Quick Links for this Webinar
  Webinar Description
  Archive and Resources

The U.S. Department of Education and its partners United Way Worldwide, National PTA, SEDL, and Harvard Family Research Project

invite you to participate in the eighth installment of this webinar series:

Evaluating Family Engagement Strategies: Addressing Measurement Challenges

August 18, 2011, 2:00–3:30 p.m. (EDT)

Evaluating family engagement strategies to demonstrate their impact on student learning is essential for strengthening practice, and is becoming an increasingly important factor in securing program funding. Yet evaluation in this field is still in a developmental phase, and there are few clear guidelines available for identifying meaningful indicators of successful family engagement efforts.

This webinar will highlight promising approaches for evaluating family engagement strategies, address challenges in defining and measuring outcomes, and provide guidance for building evaluation into a family engagement plan from the beginning. By defining measurable objectives early in the planning process, it becomes possible to connect family engagement efforts to important milestones—such as increases in parents’ understanding of how to support learning at home—as well as the ultimate goal of increased student achievement.

Evaluating Family Engagement Strategies will be presented through a roundtable discussion among evaluation experts and will address questions such as:

• What are some meaningful indicators of effective family engagement strategies?
• What role does evaluation play in supporting the sustainability of family engagement efforts?
• What roles do parents, school staff, and other stakeholders play in these evaluation efforts?
• How would robust, ongoing evaluations help advance the family engagement field?

The roundtable format will allow ample time to address questions and comments from the webinar audience. We encourage your participation during the webinar discussion and also invite you to submit questions in advance anytime before August 18. You may submit questions via email to fine@gse.harvard.edu, or via Twitter, directing comments to @HFRP and using the hashtag #FEchat. Due to time restraints we will not be able to address all submissions.

Featured panelists include:

• Moderator: Heather Weiss, Founder and Director, Harvard Family Research Project
• Rebecca Maynard, Commissioner, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), U.S. Department of Education
• Kate Gill Kressley, Senior Research Associate, RMC Research Corporation
• Eric Dearing, Associate Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology, Lynch School of Education, Boston College
• Amy Aparicio Clark, Project Director, Education Development Center, Inc.
• Kathleen Hoover-Dempsey, Associate Professor of Psychology and Education, Vanderbilt University