National Evaluation of The Even Start Family Literacy Program, 1998
Chapter 4
Even Start is often referred to as the "glue" that binds together existing services available from non-Even Start programs in the community to meet participants' diverse needs, to avoid duplication of services, and to maximize effective use of Even Start resources. The provision of instructional staff resources constitutes an important contribution to Even Start by collaborating agencies. How much of the Even Start educational services are provided by staff paid by Even Start funds, paid by agencies collaborating with Even Start, or staff paid by both sources?56
As shown in Exhibit 4.7, for approximately one-third of project sites, collaborating agencies were solely responsible for educational services in all levels of adult education; Even Start and collaborating agency staff shared responsibilities in about one-quarter of project sites. However, the pattern was quite different for parenting education—60 percent of project sites relied solely on Even Start staff to deliver services in this domain.
Yet another pattern of interagency collaboration was reported for different levels of early childhood education. Even Start resources were used exclusively for serving infants and toddlers in 70 percent of project sites, while collaborating agencies played a greater role in serving older children. Forty-one percent of project sites relied upon collaborating agencies as sole providers of Even Start educational services for 6- to 7-year-old children.
Interagency collaboration is one of the key elements strongly emphasized in the Even Start legislation, and projects are succeeding in developing a wide network of collaborative arrangements. While Even Start staff are responsible to varying degrees for the delivery of services in all educational components, in many communities a variety of agencies and organizations collaborate with Even Start projects—either as the primary provider of specific services or to augment services provided largely by Even Start projects.
Exhibit 4.7: Percent of Project Sites Coordinating Services with Collaborating Agencies, by Educational Service Area (1996-97)
|
Note: The percentages are based on 655 project sites reported by 605 projects included in the 1996-97 evaluation. Some percentages do not add to 100 because some project sites did not provide certain types of services (i.e., neither Even Start nor other agency staff provided the services). Exhibit reads: In 1996-97, 37 percent of project sites used Even Start staff exclusively for their beginning adult basic education services. |
Public school departments (other than the specific departments sponsoring Even Start) and colleges and universities served as primary providers of adult education services for 34 percent and 21 percent of project sites, respectively (Exhibit 4.8). For many project sites, Even Start was the primary source of adult education services, supplemented by staff from agencies such as volunteer groups (52 percent of project sites), community groups (46 percent), and government agencies (38 percent).
Exhibit 4.8: Percent of Project Sites Where Collaborating Agencies Were the Primary or Secondary Providers of Adult, Parenting, and Early Childhood Education (ECE) Services (1996-97)
|
Adult Educ. |
Parenting Educ. |
ECE |
||||
|
Primary |
Secondary |
Primary |
Secondary |
Primary |
Secondary |
|
|
Public schools |
34% |
34% |
16% |
51% |
33% |
49% |
|
Colleges/ |
21% |
36% |
5% |
30% |
5% |
20% |
|
Volunteer groups |
5% |
52% |
3% |
42% |
4% |
42% |
|
Other community groups |
6% |
46% |
7% |
59% |
3% |
48% |
|
Government agencies |
10% |
38% |
7% |
51% |
7% |
34% |
|
Technical schools |
8% |
30% |
2% |
14% |
2% |
8% |
|
Head Start |
3% |
20% |
5% |
50% |
25% |
51% |
|
Other preschool, daycare programs |
2% |
10% |
3% |
29% |
18% |
48% |
|
Foundations, associations |
1% |
14% |
2% |
16% |
1% |
14% |
|
Note: The type of collaborating agencies that were reported as primary or secondary service providers by more than 50 percent of project sites are indicated by shaded boxes. Exhibit reads: In 1996-97, 34 percent of project sites had collaborative arrangements with public school systems that were the primary providers of adult education instruction for their Even Start parents. |
In contrast, relatively few collaborating agencies served as primary providers of parenting education, with the exception of public school departments (16 percent). However, various types of organizations contributed parenting education services as secondary providers: community groups (59 percent), public school departments (51 percent), government agencies (51 percent), and Head Start (50 percent). Volunteer groups provided supplemental parenting education services to 42 percent of project sites.
Early childhood education also was supported primarily by Even Start staff, although some projects relied on instructors from public school departments (33 percent), Head Start (25 percent), and other preschool and daycare programs (18 percent) as primary service providers. These three provider groups also comprised the largest percentages of secondary providers of early childhood education, among which Head Start was the single largest secondary provider (51 percent).
Even Start projects varied widely in their configurations of instructional resources. Typically, projects had three or four instructors who were paid by Even Start funds (Appendix B, Exhibit B.7). In addition, on average, two instructors per project were paid by local matching funds, and another one to two instructors were paid by collaborating agencies for a total of seven to eight instructors from all sources. However, the number of instructors provided by local match and collaborating agencies varied substantially across all projects.
Project directors' satisfaction ratings of their collaborative arrangements have remained consistently high since 1993-94. In 1995-96, nearly all project sites (97 percent) reported that "all" or "many" of their collaborating relationships were satisfactory.
Footnotes:
56 Project instructors were considered as Even Start staff if any portion of their salaries was paid with Even Start funds.
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