Name of the Project

Maine Even Start Family Literacy Project

Grantee Contact

Rebecca Dyer

Maine Department of Education

23 State House Station

Augusta, ME 04333-0023

Tel: (207) 287-5882 and Fax: (207) 287-5894

E-mail: becky.dyer@state.me.us

Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Coordinator

Same as Grantee Contact

Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Initiative Project Goals

• To improve the quality of family literacy services available in the State of Maine
• To provide, in conjunction with the Reading Excellence Act, professional development for Maine’s family literacy service providers
• To strengthen and expand family literacy services by coordinating existing Federal, State and local resources
• To develop program quality and performance indicators for the State’s family literacy system

Project Description

The Maine Even Start Family Literacy Project builds upon the Maine Family Literacy Task Force created in 1998 to provide a tangible linkage among a variety of educational, workforce development, human services, and community based programs. To reach the goals of the initiative, the Task Force will develop quality indicators and performance indicators which address the four components of family literacy programs and emphasize the needs of participating families; develop a comprehensive, performance-based evaluation system; support a Statewide professional development effort that trains staff in the development and use of standards and evaluation systems and disseminates recommendations and findings from the best available research on family literacy, adult education and early childhood education; and, utilize the Task Force to guide the development of quality standards and an evaluation system and to link them to similar efforts.

Priorities

• Using research on reading and literacy in program planning
• Implementing a professional development plan for staff
• Increasing the intensity of family literacy activities for school-age children (up to 7 years old)
• Improving local evaluation methods and practices
• Absolute Priority: Family Literacy Performance Indicators