This double issue of The Evaluation Exchange examines the current state of and future directions for the family involvement field in research, policy, and practice. Featuring innovative initiatives, new evaluation approaches and findings, and interviews with field leaders, the issue is designed to spark conversation about where the field is today and where it needs to go in the future.
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Findings show that the great majority of parents have positive and nurturing relationships with their children and close emotional ties, which is contrary to anecdotal portrayals of parents as unconnected, especially when it comes to relating to their adolescent children.
Recently released parent-reported data from the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH) looked at three markers of relationships for parents living with children between the ages of 6 and 17: parent-child closeness, the degree to which parents share ideas and talk about things that really matter with their children, and parents' acquaintance with their children's friends.
Analyses show that although some declines are seen in these areas as children get older, high parental involvement and positive parent-child interactions endure throughout childhood into the teenage years for most adolescents. Given the importance of positive communication and relationships for parents and for children of all ages, these findings are reassuring. The findings also suggest that a minority of parents could use help in strengthening their relationships with their children.
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This new report details the research and confirms what common sense suggests: parents are central to the educational success of their children. Regardless of incomes, education, and performance at school, parents believe that their involvement is central to their child's academic success. But parents need an access point - a way in - and many are not finding it in their child's school. Parents are clearly ready to help their children succeed academically, but they need better information and tools from the schools to do so - ranging from how to help with homework to helping their children with the college application process.
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Family Involvement Makes a Difference is a set of research briefs that examines one set of complementary learning linkages: family involvement in the home and school. The briefs in this series examine family involvement in early childhood, elementary school, middle school, and high school settings. Taken together, these briefs make the case that family involvement predicts children's academic achievement and social development as they progress from early childhood programs through K–12 schools and into higher education.
http://hfrp.org/publications-resources
These guidelines provide strategic suggestions for welcoming newcomers, which is part of the broader goal of creating schools where staff, students and families interact positively with each other and identify with the school and its goals. Welcoming and social support are critical elements both in creating a positive sense of community at a school and in facilitating students' school adjustment and performance.
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This document explains why engaging parents is important, provides tips and outreach materials on effective ways to engage parents, and illustrates 15 examples of how site coordinators and staff are successfully engaging and supporting parents at their after school programs.
http://www.tascorp.org/
This book offers a framework to think about, talk about, and then actually build comprehensive programs of school, family, and community partnerships; a discussion of the theory of overlapping spheres of influence of family, school, and community contexts; a review of research on the implementation and effects of partnerships, and an outline of six types of involvement for creating strong partnership programs; methods for applying this theory, framework, and research in class projects and assignments; and tips on how to gather ideas for specific practices of partnership to use in schools to promote student success.
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This comprehensive, easy-to-read guide to understanding how to engage families in after school programs is a critical resource for after school providers looking to create or expand an existing family engagement program. Program leaders, local decision makers, funders, and others interested in promoting good family involvement practice in many different settings will also find the guide vital to their work. It offers a research base for why family engagement matters, concrete program strategies for engaging families, case studies of promising family engagement efforts, and an evaluation tool for improving family engagement practices.
http://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/
This Technical Aid packet is designed for use by those who work with parents and other nonprofessionals. It contains three types of aids. (1) A "booklet" written for nonprofessionals to help them understand what is involved in helping children learn. (2) Information about basic resources professionals can draw on to learn more about helping parents and other nonprofessionals enhance children's learning and performance. (3) Additional guides and basic information to share with parents as resources they can use to enhance a child's learning and performance.
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This document discusses social and emotional learning (SEL), the role of parents in this, and how teachers can help parents teach SEL skills. It discusses the need for parents and schools to work together on this and includes handouts with "small things" parents can consider doing regularly.
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AYPF asserts that young people should not be treated as "islands" by school and youth programs, separate from the context of their families and neighborhoods. In its compendia of summaries of evaluations of effective youth programs, AYPF identifies many of these effective, family-like, strategies: include caring adults, create small close-knit environments, articulate high expectations and provide long-term support. No More Islands uses an established body of research, over 100 summaries of evaluations published by AYPF over a six-year period, to demonstrate the amount and type of family involvement used in school and youth programs across the nation.
http://www.aypf.org/publications/
This guide is about the parent engagement efforts of seven initiatives across the country. The underlying assumption of the work of these seven efforts is that strong schools are vital to strong communities.
http://www.aecf.org/KnowledgeCenter/
The BPON is a citywide initiative to organize parents and communities as advocates for the improvement of the Boston Public Schools.
http://www.bpon.org/
The primary goal of the Focus On Children reform plan - to improve teaching and learning for all children - can only be accomplished through collaboration between the home and the school.
http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/node/39
CIPL is an initiative that trains and supports parent activists to help improve achievement in their schools and to be advocates for statewide reform in Kentucky.
http://www.prichardcommittee.org
Working with Boston Public Schools, Connecting Families to Schools provides home visits by social workers and advocates to families whose elementary school children are experiencing excessive school absences.
http://www.bphc.org/programs/
EPIC is a national not-for-profit organization that provides effective programs and resources for parents, teachers and school administrators that help adults raise responsible and academically successful children.
http://www.epicforchildren.org/
Families First strengthens families of all backgrounds and life circumstances by providing parenting education and support through seminars, workshops, and consultations. They also train professionals from diverse disciplines to enhance their capacity to support today's families.
http://www.families-first.org/
FINE is a national network of over 4,000 people who are interested in promoting strong partnerships between children's educators, their families, and their communities.
http://www.hfrp.org/family-involvement/
Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) strives to promote more effective educational practices, programs, and policies for disadvantaged children and youth by generating, publishing, and disseminating their and others' research. Publications are available in the following subject areas: out of school time, evaluation and accountability, professional development, early childhood care and education and family, school and community partnerships.
http://www.hfrp.org/
MCPIE supports public schools through the promotion of meaningful parent involvement in the education of children and school reform. MCPIE is a partner of the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education.
http://www.mcpie.org/
The mission of the National Center for Family Literacy is to create educational and economic opportunity for the most at-risk children and parents.
http://www.famlit.org
NCPIE is a coalition of major education, community, public service, and advocacy organizations working to create meaningful family-school partnerships in every school in America.
http://www.ncpie.org/
NCEA provides leadership to those who build learning communities in response to individual and community needs by providing its members with national and regional training conferences and workshops; specialized periodicals, publications, and products; opportunities for peer support and networking; and information and referral services.
http://www.ncea.org/
Established by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, the National Network of Partnership Schools brings together schools, districts, and states that are committed to developing and maintaining comprehensive programs of school-family-community partnerships.
http://www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/
As the largest volunteer child advocacy association in the nation, Parent Teacher Association (PTA) reminds our country of its obligations to children and provides parents and families with a powerful voice to speak on behalf of every child while providing the best tools for parents to help their children be successful students.
PTA does not act alone. Working in cooperation with many national education, health, safety, and child advocacy groups and federal agencies, the national PTA organization collaborates on projects that benefit children and that bring valuable resources to its members.
http://pta.org/
PIRCs were created by the US DOE in 1995 to provide parents, schools and organizations working with families with training, information, and technical assistance to understand how children develop and what they need to succeed in school.
http://www.ed.gov/programs/pirc/index.html
Parents' PLACE's aim is to help parents become informed consumers and learn about their rights and choices under NCLB, and help schools and families form stronger partnerships aimed at raising student achievement.
http://www.pplace.org/
SEDL provides an extensive electronic library in five program areas: improving school performance, strengthening teaching and learning in content areas, integrating technology into teaching and learning, involving family and community in student learning, and connecting disability research to practice.
http://www.sedl.org/
The Talk, Read, Play Campaign includes a new Milestones Guide to help families better understand the "ages and stages" of a child's growth and a website with activities and listings of local, free and low cost events for young children and families.
The launch also includes a citywide visibility campaign with 741 individual child care providers, health center staff and dentists distributing information to parents. The visibility campaign is expected to reach over 7,500 children, parents and caregivers.
www.talkreadplay.org
The Technical Assistance Alliance for Parent Centers supports a unified technical assistance system for the purpose of developing, assisting and coordinating Parent Training and Information Projects and Community Parent Resource Centers under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
http://www.taalliance.org/
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