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Family Literacy Pilot Program

Report

The report describes successes the Family Literacy Pilot Program has had during its first two full years of program operation. The Program has been successful in improving adult participants’ literacy, and adults enrolled in the Program’s parenting skills component made gains in their parenting skills, though not to the degree they made in their literacy skills. While the children in the Program are, in general, developmentally behind where they should be for their age, the Program keeps them from falling further behind and reduced the differences in achievement between them and their non-at-risk peers.

A higher degree of quality and compliance with program requirements by program contractors during the 1996-97 school year in comparison with the previous year reflects hard work on the part of the contractors, improved monitoring from the ADE, and continued technical assistance from the model programs. As a result of the successes the Program has had, the report recommends that the Program be continued and expansion to additional sites be considered. It is also recommended that sites serve up to 20 families, an increase from the current maximum of 15, in order to reduce the costs per family. If the Program is continued, it is recommended that model program sites also be continued in order to assist with ongoing programs’ training and technical assistance needs. In addition, the report also recommends that the ADE continue to monitor and report annually through 2002 to the Legislature on the progress of Family Literacy participants.