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Professional Development
Design family engagement practices that are directly connected to student learning. Increase your capacity to engage staff, families, and your community to improve student outcomes.
Please note that Family Engagement in Education only accepts team applications of at least three or more members. The tuition above is per person.
“Parent participation is the leading predictor that supports students’ academic success, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or cultural background.” Karen Mapp, Faculty Chair
“Parent participation is the leading predictor that supports students’ academic success, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or cultural background.”
Karen Mapp, Faculty Chair
Family engagement plays a critical role in student achievement. While most educators recognize the importance of family engagement, they need opportunities to develop particular skills, knowledge, and mindsets to effectively integrate families into the life of the school.
Family Engagement in Education prepares you to create a school culture that honors and respects the knowledge that families bring to the learning process. With guidance from Harvard faculty and district and community leaders, you’ll explore best practices in family engagement and identify engagement strategies you can use to promote student learning and improve educational outcomes.
Held on Harvard’s Cambridge, Massachusetts campus, this five-day institute convenes educators and school leaders from around the world. Working alongside your colleagues, you’ll analyze research on family engagement and learn how to align family engagement initiatives with standards-based reform. You’ll participate in plenary sessions and small working groups where you can dig deeper into topics relevant to your interests or community. Topics discussed in past institutes include home visits, outreach to fathers, balancing privilege and power, race in family engagement, and finding sustainable funding for family engagement.
Karen Mapp's research and practice focus is on the cultivation of partnerships among families, community members, and educators that support student achievement and school improvement.
Please note that Family Engagement in Education is only accepting team applications of at least three or more members.
This program only accepts teams. First-time applicants need to create a Professional Education account to apply.
Step 1: Designate one participant or an administrative staff member as the Coordinator.
Step 2: Upon the submission of the team application, all team members will receive an email notification with a link to their personal application form. Team members should complete their forms promptly. Once all team members submit their forms, the application is considered complete and ready for review by the Admissions Committee.
Invoices: Invoices will only be available upon your acceptance.
The tuition covers all instructional materials, a daily continental breakfast, and beverages and light refreshments during our scheduled breaks between sessions.
Travel, lodging expenses, and most lunches and dinners are not included in this fee. We have blocked a limited number of rooms in select hotels in the Cambridge/Boston area. The daily rates for these hotels typically range from $250 to $375 per room, plus applicable taxes. Once your applicants are accepted into the program, they will receive detailed information about these hotel options.
"People are really starting to understand the power of family engagement and embedding it in our work as it relates to academic achievement and success."
Cierra S., Fayette County Public Schools, Lexington, KY
"For engagement to really work in our schools, we have to have that type of relationship between school and home that we can be comfortable and vulnerable so that the system that it's designed to build can actually work."
Matthew C., Region 16 Education Service Center, Amarillo, TX