The Spring 2008 issue of Evaluation Exchange from the Harvard Family Research Project looks at promising practices in family involvement. In particular, it highlights the importance of partnerships within communities for better child outcomes, and how family involvement fits into a broader approach to children's success in education and in life.

Parent Involvement Matters.Org provides free resources and information to schools, parents, and trainers working to increase parent involvement in education.

ParentingTeensOnline is a free monthly e-magazine for parents of teens ages 12-19. It offers practical, expert-guided advice and support on teen health, media and technology, drugs/alcohol, education, volunteering, sports, social issues, babysitting, sexuality ... and more. Parents can learn what's happening before they need to know it's happening. The site has a variety of interactive features, including as Ask An Expert (advisory board members respond to parent questions) and polls.

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics released its latest annual report, America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-being 2006 on July 14th. The report is a compendium of statistics from 21 federal agencies with the latest available data on 26 key indicators related to children's economic security, health, behavior and social environment, and education and on 9 background measures related to population and family characteristics. The 2006 Brief highlights selected information displayed in previous reports, reflects improvements to the summary list, and fills an important data gap in children’s mental health. View, download, and order a copy of the report from the Forum's website. The web site includes detailed data tables and figures (not in the Brief), previous reports and their related links, other Forum reports, and information about the overall structure of the Forum.

White picket fences, brownstones, housing projects; racially diverse or isolated—what impact does a family’s neighborhood really have on the well-being and opportunities for young people? How much is correlated, and how much is causal? According to this report “rigorous research indicates that neighborhood isolation and distress can contribute to or exacerbate individual and family distress.” This report examines what’s known about poverty, economic security, access to services, and child and family well-being to better understand the neighborhood-family connection. In general, the analysis suggests that neighborhood poverty has a broader influence than racial/ethnic composition but that both affect family and child outcomes.

Research shows that as many as 60 percent of students are "chronically disengaged" from school. This report from the Coalition for Community Schools offers evidence that community-based learning—which integrates different strategies, including service learning, place-based education, environmental and civic education, and work and community service—can help re-engage students using real-world content and issues. The community-based approach is linked with higher attendance rates, improved academic performance, and on-time graduation.

Research shows that children who don't have healthy eating habits have lower test scores, increased absenteeism, difficulty concentrating and lower energy levels. School principals are key advocates in the fight for better student nutrition and wellness, but they need prodding and support from parents to make real change happen. This campaign is helping parents get active in their children's schools—starting with a letter inviting principals to join the effort to get junk food out and physical activity in schools.

Should young children be allowed to play with scary toys? What do you say when a toddler tells you daddy hurt mommy last night? Children who have experienced trauma bring their anxieties and concerns to child care. This Zero to Three guidebook helps caregivers understand the effects of trauma on children’s responses and behaviors, and how to provide the kind of caring that helps children traumatized by violence, loss or natural disasters feel safe and resilient again.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research refutes the common belief that women are increasingly quitting their jobs when they have children. Rather than opting out to have children, women have been pushed out of the labor market since 2001 because of the recession and slow recovery. The early 2000s recession led to sustained job losses for all women - with and without children at home - and the labor market only just returned to its 2000 employment level in January 2005, nearly four years after the recession began.

About 29 percent of all new mothers in the United States are unmarried and 15 percent are not American citizens, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which tracks state-specific data. Compared with the national average, most states in the South, and some states in the West, had a higher percentage of unmarried mothers with a birth in the last year who were below the poverty level. Overall, nearly 8 percent of those giving birth each year are teens. Approximately 12 percent of married mothers live in poverty, compared with about half of unmarried moms.