1. Effects of a family literacy program on low-literate children and their parents: findings from an evaluation of the even start family literacy program
- Author
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St. Pierre, Robert G., Ricciuti, Anne E., and Rimdzius, Tracy A.
- Subjects
Early childhood education -- Evaluation ,Parent and child -- Evaluation ,Family life education -- Evaluation ,Psychology and mental health - Abstract
A randomized experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of Even Start, a federally supported family literacy program providing early childhood education, adult education, parenting education, and joint parent-child literacy activities to children and parents from low-literate families. The evaluation of 18 Even Start projects followed 463 families for 2 years and found no statistically significant or educationally important impacts on Even Start families when they were compared with control families on child literacy outcomes, parent literacy outcomes, or parent-child interactions. The study concludes that Even Start projects were able to properly implement family literacy programs, and the observed lack of effectiveness is attributed to a combination of 2 factors: (a) a lack of full participation on the part of families and (b) instructional services that may be ineffective because of the curriculum content or the instructional approach. Keywords: evaluation, family literacy, Even Start, interventions, randomized experiments
- Published
- 2005