Evidence that connects family engagement to learning.Family engagement is widely recognized as important. What's less understood is how to make it work — consistently, at scale, and in real school systems. Our work focuses on generating that evidence.
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Outcome Evidence
What our research shows.
ESSA
Rated evidence for family engagement — meeting the rigorous standards required for federal education programs.
Tier III Evidence
4×
Improvement in early literacy benchmarks in experimental pilot contexts — with strongest impact in historically underserved communities.
Literacy Outcomes
50+
Implementations across diverse school contexts — generating evidence that holds across platforms, communities, and instructional approaches.
Cross-Context Evidence
Implementation Evidence
What we've learned about what predicts success — and failure.
Across 50+ implementations, we have identified consistent patterns. The conditions that determine whether family engagement sustains or collapses are more predictable than most people assume.
What Predicts Success
Teacher alignment with communication — messages that connect to what's actually happening in class
Administrative accountability structures that make family engagement a shared professional expectation
Regular use of student data to inform and personalize family communication
Cross-functional coordination between teachers, coaches, and family liaison staff
What Predicts Failure
Single-champion dependency — programs that live or die based on one person's enthusiasm
Misalignment with classroom instruction — family messages that have nothing to do with what students are learning
Lack of sustained routines — launch events and kickoffs that don't translate into lasting practice
Top-down implementation without teacher ownership or meaningful professional development
The Research
Concrete findings from the field.
Our studies illuminate FASTalk's causal impact on benchmarked literacy assessments, report cards, and formative assessments — across diverse school contexts.
Evidence for
Promising
FASTalk is recognized by Evidence for ESSA with a "Promising" rating
Supported by strong quasi-experimental research demonstrating positive impact on student outcomes across multiple contexts and grade levels. View on Evidence for ESSA →
4×
Students furthest behind are 4× more likely to meet midyear literacy benchmarks
Among Kindergarteners who recognized less than 25% of their letters and sounds in the fall, FASTalk students were four times more likely to meet midyear literacy benchmarks than similar non-FASTalk students.
Kindergarten · Early Literacy2.6×
FASTalk students make 2.6× the literacy gains of similar non-FASTalk peers
After 8 weeks of ELA Guidebook-aligned messages, FASTalk students had statistically significant higher spring literacy assessment scores than non-FASTalk peers — despite starting the year scoring behind.
Elementary · ELA Guidebook1.6–2.8 mo
English Learner families: 1.6–2.8 months of additional literacy gains
Kindergarten FASTalk students whose families did not share a language with their child's teacher demonstrated 1.6–2.8 months of additional literacy gains compared to a matched comparison group.
Kindergarten · English Learners68→76%
Powerful when paired with high-quality curricula
When teachers implemented Expeditionary Learning's ELA curriculum alongside FASTalk-aligned family messages, students scoring above "below proficient" grew from 68% to 76% — while non-FASTalk scores remained stagnant.
Curriculum Alignment · EL Education1.9–2.1 mo
Active family engagement drives the largest gains
FASTalk is more effective for students whose families are actively engaged — sending 5 or more messages. Active engagement is associated with 1.9–2.1 months of accelerated learning and statistically significant literacy assessment growth.
Family Engagement · Dosage70K students
70,000+ students served across rural, suburban, and urban districts
Family Engagement Lab works with school systems across California, Colorado, Texas, and Louisiana. 35% of FASTalk messages are delivered in languages other than English — by design.
Scale · Multilingual Families
What We're Still Learning
We publish what fails — not just what works.
The field learns more from honest failure than from polished success stories. Our current research questions include:
What sustains teacher communication behavior over a full academic year — including after the initial enthusiasm fades?
How do we predict implementation success early — before a program has already quietly failed?
How does FASTalk adapt in resource-constrained contexts where the ideal conditions don't exist?
Why This Matters
The field is moving quickly --
but without a shared evidence base.
Family Engagement Lab exists to build knowledge that belongs to the field — not to any single vendor or platform.
Independent, Cross-Platform Knowledge
Our evidence isn't tied to any platform. It's designed to be useful across contexts and technologies.
Credible Links Between Engagement and Learning
We generate the kind of causal evidence that funders, districts, and policymakers need to make informed decisions.
Practical Guidance for Implementation
Research that stays in journals doesn't help schools. We translate findings into tools and frameworks practitioners can actually use.
What school partners are saying
Our partners at Morris Jeff Community School recognized an opportunity to involve families in early literacy development. The took an innovative approach in meeting families where they were (at home) using FASTalk. After 4 years of partnership, school admin confirm FASTalk "is a great way to get families involved in literacy and share what's developmentally appropriate."
What families are saying
Family Engagement Lab regularly surveys families and findings from our most recent annual survey with families include:
- 90% of families report FASTalk helped increase their confidence
- 93% of families want to get FASTalk messages again next year
- 85% of families shared that FASTalk is the only place that they get weekly learning-focused information
