and impact from their family engagement efforts. Researchers propose a set of recommendations for how federal, state, and local policies can promote district-level family engagement efforts that support student learning. One appendix is included: (1) Overview of Six School Districts Profiled. (Contains 10 endnotes.)

This report makes a research-based case for federal provision of out-of-school complementary learning supports from birth through high school, particularly for poor children, so that all students gain the skills that economists, educators, and employers agree are necessary for success in the 21st century. Four decades of consistent research evidence demonstrate it is necessary to redefine learning--both where and when it takes place--and to follow up with innovations that enable communities to move to a complementary learning approach, if the country is to achieve its national goal of educating all children. Report highlights include: (1) Research and evaluation evidence that shows the benefits of out-of-school complementary learning opportunities in family involvement, after school programs, and summer learning programs; (2) What federal leaders can do to build state and local capacity for complementary learning services and interventions that measurably contribute to children's development, particularly their academic outcomes; (3) Legislative and policy tools and examples of public-private partnerships that enable innovation, accountability, and evaluation for continuous learning and improvement of complementary learning pathways; and (4) Recommendations for the federal government to develop, implement and test a national strategy for complementary learning, culminating in a proposal for a "Pathways to Educational Success Act." Commissioned as part of a series of 11 papers on "Rethinking the Federal Role in Elementary and Secondary Education," the report was presented at a forum on Capitol Hill in November 2008. (Contains 7 footnotes.)

The focus on the achievement gap and growing debate about No Child Left Behind (NCLB) reauthorization have sparked increased recognition that schools alone cannot meet the learning needs of American children. There is growing interest at all levels in identifying non-school supports and opportunities that both complement learning in schools and collectively result in better developmental outcomes for children and youth. In 2005, Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) introduced the complementary learning framework, the idea that a systemic approach to learning that intentionally integrates both school and non-school supports can better ensure that all children have the skills they need to succeed. On November 1-3, 2007, HFRP, in partnership with the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Programs in Professional Education, hosted "Closing the Achievement Gap: Linking Families, Schools, and Communities through Complementary Learning." This institute provided an opportunity for diverse stakeholders from around the country to discuss innovative and comprehensive solutions for overcoming achievement gaps and preparing all children for success in school and life and focused on connecting the pieces to build comprehensive systems of support. The institute targeted two primary goals: (1) to describe what complementary learning is and what it looks like in practice; and (2) to explore strategies for building complementary learning, both in individual communities and in the field at large. This report provides a summary of the institute by: (1) Describing the growing demand for complementary learning and the current policy window for mainstreaming complementary learning approaches; (2) Highlighting themes about strategies for building and sustaining complementary learning that emerged before and during the institute; and (3) Looking forward and pointing to next steps for the field. (Contains 1 footnote.)

This research brief draws on seminal research and evaluation studies to address two primary questions: (a) Does participation in after school programs make a difference, and, if so (b) what conditions appear to be necessary to achieve positive results? The brief concludes with a set of questions to spur conversation about the evolving role of after school in efforts to expand time and opportunities for children and youth in the 21st century. (Contains 60 notes.) [Additional funding for this brief was provided by The Wallace Foundation.]

This issue brief looks at evaluations of 34 academically focused summer programs in order to distill challenges and compile promising strategies for creating quality summer programs. While many summer programs face similar implementation challenges, each program has different components and needs, and not every strategy is feasible or even desirable for every program. Rather, the strategies presented in this brief are intended to offer "food for thought" about how best to develop and refine quality programming. Three major themes cut across the seven challenges and accompanying strategies identified in this brief. First, many evaluations identified the important role of linkages, relationships, and partnerships. A second theme that cuts across many strategies is youth engagement. A final theme common to most of these strategies is the importance of operating with intentionality. A list of related resources is also included. Appended is: Program Evaluations Included in This Review.

In 1998, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation asked the Harvard Family Research Project to examine current trends, gaps, and opportunities in foundation grantmaking for children and youth. Early in the process, it was clear that there were important transformations in funding goals and strategies underway. This report examines current grantmaking trends and describes promising new strategies to improve the well-being of America's children. The report describes how many foundations are rethinking their roles as risk takers, partners, and supporters of innovation and as promoters of their own and others' learning and accountability. The report also lays out a series of difficult challenges and trade-offs that warrant further discussion among foundations as they chart their role into the next century. The report addresses five specific questions: (1) What is the pattern of funding by age group, level, and sector? (2) What are the key lessons from past grantmaking that are informing future work? (3) What are the major trends in grantmaking strategies? (4) How are foundations reorganizing to develop their new strategies and accomplish their goals? and (5) What are the gaps, opportunities, and challenges for those who want to improve the status and well-being of children and youth? Contains four appendices, including an interview list, survey, and tables of top funders. (SD)

Part of the Harvard Family Research Project's ongoing series of case studies that examine state-level policy and programs for families, this booklet reviews initiatives undertaken by the states of Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, and Missouri to support and educate families with young children. Each of the booklet's five sections focuses on a particular state, and includes a history of the state initiative, a description of its scope, and thoughtful reflections by the state-level director about lessons learned and expectations for the future. (RH)

Family resource centers (FRC) are emerging as a promising program approach to solving urgent social problems. Evaluation plays an important role in learning how these programs work, what their impact is, and whether they should be expanded. However, FRCs pose unique challenges to evaluation. This report considers the challenges to evaluating FRCs, illustrated by an evaluation of a hypothetical FRC. The report describes the program and presents three alternative evaluation designs: (1) participatory; (2) user-focused; and (3) experimental/quasi-experimental. Issues and tradeoffs arising in employing any evaluation approach are considered. The report identifies similarities and differences in the three approaches regarding how research questions are clarified, how data needs are identified and data collected, how data are reported and analyzed, and how evaluation is organized. Strengths and limitations are identified, and the report suggests that integrating the approaches can be most helpful to evaluating FRCs and similar community-based programs. The report provides an overview of considerations when evaluating community-based programs such as deciding how to engage the community and stakeholders and identifying needed data and data collection instruments. The report draws three notable conclusions: (1) monitoring program implemention to see how interventions unfold and to test the assumptions underlying the program model is vital; (2) evaluation must be viewed as an important resource to promote continuous organizational learning; and (3) evaluators must increase their repertoire of skills to include technical expertise, interpersonal relations, and negotiation skills. Five appendices include sample evaluation reports of the hypothetical FRC. Contains 43 references. (KB)

In 1994, the Carnegie Corporation released "Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children," which called for an action agenda to promote responsible parenthood, guarantee quality child care choices, ensure good health and protection, and mobilize communities to support young children and families. In 1996, the Carnegie Corporation created a Starting Points grant program to encourage states and communities to address the challenges posed by its earlier report. This report examines how Starting Points grantees have begun to develop learning systems through a variety of promising approaches. The lessons that can be drawn from Starting Points grantees' learning systems are explored. The report ends with a discussion of how these activities come together as a learning system to become a practical tool for the collection, dissemination, and use of information leading to better outcomes for young children. Three appendices contain an annotated bibliography, information on methodology, and a list of Starting Points Grantees and Strategic Partners. (Contains 17 references.) (Author/SD)

In 1994, the Carnegie Corporation released "Starting Points: Meeting the Needs of Our Youngest Children," which called for an action agenda to promote responsible parenthood, guarantee quality child care choices, ensure good health and protection, and mobilize communities to support young children and families. In 1996, the Carnegie Corporation created a Starting Points grants program to encourage states and communities to address the challenges posed by its earlier report. Based on a national competition, 14 grants were awarded. This report summarizes the strategies and activities undertaken by each Starting Points site, as well as the overall themes and lessons for policymakers, advocates, and others concerned with the well-being of very young children and their families. Following a layout of the report's methodology and framework for site descriptions, the following sites are listed in the report: Baltimore, Boston, Colorado, Florida, Georgia/Atlanta, Hawaii, Minnesota/Minneapolis, North Carolina, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Rhode Island, San Francisco, Vermont, and West Virginia. The report concludes with lessons and conclusions drawn from the various locations. Appendices present Starting Points strategic partners, sites at a glance, statewide indicators of risk, and summary of strategic approaches by site. (EV)

With support from the William T. Grant Foundation, Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) is conducting a research study on the factors associated with whether children and youth participate in out-of-school time (OST) programs and activities. Building on our previous work, we are using national data to examine the many factors and contexts in children's lives that predict participation. This research brief distills findings from the first phase of the study, which 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. (Contains 4 endnotes.)