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 6

How Many Home Visits Were Made to Families?

Home-based instruction, integral to the Even Start philosophy, is a critical element of the overall program design and instructional service delivery. As a family educational strategy, home visits provide such multiple advantages as:

• Linking instructional activities directly to the family setting;

• Providing opportunities for highly individualized, family-oriented instructional activities; and

• Enabling home visitors to identify factors in the home environment that may affect the family's capacity for learning.

The specific number of visits to be conducted is left largely to the projects' discretion. Consistent with the previous two program years, Even Start families participated in an average of seven home visits during 1996-97. Across families, the number of home visits was highly variable; some families received none while others were reported to have received more than 150 during the year—the equivalent of nearly three per week.

A regression analysis revealed that the number of support services families received⁷³, project age, the ratio of home-based instruction offered by projects, and flexibility of services were related to the number of home visits families received (Appendix C, Exhibit C.6). Families who received between five and nine types of support services (e.g., child care, transportation, meals, family support) received an average of nine home visits during the year, compared to an average of six visits for families who received one or no support services (Exhibit 6.2).

The differences in the number of home visits across projects reflected other project characteristics. Families in first-year projects, who enrolled after the projects' initial start-up period, logged fewer visits (five and six) while families in projects four years or older averaged between seven and eight home visits in 1996-97. As expected, families enrolled in primarily home-based programs received more than double the number of home visits than those enrolled in center-based programs: thirteen versus six per year, respectively. Projects that accommodated more flexibly to participants' family schedules (by offering child care; day, evening, and weekend classes; and both home-based and center-based services) also conducted more instructional home visits than less flexible projects.

Consistent with the family orientation of Even Start, family members who are not formally enrolled in the program also may participate in appropriate educational activities during the home visits. In 18 percent of families, non-Even Start adults took part in the parenting education activities during the home visits (not shown in exhibit). This percentage has remained stable across program years.

Footnotes:

⁷³ The types of support services families received are listed in Exhibit 5.16.

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[ Chapter 6: To What Extent Did Even Start Families Participate in the Services Offered? ]

[ What Was the Extent of Participation in Adult and Parenting Education? ]