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Complementary Learning: Recommended and Related Readings

This annotated bibliography compiles recent publications on complementary learning and related concepts, demonstrating a growing national momentum for connected nonschool supports.

Suzanne Bouffard , Helen Janc Malone, Sarah Deschenes (March 2008, updated December 2008) Bibliography

Complementary Learning: Emerging Strategies, Evolving Ideas

This paper distills insights and lessons learned from Harvard Family Research Project's fall 2007 professional development institute, Closing the Achievement Gap: Linking Families, Schools, and Communities Through Complementary Learning. Inspired by the innovation and collaboration we witnessed at the institute, we share emerging strategies for creating complementary learning and evolving ideas about next steps for the field. The paper highlights the insights of presenters, participants, and representatives from four case study communities.

Suzanne Bouffard , Claire Brown Goss, Heather Weiss (August 2008) Research Report

What is Complementary Learning?

This short publication will give you a quick overview and some concrete examples of complementary learning.  It includes information about what complementary learning looks like, some examples of complementary learning systems in practice today, and a description about what is different about complementary learning from traditional programs and services.  Finally, we'll introduce you to Marcus, a fictional teenager whose story illustrates how complementary learning can positively affect the lives of students from birth through adolescence.

Harvard Family Research Project (July 2008) Research Report

Current Issue - Building the Future of Family Involvement

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.

Evaluation Exchange Issue

Complementary Learning in Action: Jacksonville Children's Commission

This profile from the Complementary Learning in Action series describes how the Jacksonville Children's Commission aims for a coordinated system of care from birth through adolescence.

Suzanne Bouffard , Helen Malone (November 2007) Research Report

Complementary Learning in Action: The SUN Service System

This profile from the Complementary Learning in Action series tells the story of Multnomah County's (Oregon) SUN Service System, an antipoverty and prevention effort that connects educational, social, health, and other services under one umbrella.

Claire Goss , Suzanne Bouffard (November 2007) Research Report

Complementary Learning in Action: Alignment Nashville

This profile from the Complementary Learning in Action series illustrates how Alignment Nashville brings together diverse community members and organizations to leverage existing resources in support of Nashville's youth and the Metro Nashville Public Schools.

Helen Malone , Suzanne Bouffard (November 2007) Research Report

Family Involvement in Elementary School Children's Education

This research brief synthesizes the latest research that demonstrates how family involvement contributes to elementary-school-age children's learning and development. The brief summarizes the latest evidence base on effective involvement—specifically, the research studies that link family involvement during the elementary school years to outcomes and programs that have been evaluated to show what works.

Margaret Caspe , M. Elena Lopez, Cassandra Wolos (Winter 2006/2007) Research Report

Lessons From Family-Strengthening Interventions: Learning From Evidence-Based Practice

Examine how effective family-strengthening interventions can positively impact families and children in this practitioner-friendly brief from Harvard Family Research Project. Lessons From Family-Strengthening Interventions: Learning From Evidence-Based Practice is based on our review of interventions that have been rigorously evaluated through experimental and quasi-experimental studies. We offer educators, service providers, and evaluators recommendations for creating successful programs and evaluations.

Margaret Caspe , M. Elena Lopez (October 2006) Research Report

Building and Evaluating Out-of-School Time Connections

This double issue of The Evaluation Exchange focuses on creating and evaluating connections between out-of-school time (OST) programs and the other settings in which children and youth live, learn, and play.

Evaluation Exchange Issue

Challenges and Opportunities in Moving Family Involvement Research Into Practice (Presentation)

This presentation by HFRP staff was part of a conference entitled “Family–School Relations During Adolescence: Linking Interdisciplinary Research and Practice.” The conference was held July 20–21 and was hosted by the Sanford Institute of Public Policy at Duke University, sponsored by the American Psychological Association. The goal of the conference was to establish better links among research, practice, and policy related to family educational involvement during adolescence, particularly for families from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds.

Harvard Family Research Project (July 20, 2006) Conferences and Presentations

Family Involvement in Early Childhood Education

This research brief synthesizes the latest research that demonstrates how family involvement contributes to young children's learning and development. The brief summarizes the latest evidence base on effective involvement—specifically, the research studies that link family involvement in early childhood to outcomes and programs that have been evaluated to show what works.

Heather B. Weiss , Margaret Caspe and M. Elena Lopez (Spring 2006) Research Report

After School for Cindy: Family, School, and Community Roles in Out-of-School Time Teaching Case

Second grade teacher Nikki believes that participation in a formal after school program would help her student Cindy academically at school. However, Cindy's single working mother Marla prefers to keep Cindy with her in the afternoons after her numerous struggles with securing quality affordable care in the community. What are the roles of family, school, and community in promoting children's learning and development in out-of-school time?

Ellen Mayer (2005) Teaching Case

Complementary Learning

The topic of this issue of The Evaluation Exchange is complementary learning. Complementary learning posits that we can bolster children's learning and achievement by linking and aligning both the school and nonschool arenas in which children live, learn, and play. This means, for example, linking schools with early childhood programs, out-of-school time programs, and other programs based in the community. In this issue we delve into the kinds of mechanisms that can create these linkages and sustain their effectiveness, and highlight promising approaches for evaluating the complementary-learning practices that already exist, both in terms of what outcomes to focus on and what methodologies to use.

Evaluation Exchange Issue

Intermediary Organizations as Capacity Builders in Family Educational Involvement

Article in Urban Education, 40(1), 78–105.
In this article the authors argue that intermediary organizations play a crucial role in capacity building for family involvement, by providing alternatives to school-centered approaches to family involvement and engaging families with intensive support that schools seldom offer.

M. Elena Lopez , Holly Kreider, Julia Coffman (2005) Research Report

Finding the Right Hook: Strategies for Attracting and Sustaining Participation in After-School Programs

This article offers promising recruitment and retention strategies to school administrators seeking to boost participation rates in their school-based after school programs.

Sherri Lauver , Priscilla M. D. Little (May 2005) Research Report

Conjoint Behavioral Consultation: A Model to Facilitate Meaningful Partnerships for Families and Schools

Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln studied the effectiveness of a behavioral intervention model where parents, educators, and service providers work collaboratively to address children's developmental needs in a Head Start program.

Susan M. Sheridan , Brandy L. Clarke, Diane C. Marti, Jennifer D. Burt, Ashley M. Rohlk (April 2005) Research Report

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.

Celina Su (January 2005) Research Report

Family, School, and Community Connections Symposium: New Directions for Research, Practice, and Evaluation

We teamed up with the National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools at the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) to present this 1-day Family, School, and Community Connections Symposium: New Directions for Research, Practice, and Evaluation.

Cathy Jordan , Mary Grassa O'Neill, Heather Weiss (December 2, 2004) Conferences and Presentations

Leveraging Resources to Promote Positive School-CBO Relationships

This article in the Spring 2004 edition of Afterschool Matters (pp. 15–23) uses information in our Out-of-School Time Program Research and Evaluation Database to examine how community-based organizations and schools can work together to build and leverage resources in creating successful after school programming.

Christopher Wimer , Margaret Post, Priscilla M. D. Little (Spring 2004) Research Report

Social Capital

This issue of the FINE Forum features some examples families, schools, and communities coming together to enrich children's learning and social development opportunities.

Harvard Family Research Project (Spring 2004) Research Report

Making Family and Community Connections

This workshop is part of the Concept to Classroom series of multimedia workshops for teacher professional development. In this workshop, Heather Weiss and Joyce Epstein provide expert insights on creating partnerships among schools, parents, and members of the local community.

Heather Weiss , Joyce Epstein (2004) Tool for Practice

Bridging Multiple Worlds: Building Pathways From Childhood to College

Students' pathways through school can be seen as moving through an academic pipeline to adulthood. The Bridging Multiple Worlds model focuses on how diverse youth, beginning in their middle childhood years, navigate across their worlds of families, peers, schools, and communities as they move along their pathways to college, careers, and family roles in adulthood.

Catherine R. Cooper , Gabriela Chavira, Dawn Mikolyski, Dolores Mena, Elizabeth Dom (January 2004) Research Report

Faith-Based Organizing for School Improvement in the Texas Borderlands: A Case Study of the Alliance School Initiative

At two public schools in the Texas borderlands, a faith-based organization and a school–community partnership come together to improve parental engagement.

Timothy Quezada (October 2003) Research Report

School Community Leadership

This course will address the identification and utilization of community resources and the creation of family engagement partnerships, community linkages, and collaborative efforts to provide for the educational, cultural, health, lifelong learning, vocational, and out-of-school needs of students and citizens in a community.

Larry Decker (Spring 2002) Syllabus

© 2008 Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College
Published by Harvard Family Research Project