Archived: National Evaluation of The Even Start Family Literacy Program 1998

A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

National Evaluation of The Even Start Family Literacy Program, 1998

Chapter 4

How Are Even Start Services Funded?

Federal grants represent the primary funding source for the vast majority of Even Start projects. Since 1992, all grants have been administered by the states except the federally-administered set-aside grants. In 1996-97, eighteen Migrant Education projects and eleven tribal projects received these set-aside grants. The U.S. Department of Education also directly administered five statewide family literacy initiative grants and one grant to a family literacy project in a prison that houses women and their preschool-aged children.

Federal Even Start grants are awarded for up to four years, after which a project has the option of reapplying to the program. (Under the current law, recipients are limited to a maximum of eight years of funding.) In 1996-97, 85 percent of the reporting projects were operating under four-year grants. Five percent of reporting projects had three-year grants; 3 percent had two-year grants, and 7 percent had one-year grants. Many projects had received more than one Even Start grant. Thus, based on data collected for the national evaluation, the project age (years of experience in operating Even Start) ranged from less than one year to eight years as shown in Exhibit 4.2⁵³.

Exhibit 4.2: Project Age (Years of Operating Even Start) as of 1996-97

Project Age (Years of Operating Even Start)	Percent of Projects
Up to 1 year	18%
Two years	14%
Three years	13%
Four years	25%
Five years	9%
Six years	11%
Seven to eight years	10%

Exhibit reads: In 1996-97, 25 percent of projects were fourth-year projects.

For projects receiving multi-year grants, the portion of the total budget supported by non-Even Start ("local") matching funds (including in-kind contributions) is expected to increase by at least 10 percent each year. The local share must constitute at least 40 percent of their annual operating budgets by year four. For projects that receive grants after the fourth year, the local cost share must be at least 50 percent.

Exhibit 4.3 shows the sources of funding for Even Start projects operating in 1996-97. The average amount of federal Even Start funds for the first year of projects' current grants was $166,413, approximately $6,700 per project less than the amount reported in 1995-96 and more than $10,000 per project less than the amount reported in 1994-95. This may reflect, at least in part, the growing percentage of projects in their fifth or subsequent year that must obtain at least 50 percent of their budgets through non-federal funding sources. In 1996-97, roughly 30 percent of projects met this description.

Exhibit 4.3: Levels of Funding for Even Start Projects (1996-97)

Type of Funding	Average per Project	Range in 98% of Reporting Projects
Federal funding, first year of current grant	$166,413	$21,747-$472,614
1996-97 Funding
Federal Even Start funds	$158,444	$41,500-$431,704
Non Even Start federal funds	$39,474	$10-$191,250
Local contributions	$115,960	$7,500-$527,185
Total resources	$250,267	$75,000-$714,286

Note: Different numbers of projects reported dollar figures for federal and local shares; as a result, the amounts displayed in each row do not sum to the total resources listed. Eighty-three projects reported having received non-Even Start federal funds; the remainder of projects either reported zero funds or skipped this question. The minimum reported, $10, may have been a data-entry error.

Exhibit reads: In 1996-97, the average amount of federal Even Start grants in the first year of current grant was $166,413 per project.

Based on data reported by 581 projects (91 percent of all projects in 1996-97), the average annual budget of Even Start projects in 1996-97 was $250,267, combining all available resources. This average budget was nearly $5,000 per project more than the previous program year. As was the case in previous program years, some projects had budgets that were substantially larger than the average amount.⁵⁴

Exhibit 4.4 compares the Even Start program funds spent per family for 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96, and 1996-97. While the discussion above focused on resources available for each project, the per-family cost described below is based on the total program budget from all sources across all projects divided by the total number of families participating in all projects nationwide. With all types of funds combined (federal, state, and local), the amount that projects spent per family increased across four program years, from $3,709 in 1993-94 to $4,495 in 1996-97, an average increase of $786 per family. However, focusing only on the federal share, the dollar amount spent per family has remained relatively stable around $2,700 to $2,800 across these years.⁵⁵

Exhibit 4.4: Even Start Program Funds per Family per Year (1994-97)

Note: In this exhibit, the federal funds refer to federal Even Start funds only.

Exhibit reads: The federal Even Start funds averaged $2,844 per family in 1996-97.

The increase in the total resources available for each family may reflect, in part, a slight reduction in the average number of families served per project (from sixty in 1994-95 to fifty-five and fifty-six in 1995-96 and 1996-97, respectively) and an apparent increase in the amount of local contributions. Conversations with local project directors and state coordinators suggest that, in order to increase program effectiveness, many projects are devoting greater efforts and resources per family rather than increasing the number of program enrollees.

Another reason for the rise in per-family budget (from all sources) was an increasing percentage of projects receiving fourth and subsequent year grants and supporting at least 40 percent of their budget with "local" matching funds. In 1996-97, the average federal Even Start funds per family among projects with four or more years of funding was substantially lower ($2,523 per family) compared to the average for new grantees ($3,538 per family). However, because of the local share, the average total funds per family did not differ greatly according to project age—$4,604 for first-year projects, $4,550 for 2-3-year projects, and $4,450 for projects with four or more years of experience.

Footnotes:

⁵³ The percentage breakdown of project age is a close approximation since some projects indicated the first year of their first grant based on school years (as directed) while other projects responded in terms of calendar years.

⁵⁴ Based on data from 550 projects (86 percent of all projects that operated in 1996-97), the average federal Even Start funds per project in 1996-97 totaled $158,444, nearly $5,000 less than the previous program year average (i.e., $163,712). Based on 551 reporting projects (86 percent), the average project in 1996-97 received $115,960 in local contributions, greater than the 1995-96 average of $108,718 and the 1994-95 average of $87,000. In addition, 83 projects also reported using other federal funds (e.g., Title I funds) averaging $39,474 per project as part of their local cost share for Even Start services.

These averages are based on different numbers of projects reporting less than complete data. Thus, the average increases and decreases in funds from different sources do not add to the average change in total resources from 1995-96 to 1996-97, and these data need to be interpreted with caution. The changes in average funding reported here do not account for economic inflation over this period.

⁵⁵ The "average federal cost per family" can be calculated by two methods, depending on the type of information needed. The first method is to calculate the per-family federal cost for each project first and then to average the per-family costs from all projects. This method gives an equal weight to each project in calculating the programwide average, disregarding the fact that some projects with a large number of families may operate their programs at a lower per-family cost and smaller projects may spend a greater than average per-family cost. However, the benefit of this method is that it allows for comparing the differences in per-family federal cost among the projects.

The second method is to add the federal funds across all projects (total federal share), add the number of families served across all projects (total families), and divide the total federal share by the total number of families. The programwide per-family cost derived through this method takes into account the variations among projects. This is the method used to assess how the total federal funds across all projects are spent per family programwide in both previous Even Start evaluation reports and in this report.

-###-

[ What Organizations Operate the Even Start Program? ]

[ How Are the Even Start Services Staffed? ]