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 5

How Are Families Recruited and Screened?

To qualify for services, a family must have at least one parent who is eligible for adult education under the Adult Education Act or who is within the state's compulsory school attendance age range (as long as a local educational agency provides the basic education component) and at least one child age seven or younger. Even Start projects are required to screen applicant families to ensure that they meet these eligibility requirements stated in the Even Start statute. Further, the projects are required to recruit and serve families who are most in need of Even Start services in their respective communities. Instead of relying on uniform standards for assessing families' need for services, each Even Start project is expected to develop recruitment and screening approaches that can effectively identify families most in need of the type of services offered by the project.

Exhibit 5.1 shows the percentages of project sites that use various screening criteria to recruit families with certain characteristics. Some targeting criteria are intended to identify families most in need (e.g., families with incomes below a specified level). Other criteria are related to individual projects' program designs (e.g., families with children already enrolled in early childhood education programs).

In 1995-96 and 1996-97 a somewhat higher percentage (54 percent) of projects than in 1994-95 (47 percent) used criteria beyond those specified by Even Start legislation to recruit families. Across the three program years, the vast majority of project sites that employed additional recruitment criteria targeted parents with no high school diplomas (86 percent to 88 percent) and families with children ages 3 to 5 (72 percent to 75 percent). The largest increase in the three years occurred in the percentage of project sites that targeted families with teen parents—from 44 percent to 58 percent—reflecting a legislative change in 1995-96 that made more teen parents eligible to participate in Even Start. Since 1994-95, the percentage of sites that use family income as a means to target families decreased from 56 percent to 41 percent. This may be due to the fact that most applicants are from very low-income families, obviating the need for specifically targeting poor families.

In addition to the ten criteria listed in Exhibit 5.1, a number of projects used additional criteria to select families most in need. The additional criteria included: parents receiving some form of public assistance; parents who were not employed; families that had one or more children with special needs; families with multiple children younger than 8 years; and families that were homeless or had a history of domestic violence.

Throughout Even Start's program history, word of mouth was the most commonly used recruitment strategy for at least three-quarters of projects (Exhibit 5.2).

Referrals through collaborating agencies and other community agencies were also used by a majority of project sites. In addition to these common methods, the 1995-96 data indicated that projects with several years of Even Start experience used methods that target individual families (e.g., home visits, telephone contacts, and walking the neighborhood) more than first-year projects did. The 1996-97 data produced complementary findings: first-year projects used methods that reach many potential participants (e.g., mass mailing, mass media, posters and flyers, and making presentations in community agencies) more than projects with four or more years of experience did.

Even Start projects need to screen all applicants to verify that families meet the basic mandated eligibility criteria and to further assess family circumstances, educational needs, and potential barriers to participation. In fact, 82 percent of the reporting project sites used eligibility verification as a screening procedure "a great deal" in 1995-96 and 1996-97 (Exhibit 5.3).

From 1994-95 on, the use of additional screening procedures has been consistent. In addition to verifying eligibility, the screening procedures most frequently used "a great deal" included assessment of adults' basic skills (76 percent of sites) and conducting orientations (70 percent of sites). Assessment of children's school readiness and language development was used "a great deal" by less than half of the sites, perhaps because projects can place children into educational levels according to their age, whereas there are no such guidelines for adults, necessitating the use of more formal assessment.

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[ Chaper 5: What Services Do Even Start Projects Provide to Participants? ]

[ How Many Instructional Hours Are Offered by Even Start? ]