October 2006 Announcement
Dear FINE Member,
Here are this month's FINE member updates. As
always, please feel free to forward this information to your friends and other
education colleagues.
New From FINE
- Lessons From Family-Strengthening
Interventions: Learning From Evidence-Based Practice
Examine how effective family-strengthening interventions can positively
impact families and children in this new, 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 studies. We offer
educators, service providers, and evaluators recommendations for creating
successful programs and evaluations. The brief is available online at the
link above.
Professional Development
-
Professional
Development Institute: Closing the Achievement Gap
There's still time to register! From November 9–11, 2006, Harvard
Family Research Project will present Closing the Achievement Gap: Linking
Families, Schools, and Communities at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education (HGSE). Designed to give school, district, and community leaders
strategies for tackling the achievement gap and fostering learning for all
children, the institute will feature our new complementary learning approach—a
comprehensive model that fosters partnerships between families, schools,
and other nonschool supports. Find out more about the institute and register
at the link above or by calling HGSE Programs in Professional Education
at 1-800-545-1849.
Policy
- It
Takes a Parent: Transforming Education in the Wake of the No Child Left Behind
Act
The national nonprofit legal organization Appleseed has just released
a report on how parent involvement works under the No Child Left Behind
Act in public elementary and secondary schools and what still needs to be
done. The report is based on interviews with state and local officials,
community groups, district leaders, school officials and parents in 18 school
districts in six states. Appleseed finds that, as a nation, we have not
emphasized or financially invested in parental involvement in ways that
we should—and that the vision of NCLB, with parents as full participating
partners, remains unfulfilled. The report offers recommendations for local
and state officials and parents.
- Educating
School Teachers
Arthur Levine and The Education Schools Project report here on the results
of a 4-year study of America's education schools. They show that only 21%
of principals, 34% of deans, 33% of faculty, and 43% of teacher education
alumni believe that education schools adequately prepare teachers to work
with parents. Moreover, only 71% of deans believe that schools of education
are the most appropriate place to prepare teachers to work with parents.
To read the report, click on the link above.
- Related Resource: Improving Teacher
Practices With Families
To read FINE members' past comments on how to improve the ways in which
teachers interact with families, go to the above link on our website.
Tool Kits
- A
Logic Model of Parent–Child Connectedness
ETR (Education, Training, Research) Associates has designed a logic model
to introduce you to the concept of parent–child connectedness
and help you apply it to your work with parents and teens. Informed by research,
the tool identifies the parent behaviors that are essential to establish,
maintain, and increase connectedness with teens, as well as the factors
that determine those behaviors.
- Tools
for Latino Family Outreach: Supporting Student Success in the Middle Grades
and Beyond
The PALMS (Postsecondary Access for Latino Middle-Grades Students) project
provides school leaders with this tool kit designed to guide them through
the process of conceptualizing, planning, implementing, and assessing an
outreach program aimed at Latino parents.
Journal Article
- “Involvement
in Early Head Start Home Visiting Services: Demographic Predictors and Relations
to Child and Parent Outcomes”
This study looks at the role of parent involvement in home visiting programs.
The authors identify three different components of parent involvement in
home visiting services: quantity of involvement, quality of engagement,
and visit content. They find specifically that the duration of time that
families were involved in the program and the proportion of time during
visits devoted to child-focused activities predict positive outcomes for
both children and families. They suggest that programs and their evaluators
can measure multiple aspects of home visits and sharpen and refine child-focused
activities. This article can be found in the Early Childhood Research
Quarterly (2006), Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 2–24, and can be accessed
free online for a limited time at the link above.
- Related Resource: Home Visiting
Services Research
To read more about HFRP's home visiting services research, visit our website
at the link above.
Papers & Reports
Upcoming Events
- Renewing
Partnerships for the Success of Our Children
The National Coalition of ESEA Title I Parents will hold its annual conference
November 1–5, 2006 in Los Angeles. More than 1,000 parents, Title I
parent leaders, and educators from around the country will attend. Conference
highlights will include discussion of NCLB reauthorization, family involvement
research, and how to develop partnerships to support children.
- Local
Education Funds: Leading Transformation in Public Education
Public Education Network (PEN) is hosting its annual conference, November
12–14, 2006, in Washington, DC. The conference will focus on how community-based
strategies can strengthen teaching, close the achievement gap, and build
public involvement in large-scale school system reform.
Contact Us
Have a problem with the website or questions and comments concerning our work?
Send an email to fine@gse.harvard.edu.
Enjoy!
FINE – The Family Involvement Network of Educators
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