WSU/Standard Examiner-Ogden City School District: Family Literacy Project/Project Even Start

HISTORY

In 1989, Weber State University received an endowment from the Glasman Foundation to establish a project to enhance family literacy. The project was called the WSU-Standard Examiner Family Literacy Project, and was to be based on the Kenan Family Literacy Model of Kentucky.

Ogden City School District assisted with the effort in providing space to house the project. In 1992, Ogden City School District, in partnership with WSU-Standard Examiner Family Literacy, received a federal grant for "Project Even Start." This was the federal effort to address family literacy. Consequently, the WSU/Standard Examiner and OCS-Project Even Start were combined in a viable Ogden community effort to address family literacy needs.

The project is presently housed at the Ogden City Schools Complex located at the corner of 20th Street and Monroe, in Ogden, Utah. All services for the families are provided at this single location.

PURPOSE

Six national education goals for the year 2000 guide national, state educational efforts. Two of the goals concern family literacy:

... Goal one: By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn.
... Goal five: All Americans will have a level of literacy that allows them to be productive workers and involved citizens.

The WSU/Standard Examiner-OCS Project Even Start helps to achieve these goals. Generally, "Literacy Projects" attempt to accomplish the following objectives:

To improve parent's skills and attitudes toward education.
To improve children's learning skills.
To improve parent's childcare skills.
To unite parent and children in a positive educational experience.

The WSU/Standard Examiner-Ogden City School District: Family Literacy Project/Project Even Start Partnership meets these objectives.

Characteristics and Effects

The Ogden Even Start participants are characterized by a large portion of Hispanics and a complete absense of African Americans. This mix, however, accurately represents the targeted population in the Ogden area. The families' incomes appear to a little higher than the National Sample with almost 39% of the families above the poverty level of $10,000 annual income compared to only 31% for the national sample. The level of education for Ogden's participating adults is a little lower than the national sample with less than 3% having a high school education compared to 20% of the national sample.

The most significant effect of the Ogden Even Start Program is on the adult participants. During the current year, 1997, 90% of these adults passed their GED exams during their participation in the program. This compares with only a 14.7% passing rate for the Even Start Programs in the national sample. In addition, computer literacy scores were up on the average of 50 points (on a scale from 0-75) and the mean scores on the two scales of the test of adult basic education (TABE) increased from pre-test to post-test.

Significant gains were also realized for the participating children of the Ogden Even Start Project. For the Preschool Language Scale-3 (PLS-3), the children showed an average monthly gain of 2.46 points per child. This represents an average increase in percentile rank from the 27th percentile to the 45th percentile.
The gains on the PreSchool Inventory (PSI) are even more impressive. The Ogden children made an average monthly gain of .0875 items per child compared to an expected gain of .042items/month if there were no preschool intervention.

The effects on the family unit are more difficult to document. However, small gains were demonstrated on the Home Screening Questionnaire (HSQ) over the duration of the program. This would indicate an improved home environment conducive to more positive development for the child.

Comments are welcome.