Beyond the Head Count: Evaluating Family Involvement in Out-of-School Time

This is the fourth in a series of research briefs entitled "Issues and Opportunities in Out-of-School Time Evaluation". This brief offers an overview of how out-of-school (OST) programmes can evaluate their family involvement strategies and practices. Involving families is one of the many strategies that out-of-school (OST) programmes use to create quality, adult-supervised experiences for children ages 5-19 during non-school hours.

This brief draws on evaluation findings from the Harvard Family Research Project's Out-of-School Time Evaluation Database2 and interviews and email correspondence to define and propose a framework for understanding family involvement in out-of-school programmes.