Name of the Project

Tennessee Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Initiative

Grantee Contact

Susan Doughty, Director of Family Literacy Programs

Tennessee Department of Education

7^th Floor Andrew Johnson Tower

710 James Robertson Parkway

Nashville Tennessee 37243-0375

Tel: (615)532-2717 and Fax: (615)532-4899

E-mail: sdoughty@state.tn.us

Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Coordinator

Laura Ellis, Project Manager, Statewide Family Literacy Initiative

Tennessee Department of Education

7^th Floor Andrew Johnson Tower

710 James Robertson Parkway

Nashville Tennessee 37243-0375

Tel: (615)253-5215 and Fax: (615)532-4899

E-mail: lellis2@state.tn.us

Even Start Statewide Family Literacy Initiative Project Goals

• To establish a consortium of representatives from programs to address the challenges of providing, expanding, strengthening, coordinating, and as appropriate, integrating high-quality family literacy services to Tennessee residents
• To create bold, new strategies to strengthen, improve and expand family literacy services to economically and educationally disadvantaged families with young children through the provision of family literacy programs at the local level across Tennessee
• To develop family literacy program quality and performance indicators, coordinating with the performance indicators of consortium agencies and other appropriate groups, in order to improve and strengthen the effectiveness of new and existing family literacy projects

Project Description

Among activities undertaken by the Tennessee Family Literacy Consortium will be creation of a public awareness and social marketing initiative designed for both Statewide and local use. The consortium also plans to host a family literacy summit in the second year. Another activity will support the creation of local consortium, possibly connected to existing groups such as Family First Councils, Workforce Boards, or public library boards. Incentives will be offered to high-quality family literacy programs to encourage them to serve as models for replication. After performance indicators are finalized, the instruments and process for local evaluation will be revised. There will be extensive training around the family literacy approach and around use of the performance indicators in program evaluation and improvement.

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