How Harvard Family Research Project informs policy
Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) offers policymakers and education advocates the research base to develop effective policies that promote family engagement as a strategy to achieve student success. HFRP catalyzes new ideas to create pathways for families to promote the cognitive, social-emotional, and healthy development of children from cradle to career.
It is HFRP’s belief that a clear and commonly shared framework and definition of family engagement can—and will—inspire policy investments in family engagement, which will, in turn, contribute to school improvement and student success. To this end, HFRP informs policy based on an expanded definition of family engagement —one which focuses on the multiple contexts in which children grow and learn, from birth through adulthood.
This expanded definition of family engagement contains three core principles. First, family engagement is a shared responsibility in which schools and other community agencies and organizations are committed to reaching out to engage families in meaningful ways and in which families are committed to actively supporting their children’s learning and development. Family engagement is also continuous across a child’s life and entails enduring commitment but changing parent roles as children mature into young adulthood. Finally, effective family engagement cuts across and reinforces learning in the multiple settings where children learn—at home, in prekindergarten programs, in school, after school programs, faith-based institutions, and the community.
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Harvard Family Research Project’s policy work
Building on its research, evaluation, and technical assistance activities, HFRP’s policy work includes the following:
- Founding membership in the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group, a leadership collaborative whose purpose is to inform the development and implementation of federal policy.
- Serving with Southwest Education Development Laboratory as the National Coordination Center for the Parental Information and Resource Centers, which help schools and families understand and implement federal policies and spur statewide innovations for family engagement.
- Creating research-based policy reports that promote best practices and contribute to strengthening family involvement provisions in education policies.
Through these activities, HFRP helps foster collaborations among key stakeholders and promote partnerships among families, schools, and communities to enhance student academic achievement.
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The National Coordination Center for the Parental Information and Resource Centers (PIRC)
HFRP collaborates with Southwest Education Development Laboratory (SEDL) to serve as the National Coordination Center for the PIRC program. The program provides federal funds to 62 organizations working to promote successful parental involvement policies and programs throughout the United States and its territories. HFRP provides technical assistance and support to PIRCs, with a focus on evaluation approaches, strategic planning and leadership, and policy development and implementation.
With a mission to help schools and families understand and implement federal parent involvement policies and spur statewide innovations for family engagement, PIRCs are positioned at the nexus of the nation’s family, school, and community engagement infrastructure. As part of our technical assistance strategy for PIRCs, HFRP, in collaboration with SEDL, leverages lessons learned from PIRCs to help inform legislative and administrative priorities for family engagement.
Learn more about our work with PIRCs.
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The National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group
The National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group, a collaborative of leaders in the family engagement field including HFRP’s Heather Weiss, informs the development and implementation of federal policy related to family, school, and community engagement in education. It is dedicated to mobilizing partnerships to promote kindergarten readiness, improve schools, and increase student achievement.
Given the unique opportunity to transform education through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and the pending reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group serves to catalyze bold, innovative national policies and programs for effective family engagement and school-community partnerships that will ensure excellent educational opportunities from birth through young adulthood. It reaches out to partners to advance its policy vision, and forges alliances for sustaining meaningful change and building grassroots demand for quality early childhood education programs and effective public schools.
Learn more about the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group
Read more about the Working Group’s involvement with family engagement policy on the U.S. Department of Education’s website, Ed.gov.
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- Taking Leadership, Innovating Change: Profiles in Family, School, and Community Engagement
- Commentary from Harvard Family Research Project on the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund
- Commentary from Harvard Family Research Project on the Race to the Top Fund
Harvard Family Research Project's accomplishments to inform policy include:
Harvard Family Research Project, as an individual contributor and as part of the National Family, School, and Community Engagement Working Group, has been successful in informing federal and state policies. For example:
- Our report commissioned by the Center on Education Policy (CEP), The Federal Role in Out-of-School Learning, called 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. The CEP incorporated this proposal in their 10 recommendations for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Read more >
- Commentary provided by the Working Group on the Race to the Top Program contributed to changes in the program's final guidelines. Read more >
- In addition to informing federal policy, Working Group members actively assist states with their family engagement policies. For example, Connecticut used the Working Group's position paper, "Recommendations for Federal Policy," to craft a new definition of family engagement and to buttress its larger policy statement. This statement will guide local boards of education, district and school administrators, as well as the Connecticut Department of Education in implementing family, school, and community engagement policies. Read the Recommendations for Federal Policy document >
Policy briefs and publications
HFRP’s policy briefs and research papers draw attention to the vital contribution of family engagement to children’s healthy development and school success. They offer new frameworks for family engagement, promote dialogue in the field, and inform the development of policy.
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The Federal Role in Out-of-School Learning: After-School, Summer Learning, and Family Involvement as Critical Learning Supports Heather B. Weiss, Priscilla M. D. Little, Suzanne M. Bouffard, Sarah N. Deschenes, Helen Janc Malone What, in conjunction with good schools, is necessary to increase the chances that all children, especially disadvantaged ones, will enter and leave school with the skills they need for 21st-century success? Four decades of research demonstrate it is necessary to redefine learning—both where and when it takes place—if the country is to achieve its national goal of educating all children. Commissioned by the Center on Education Policy, this report from HFRP 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. |
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From Periphery to Center: A New Vision for Family, School, and Community Partnerships Heather B. Weiss, Naomi Stephen This chapter—which will appear in the Handbook of School–Family Partnerships—presents a comprehensive, integrated family, school, and community partnership framework that can help level the playing field for disadvantaged children and ensure that they have access to the parental involvement and community engagement practices of their more advantaged peers in order to enhance their learning. Download now |
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Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement Helen Westmoreland, Heidi M. Rosenberg, M. Elena Lopez, Heather Weiss HFRP and the National Parent-Teacher Association 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.” |