The paper begins with a brief historical research overview of the ways in which expectations and support for family involvement in children’s learning have shifted, particularly with respect to economically disadvantaged and racial and ethnic minority families. In light of this history and the accumulating research indicating the value of involvement as well as the barriers to it, the paper’s next section lays out a reframed approach to family involvement as a key component of comprehensive or complementary learning. We then present a detailed review of the research and evaluation literature through the lens of this new approach to involvement in order to address the following questions: How do families support academic development, and what kinds of supports are demonstrably related to academic development and school success?  Is there evidence that family involvement interventions in fact pay off in better outcomes? What are the implications of the research and intervention literature for developing more strongly evidence-based approaches to family involvement?