Knowledge-Action Gaps: The Difficulties of Providing Useful Information for Families

March 18, 2015, 12:30 - 1:30 pm

Wisconsin Idea Room 159, Education Building, 1000 Bascom Mall

Susanna Loeb

Barnett Family Professor of Education, Stanford University

Susanna Loeb

Family engagement has long been established as a cornerstone of effective schools, and yet strategies that have shown promise often are not widely accessible due to the cost, effort and demands placed on parents’ time. Loeb will share two studies she recently designed to facilitate family engagement. The first explores the implementation of READY4K!, a text messaging program for parents of preschoolers, designed to help them support their children’s literacy development. The second study analyzes families in randomly assigned Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. schools who received information about choosing which middle and high schools their children could attend. Loeb presents the results from each study and discusses these and other policy levers designed to enhance family engagement and close achievement gaps.