3-216 - Measuring Parent Engagement in Early Childhood Programs: implications for practice and policy

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Research has shown that family engagement in early childhood education (ECE) is a core component of high quality programs. Quality ECE is associated with strong parent-provider relationships, and positive outcomes for families, providers and children. Despite its recognized importance, the definition and measurement of parent engagement varies greatly across programs and within the policy discourse. This symposium will present different perspectives to comprehensively measure parent engagement, from the program to the State/ policy level. We will present the complexities of measuring parent engagement and the importance of using multidimensional approaches.

Paper 1 will provide an overview by presenting definitions of family engagement and approaches to measuring it. A compilation of measures and program level tools to assess family engagement across multiple program elements and impact areas will be introduced.

Paper 2 will review different ways in which parent engagement can be measured within a specific school readiness program, how different measurement tools relate to each other, and how they are associated to participant demographic characteristics and child outcomes.

Paper 3 will present results from qualitative interviews, natural language sampling and traditional survey methods with a national sample of parents to create a formative assessment of program process on the core components of the Office of Head Start’s Parent, Family, and Community Engagement (PFCE) Framework.

Paper 4 will provide a policy perspective presenting a research-informed parent engagement program assessment tool designed for a State agency, and will illustrate the challenges of applying parent engagement research to current policy and practice initiatives.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Helena Duch, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Defining and Measuring Family Engagement: A View from work of the National Center on Parent, Family Community Engagement. - Presenting Author: Catherine C. Ayoub, Harvard Medical School, Brazelton Center at Boston Children’s Hospital

• A multi-dimensional approach to parent engagement. Results from an integrated school readiness intervention - Presenting Author: MARIA MARTI CASTANER, Columbia University; Keren Xu, Columbia University; Kelsey Repka, Columbia University; Lisa Gennetian, National Bureau of Economic Research; Joy Kennedy, New York University; Helena Duch, Columbia University

• Parent Perspectives on Engagement: Results of a Research-Practice Partnership to Assess Parent Engagement with Head Start - Presenting Author: Marc W Hernandez, NORC at the University of Chicago; Patrick Sier, NORC at the University of Chicago; Gabriel Velez, NORC at the University of Chicago; Gayle Kelly, Minnesota Head Start Association; Cody Kornack, National Head Start Association

• Parent Engagement Research Informing Policy and Practice - Presenting Author: Sheila Smith, National Center for Children in Poverty; Sam Stephens, National Center for Children in Poverty