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BOSTON – On a Sunday morning, about 20 casually dressed parents join their fourth-grade children in Temple Aliyah's social hall.

The families in this affluent, suburban Conservative shul chat over bagels and orange juice, then begin a series of activities to learn about Israel.

They sort through Israeli postcards, discuss what the Jewish state means to them and watch a video about modern Israeli life. Each child makes a gold and silver-foil mizrach, a ritual object hung in the home to indicate the direction of Jerusalem.

"It's hands-on. You meet the other parents. It gets the kids out of the classroom," says Judi Appelstein, who has been catching up with her friend, Ellen Sherman, while their two daughters decorate their projects.

"It's fun to get out of Hebrew school," says Appelstein's daughter Melissa, as an unidentified baby crawls by and tickles her feet.

So goes one program in Boston's flagship federation-synagogue family education partnership called Sh'arim, which means gateways.

Through Sh'arim, part of Boston's Commission on Jewish Continuity, the local federation helps fund part- and full-time family educators in 18 synagogues and sponsors their training and professional development.

Since the early 1980s, Jewish educators have recognized that parents need to be more actively engaged in their children's religious education.

While nearly all U.S. congregations are incorporating some elements of family education — whether occasional parent-child programs or more structured classes for parents — few have gone as far as Boston in encouraging congregations to hire staff people to develop family education programs.

During the past five years that effort has had mixed results, according to a study released earlier this year.

One of the most comprehensive on Jewish family education to date, the study was conducted by Brandeis University's Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies.

It found that parents in congregations participating in Sh'arim reported a stronger attachment to Judaism and attend prayer services more frequently than before the program began in 1995. Synagogues offer an average of 25 family programs each year and are increasingly committed to making family education a central component of their offerings.

However, the study also reports that parents' sense of connection to their congregations "increased only slightly."

Furthermore, according to the report, "there is little evidence to date that Sh'arim has had widespread impact on the Jewish quality of families' lives at home and in the community."

It has also had little impact so far on keeping kids involved after their b'nai mitzvah, said Carolyn Keller, director of Boston's Commission on Jewish Continuity.

She said the report would probably spur the community to think further about how to get families to bring what they're learning in synagogue programs into their homes.

The study's findings are being shared with synagogues and family educators throughout the country.

In San Francisco, Vicky Kelman, director of family education for Bureau of Jewish Education and a pioneer in the field, said elements of the report are "disturbing," particularly the fact that Boston's family education program has not significantly affected families' connections to the synagogue or home behavior. It "tells me that's something we need to work on refining."

However, she added that while "the purpose of Jewish family education is for families to take charge of their own Jewish lives and not be totally dependent on Jewish institutions to provide them with a Jewish life," ritual observance in the home might not be the best measure of whether such education is successful.

"If you come to synagogue with your kid, you may be drawn to greater Jewish involvement, but that might be going on an Israel trip with the family, sending your kid to a Jewish summer camp, forming a chavurah with friends for a Shabbat dinner," said Kelman.

"That might not answer on a checklist of: 'Do you celebrate Chanukah and celebrate Passover?' "

As for what it takes for a family to increase its Jewish observance at home, the Boston study offers no specific answers, but urges those involved in family education to "explore new strategies for enhancing the impact of family education on home practices." It does not list any specific strategies.