Archive of the Webinar 8:
Evaluating Family Engagement Strategies: Addressing Measurement Challenges (August 18, 2011)

Framing Quality Evaluation

• Design Thinking for Social Innovation (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2010)
  This article explores how using “design thinking,” a process used for improving how a product looks and functions, can also be applied to solving complex social problems, such as health care and education.
• A Conversation with Michael Quinn Patton (Harvard Family Research Project, 2002)
  This Q&A article in The Evaluation Exchange reveals historical and emerging trends in evaluation practice.
• Drowning in Data (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2006)
  This article questions whether evaluation data are currently put to good use by funders, donors, and others who demand them in the name of accountability, and discusses critical issues nonprofits need to consider in deciding how to best evaluate their work.
• Informing Reform: Changing the Relationships Between Research, Policy, and Practice in Context (Bryk, IES Conference, 2006)
  These presentation slides describe key elements of collecting and analyzing data to ensure that policy and practice are grounded in research.
• Program Evaluation: A Primer for Nonprofit Organizations (Nonprofit Development Institute, Inc., n.d.)
  This report explores key aspects of program evaluation and suggests strategies for strengthening evaluation efforts.
• Why Research on Parental Involvement Is Important to Classroom Management (Walker, Hoover-Dempsey, 2006)
  This book chapter presents a clear case for the importance of data collection and the need for reporting data on the effectiveness of family engagement projects.

Evaluation Approaches and Tools

• How to Develop a Logic Model for Districtwide Family Engagement Strategies (Harvard Family Research Project, 2009)
  This step-by-step guide is designed to help you understand and develop a logic model for family engagement efforts, and includes specific guidance for selecting performance measures to track progress. While the tool is designed to help guide school districts’ family engagement strategies, the principles can be applied to other settings and organizations as well.
• Data Collection and Evaluation to Promote Student Learning (Mirr & Rudo, Parental Information and Resource Center Directors’ Conference, 2011)
  This PowerPoint presentation provides guidance for collecting and using student-level data to evaluate your program’s family engagement efforts.
• Action Steps for Telling Your Story with Student Data (Mirr & Rudo, 2011)
  This guide, which serves as an accompaniment to the PowerPoint presentation referenced above, walks you through the process of using student data to communicate your program’s accomplishments, and includes tips for determining the best types of data for different circumstances.
• Tools for Latino Family Outreach: Supporting Student Success in the Middle-grades and Beyond (PALMS, 2006)
  This tool guides educators through a process for building a family outreach program. The toolkit focuses on planning for postsecondary education, but can be used more broadly if desired. It includes bilingual data collection instruments that teams can use to inform goal-setting for their programs and assess progress toward reaching their goals.
• Evaluation for Continuous Improvement (Harvard Family Research Project, 2002)
  This issue of The Evaluation Exchange is designed to help organizations adopt a “culture of inquiry” that embraces evaluation to help continuously improve its practices. The articles provide insight into different evaluation techniques that don’t require much time or funding to implement.
• Getting Ideas Into Action: Building Networked Improvement Communities in Education (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 2010)
  This essay describes how to build an effective infrastructure for bringing together researchers and practitioners to collaboratively tackle challenges in education.
• Youth Development in Community Settings: A Community Action Framework (Youth Development Strategies, Inc, 2002)
  This paper introduces a framework for examining community-based activities and their intended outcomes. Through the lens of this framework, evaluators can more easily determine what outcomes are the most relevant to their initiative, in what order the outcomes should occur, and other factors that may influence these outcomes.
• Title I Parental Involvement: A Self-Evaluation Tool for New Jersey Schools (NJPIRC, 2010)
  This guide is designed to help schools and districts improve parental involvement activities and determine additional areas of need as defined by Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
• From Compliance to Quality: How to Make Evaluation Work for Your Program (SEDL, n.d.)
  This website provides a detailed explanation, a case study, and resource suggestions for creating a quality evaluation process.
• Six Steps to Effective Evaluation (Glenaffric, 2007)
  This handbook provides best practices and information on effective strategies, organizational tools, and sample data collection instruments for projects that require collaborative interactions.
• Children, Youth, and Families Education and Research Network Web Site
  This website includes practical tools and suggestions for evaluating programs, using data for sustainability, and sample assessment resources.
• Building Capacity in Evaluating Outcomes: A Teaching and Facilitating Resource for Community-Based Programs and Organizations (University of WI-Extension Cooperative, 2008)
  This toolkit provides step-by-step directions for building capacity and designing an effective evaluation process.
• Enhancing Program Performance with Logic Models (University of WI, Extension Program, 2003)
  This website offers an online learning module and tools for developing a logic model to guide an evaluation plan.
• free-range thinking Newsletter
  This series of articles from Andy Goodman’s free-range thinking newsletter discusses how the use of stories can create more compelling narratives than data-driven analyses alone.
  
  • Telling Tales to the Data-Driven (2007)
  • Stories or Data: Which Makes the Stronger Case? (2009)
  • Stories vs. Data: The Rematch (2010)

Evaluation to Promote Scale and Sustainability

• Rethinking scale: Moving Beyond Numbers to Deep and Lasting Change (Educational Researcher, 2003)
  This article defines a new way of thinking about “scale” in education reform. By looking at scale through the lens of four interrelated dimensions—depth, sustainability, spread, and shift in reform ownership—researchers can better inform policymakers as they craft reform strategies.
• Disseminating Orphan Innovations (Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2011)
  This article explores why some social innovations that achieve excellent results in one location are not easy to replicate in others. Written by a team that found success taking one initiative to scale, the article offers insight into how customizing innovations to new circumstances —versus replicating the original initiative—can make all the difference.
• Evaluation’s Role in Supporting Initiative Sustainability (Harvard Family Research Project, 2002)
  This paper offers ideas for how evaluation can ensure that a discussion about sustainability is started early and is maintained throughout an initiative.
• Why Do Parents Become Involved? Research Findings and Implications (Elementary School Journal, 2005)
  This literature review examines what variables can influence a parent’s decision to become involved in their child’s education. These indicators can help schools and other organizations create the conditions for increased family engagement.