Even Start Keeps Moving and Improving

It has been nearly a year since my last post. When I wrote last, I was concerned funding for Even Start would be lost. Since that time, I was introduced to a new accountability measure for Even Start, and the Obama Administration renewed funding!

Last May, there were rumors Obama would cut funding to Even Start because it had not shown much improvement through its performance evaluations. I am not sure what evaluations were referenced exactly, but I speculate it may be the 2-year study completed by the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Basically,

"The evaluation found that the CLIO curricula had statistically significant, positive impacts on some of the hypothesized precursors to the development of children’s early literacy skills, including instructional supports for literacy, child social competence, and parenting skills; but did not have statistically significant impacts on the child language development and literacy outcomes. The evaluation also found that the CLIO parenting curricula did not significantly add value to the CLIO preschool curricula with respect to child outcomes."

Even Start is a federally funded program with the goal of stopping the cycle of poverty by helping parents take on their role of first parent and help their child get a better start in school. My argument to this criticism was, is, and has been, that we did not have a good tool to measure what we do AND that we need to have a new conversation about the program model and what can be measured. Additionally, we need more follow-up studies!

Thankfully, we now have a new tool. However, as I have heard in some of the trainings and network sessions I have been to with fellow practitioners, it seems to be taking some time to implement. Some of the challenges are related to questions on how to conduct an intervention with fidelity and how to assess parents who are more comfortable reading in their native languages (languages different from that of the assessor).

If you have not heard of it yet, ACIRI stands for Adult Child Interactive Reading Inventory. It is a relatively new means to assess the ability of a parent to read to his/her child in a way that will improve early literacy skills. It was developed by practitioner and researcher Andrea DeBruin-Parecki, Ph.D. to address the needs of children aged 3-5yrs.

The ACIRI offers a way to look at what I think it the central pivot to Even Start: how the parent engages the child in literacy. I postulate that this may be even more important than the changes in children's early literacy while a family is in the program.

We need to have a larger discussion about the program model and what can actually be measured to show success in Even Start programs. I believe we can implement interventions to help parents adopt the attitudes and behaviors that will keep them in the role of teacher and educational advocate for their child. I think the ACIRI is one may we can assess if they have adopted one set of skills that will help them take on that role.

We have been using the parent education lessons DeBruin-Parecki developed and her observation tool for nearly a year, but we still need to have a full analysis and discussion on the added value as a program. We have seen some parents improve their skills in reading to their children, and we have also seen them become more aware of their role in helping to prepare their child for "the big school." I look forward to hearing more from other programs and researchers across the nation.