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New & Noteworthy
This section features an annotated list of papers, organizations, initiatives, and other resources related to the issue’s theme.
Seven Takeaways About the Future of Family Involvement
HFRP summarizes key observations raised in this issue of The Evaluation Exchange. Based on findings from research and evaluation, these themes highlight what the field needs to know and do to move family involvement forward in policy and practice.
The Washington Heights Community Schools Project
The Washington Heights Community Schools Project conducts an evaluation to support educational and health outcomes.
Interview With Dr. Gary Orfield
Dr. Gary Orfield, Professor of Education and Social Policy at Harvard University, shares his research on poverty to situate CBIs in the context of the larger social and economic factors that may affect their success.
Promising Methodologies for Evaluating CBIs
Cami Anderson and Sybilla Dorros from Harvard Family Research Project describe four new approaches and innovations of established methods for evaluating CBIs with examples.
Early Head Start: Further Lessons
Catherine Ayoub and Barbara Pan, from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, describe their work collecting and analyzing longitudinal data to supplement national findings from the Early Head Start study.
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.
Connecting Good Research and Ideas with Policymaking
Three experts in conducting Family Impact Seminars share their techniques for bringing research about families to legislators in a way that not only grabs their attention, but also supports policy change.
Linking School and After School: Strategies for Success
Julie Bott reviews the strategies she and her colleagues use to link the Gardner Extended Services School's after school program with the school day.
Building and Evaluating Out-of-School Time Connections
Suzanne Bouffard, Priscilla Little, and Heather Weiss build a research-based case that a network of supports, with out-of-school time programs as a key component, are critical to positive learning and developmental outcomes for children and youth.
Parenting Behaviors and Adolescent OST Participation
Harvard Family Research Project discusses the connection between parents' behavior and adolescents' participation in out-of-school time activities.
The Best Dissertation I Never Wrote
HFRP asked leading family involvement researchers about the most important research questions facing the field today and in the future. The highlights below represent just a cross-section of their responses to the following question: Based on your experience and the state of the family involvement field today, what are the most critical questions or topics for future research?
Family Involvement Policy: Past, Present, and Future
Family involvement experts discuss federal, state, and local policies—where these policies have been, where they are headed, and what strategies are necessary to seize the current policy window.
A Conversation With Rudy Crew
Rudy Crew, Superintendent of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, talks about his book, Only Connect, and his efforts to close the achievement gap in Miami-Dade County.
Thinking Big: A New Framework for Family Involvement Policy, Practice, and Research
Suzanne Bouffard and Heather Weiss reframe family involvement as part of a broader complementary learning approach to promoting children’s success in education and in life.
Parenting Programs and Poverty: What's Our Evidence?
Anne Brady and Julia Coffman of Harvard Family Research Project summarize the long-term evidence about two-generational interventions aimed at improving child development, parenting, and family economics.
Achieving and Measuring Results: Lessons From HFRP's Parenting Study
Anne Brady and Julia Coffman of Harvard Family Research Project share results and lessons from HFRP's Parenting Study.
Rethinking the Evaluation of Family Strengthening Strategies: Beyond Traditional Program Evaluation Models
Charles Bruner of the Child and Family Policy Center outlines three factors of good family strengthening programs that evaluators are not adequately measuring in their evaluations.
A Catalog of Family Process Measures
Margaret Caspe from HFRP describes the various measures family intervention and prevention programs use to evaluate family processes.
Building the Field
HFRP talks with five leaders in the family involvement arena about the current state of the field and promising areas for its future.
The Indiana State PIRC’s Collaborative Evaluation Process
Jerrell Cassady and Jackie Garvey illustrate how an ongoing, collaborative process between director and evaluator has informed and im-proved the Indiana State PIRC’s programs to support family involvement.
A Collaborative Approach to Parent Outreach
Amy Aparicio Clark and Amanda Dorris describe how the PALMS Project supports educators’ efforts to engage Latino parents in college preparation and enrollment.
A Conversation with Michael Quinn Patton
Director of an organizational development consulting practice, professor, and author, Michael Quinn Patton reveals historical and emerging trends in evaluation practice.
A Conversation With Richard Rothstein
Richard Rothstein argues that narrowing the achievement gap requires substantial changes in social policy in addition to extensive school reform.
Beyond Basic Training
Betty Cooke of the Minnesota Department of Children, Families, and Learning describes Minnesota’s experiences using program staff as data collectors. Stan Schneider and Berle Mirand Driscoll from Metis Associates writes about using students as ethnographers in a study of a family resource center. Cheryl Fish-Parcham of Families USA and Theresa Shivers of United Planning Organization/Head Start write about using client families in a study of managed health care.