[Synthesis of Local and State Even Start Evaluations: Final Report]
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[2.0 Even Start Evaluation Requirements]
The Even Start Family Literacy Program was first authorized in 1988 as Part B of Chapter 1 of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). The Even Start legislation was amended in July 1991, when Congress passed the National Literacy Act (P.L. 102-73). In 1994, Even Start was reauthorized as Part B of Title I of the ESEA as amended by the Improving America's Schools Act.(3) According to the legislation, the Even Start program is intended to:
"...help break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy by improving the educational opportunities of the Nation's low-income families by integrating early childhood education, adult literacy or adult basic education, and parenting education into a unified family literacy program...The program shall (1) be implemented through cooperative projects that build on existing community resources to create a new range of services; (2) promote achievement of the National Education Goals; and (3) assist children and adults from low-income families to achieve to challenging State content standards and challenging State student performance standards."
(P.L. 103-382, Sec. 1201).
Amendments subsequent to the 1994 reauthorization include a requirement, enacted in 1996, that instructional services be intensive. Recent amendments included in the FY 1999 Appropriations Bill for Health and Human Services, Labor, and Education address the need for local evaluations to collect data on program effectiveness and require the Department to provide technical assistance to states and Even Start projects to ensure that local evaluations provide accurate information on the effectiveness of local projects. The legislation also requires states to develop results-based indicators of program quality and to use these indicators to monitor, evaluate, and improve Even Start programs.
To be eligible for Even Start in 1995-96 (or later), a family needed (a) a parent who was eligible for adult education services under the Adult Education Act or who was within the states compulsory school attendance age range and (b) a child under 8 years of age. Beginning in 1995-96, more teen parents became eligible for Even Start. This new participant group included teen parents—either under or over age 16—within a states compulsory school attendance age range, as long as a local educational agency provided for the basic educational services for these parents.(4)
Even Start began as a federally administered program in fiscal 1989, with grants totaling $14.5 million awarded to 76 projects. According to the Even Start statute, when program funding reached $50 million, the program was to be administered primarily by state agencies. This level was exceeded in 1992 when the federal appropriation for 340 projects reached $70 million.
Most Even Start projects now are state administered, and more than $100 million was distributed to some 650 Even Start projects in fiscal 1997. Each state receives funding based on the relative proportion of funds it receives under the Title I allocation formula. States hold grant competitions and make subgrant awards. The statute specifies that each Even Start subgrantee receive a minimum of $75,000 per year, except for one subgrantee per state that may receive less.
Family literacy programs specifically for migrant families, Indian tribes and tribal organizations, and outlying areas are supported through special set-aside funds (5 percent of the total Even Start allocation) and remain under federal administration. These funds support Even Start projects tailored for groups of participants with special circumstances. Since 1993-94, about 10 to 20 each of Migrant Education Even Start (MEES) and tribal Even Start projects have been funded each year.
MEES projects serve a highly mobile population—families moving across several states each year. In addition to economic and educational limitations common to all Even Start families, many migratory parents and children are recent immigrants and have limited English language skills. MEES educational services need to account for great diversity in language and cultural backgrounds of participants. One of the major challenges for MEES projects is to design and deliver meaningful educational services to families who may participate for only a few months before moving. Some MEES projects are designed to follow the same families across states over time; others focus their efforts on families only while they are in their communities.
Tribal Even Start projects experience a different set of special challenges. Families tend to be stable geographically but may be widely scattered in remote, rural areas, where families access to educational and support services provided by other community organizations can be limited. For these reasons, some tribal projects rely on home-based educational services. While such circumstances are common to many rural projects, incorporating materials and activities that are consistent with and promote the Native American heritage is an important objective of many tribal Even Start projects.
In addition to the MEES and tribal projects, discretionary grants for statewide family literacy initiatives and a family literacy project in a prison that houses women and their preschool-aged children are authorized. These projects also are funded and administered directly by the Department.
Even Start's premise is that combining adult literacy or adult basic education, parenting education, and early childhood education into a unified family literacy program offers promise for helping to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty and low literacy in the nation. The Even Start program has three related goals:
The Even Start legislation requires a number of key elements and features to be implemented in all local projects. They include serving families most in need of Even Start services(5); providing three core services (adult, parenting, and early childhood education) and support services; providing some services to parents and children together and providing some home-based services; integrating educational activities across the three core areas; coordinating service delivery with other local programs; conducting local evaluations; and participating in the national evaluation.
Even Start's core services have three components, as specified in the reauthorized legislation:
Even Start projects also provide support services which are designed to facilitate the provision of core services. Examples of support services are transportation, child care, health care, meals, nutrition assistance, mental health referrals, referrals for employment, counseling, child protective services, referrals for screening or treatment for chemical dependency, referrals for services to battered women, and special care for a disabled family member. Even Start requires support services to be obtained from existing providers whenever possible so that Even Start projects do not duplicate services.
Even Start is intended to benefit families in several domains. Potential outcomes for parents include improved literacy behaviors (e.g., shared literacy events with children and increased reading and writing activities in the home); parenting behavior and skills (e.g., positive parent-child relationships and expectations for children); and educational and employment skills (e.g., improved reading and English language ability and higher education attainment). Goals for Even Start parents also may include growth in personal skills and community involvement. The potential positive impacts of Even Start on children include improved school readiness and achievement (e.g., language development and emergent literacy). Once children enter school, outcomes might include satisfactory school performance, improved school attendance, and a lower incidence of special education and retention in grade.
While setting forth major elements required for all Even Start projects, the Even Start legislation allows grantees great flexibility in designing services to meet local needs. The legislation provides Even Start projects with a set of requirements—broad guidelines on what to do. However, decisions regarding how to implement each requirement are left to individual projects. For example, legislation requires high-quality, intensive instructional programs, but projects decide on the frequency and duration of program activities, whether the activities are primarily center-based or home-based, and whether to invent educational curricula from scratch or use a hybrid of existing approaches. Projects decide, based on the availability and quality of local services, which program activities will be supported by Even Start funds and which components will be supported by collaborating agencies.
Most Even Start projects provide, either directly or by working with existing early childhood programs such as Head Start, a center-based early childhood program (Tao, Gamse & Tarr, 1998, p.87). Center-based programs usually incorporate elements of existing curricula designed for young children. Generally, school-age children through age 7 receive Even Start services provided in conjunction with compulsory education activities. Such services may take the form of homework assistance given in before- and after-school child care programs and summer school activities.
Adult education services are provided in a variety of formats by different levels of trained personnel, ranging from volunteers to certified adult education teachers. Some projects offer adult education classes geared toward completing a GED, while others provide general instruction in basic skills such as reading, writing, and math. In some projects, adult education services are focused chiefly on ESL. Projects working with adults who have very low-level basic skills may arrange individual tutoring through organizations such as the Literacy Volunteers of America or provide other types of one-on-one instruction during home visits.
Parenting education is less frequently available through existing community agencies than are adult and early childhood education programs. Thus, many projects rely mostly on Even Start resources to deliver parenting education services. These services may take the form of group discussions, hands-on activities, home visits, and presentations by invited speakers. Topics addressed may include helping families make use of available learning resources, increasing parents understanding of normal child development patterns and of their role in their childrens education, and training parents on reading to young children.
Educational activities are often offered in institutional settings, e.g., adult education classes in high schools and community colleges, and preschool programs associated with community-based organizations or local education agencies. In some projects, however, particularly those in sparsely populated rural areas, Even Start services may be primarily home-based, with instruction tailored to each family's needs.
4 Prior to this change regarding eligibility of teen parents, Even Start could only serve families headed by teen parents at least 16 years old or beyond the age of compulsory school attendance who were not attending school.
5 The definition of most in need is community-specific and is based on locally established criteria but must be based upon a family's low income and low literacy, as well as other need-related criteria.
6 In April 1996, the Even Start statute was amended to require high-quality, intensive instructional programs. This requirement became effective for projects in program year 1996-97.
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[Synthesis of Local and State Even Start Evaluations: Final Report] |
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[2.0 Even Start Evaluation Requirements] |