United Way Womens Initiative

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United Way Womens Initiative

• Year 2 Evaluation Summary Report
• Funding Year 2006-2007
• Ty Partridge, Ph.D.

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Key Issues in Early Childhood Literacy

• Outmoded Public School System
• K-3 Curricula assume children come prepared to
  read
• Remedial reading programs are resource intensive
  and over-loaded
• Impact of Latchkey Parenting Generation
• Lack of High Quality Early Childhood Programs in
  High Need Locations

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Neural Foundations are Set Early
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Prevention-Intervention Models
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Primary Prevention

• Broad PSA approach
• Raise Awareness of Need for Early Reading
  Exposure
• Public Knowledge of Reading Skills
• Broad Access to Early Literacy Tools
• Policy Changes for Public Early Childhood
  Education

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Secondary Prevention

• Center Based
• Promote Use of Quality, Evidence Based Infancy to
  Pre-K Literacy Curriculum
• Improve Barriers to Access

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Tertiary Prevention

• Home Visitation Programs
• Most Resource Limited Families
• Greatest Risk for Poor Literacy and Academic
  Outcomes Across Intra- and Inter-Generational
  Scales
• Significant Barriers to Engagement of Center
  Based, High Quality Curricula

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Barriers to Service

• Tangible Barriers
• Availability
• Transportation
• Family Need and Center Need Mismatch
• Level of Family Crisis
• Psychological Barriers
• Limited Parent Literacy
• High Rates of Parental Depression
• Perceived Antagonism with School Systems

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Intervention Model
Overcome Traditional Barriers
Change Parent Attitudes and Knowledge
Foster Enriched Home Setting
In-Home Curriculum
Child Literacy Outcomes
Provide Training in Parent Reading Skills
Change in Parent Reading Skills
Provide Appropriate Material Resources
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Process Outcomes

• 200 Families across 2 years
• Program Delivery Model Varies in
• Specific Content
• Intensity of Curricula
• Age Focus and Community Risk
• Core features of Programs are Uniform and
  Outweigh Differences
• Strong Community Need Program Design Match

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Process Outcomes

• Recruitment and Retention
• NSO and Catholic Social Services Exceptionally
  Strong
• NSO 30 2 year retention of families
• MSU less recruitment but good retention
• Home Visitor Retention is High
• Little Variance in Home Visitor Abilities
• Strong Parent-Home Visitor Alliances

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Process Outcomes

• Program Implementation Limitations
• High Social Service Needs of Families
• Could use Better Integration of Social Services
  and Parenting Programs
• Key success of CSS, Guidance Center, NSO is group
  contacts.
• 30 of Visits are Impacted by Family Stresses
• 20 of Visits are Rescheduled

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Measurement ModelsParent Attributes
How Often Reads to Child
Designated Reading Time
Reading Environment
Reading a Habit
Provides Books of Interest
Number of Books
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Measurement ModelsParent Attributes
Age Began Reading to Child
Attitudes About Reading
Amount of T.V.
Importance of Reading
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Measurement ModelsParent Attributes
Emphasize Rhymes
Teach Letter Sounds
Use Pictures to increase Vocab
Use Contextual Print
Encourage Repeating
Reading Quality
Play Rhyming Games
Encourage Active Reading
Snuggle
Change Expression
Read Same Stories
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Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Asks to be read to
Interest in books
Interest in Reading
Interest in Newspapers
Asks for help reading in context
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Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Points to Pictures
Ask Questions about Characters
Reading Engagement
Fills in Narrative
Identifies Words in Environment
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Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Pretends to Read
Narrative Skills
Makes up Stories
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Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Plays Rhyming Games
Produces Independent Rhymes
Language Awareness
Notices Rhymes
Tells Nursery Rhymes
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Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Tries to Name Letters
Attempts Letter Sounds
Letter Recognition / Phoneme Awareness
Number Letters ID
Number Letter Sounds ID
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Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Child Draws
Attempts to Write Letters
Emergent Writing
Asks for Help Writing
Asks for Help Spelling
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Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
ID Front of Book
ID Title of Book
Print Awareness
Role of Title
Words Tell Story
Directionality
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Parent Provision of Supportive Reading
Environmentt 3.02, plt.01
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Adult Reading Qualityt 5.31, plt.01
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Child Interest in Readingt 4.84, plt.01
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Child Reading Engagementt 2.99, p lt.01
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Child Narrative Skillst 2.60, plt.05
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Child Language Awareness t 4.66, plt.01
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Letter Recognition and Phoneme Awarenesst
3.83, plt.01
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Child Emergent Writing Skillst 3.25, plt.01
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Child Print Awareness Skillst 9.29, plt.001
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Correlations Among Key Constructs
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Program Effects

• Few Between Program Effects
• Age of Child Confounding Variable
• Future Evaluation Determine Program By Age Effects

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Program Efficiency

• Costs per Family
• 1,400 - 1,600
• Costs per Family Visit
• 133 - 266
• Cost-Benefit
• 1.23 - 1.80

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Program Efficiency

• Comparisons to Other Home Visiting Models
• Nurse Family Partnership
• 5,000 per family
• Local Costs
• 400,000 for service delivery annually
• 125,000 for evaluation annually
• Healthy Families
• 4,000 per family
• Local Costs
• 250,000 for service delivery annually
• 35,000 for evaluation annually
• Parent Child Interaction Therapy
• 2,000 per family

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Future Needs and Directions

• Continue Program Monitoring
• Long Term Follow-up
• School Readiness with Bracken School Readiness
  Survey
• School Engagement
• Utilization of Quality Pre-K Programs
• Maintenance of Effects

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Future Needs and Directions

• With Demonstrated Measurement Tool focus can
  shift to design
• Pre-Post with Matched Case Controls
• Engage non-funded partners
• Snowball recruitment of case controls
• Dose-Response Assessment of Program Engagement
• Home Visitor Effects

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Future Needs and Directions

• Utilization of Evaluation Partnership and Data to
  Generate Supplemental Funding
• Development of Home-Center Partnerships
• Assess the Viability/Impact of Booster Visits
• Parent Training Components
• Social Service Referrals