In response to rising parental incarceration rates, some correctional facilities now offer family literacy and read-aloud programmes to strengthen parent-child bonds. However, the technologies used in these programmes -- including older technologies such as audio and video recordings -- have received little attention. Parents in the Read to Your…

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to extraordinary changes in family literacy instruction, forcing face-to-face programmes to shift rapidly (or "on the fly") to online, remote instruction. This study is one of the few on online teaching and learning in family literacy and, to the knowledge of the authors, the first on emergency remote…

The Reading Apprenticeship is an intervention that has been shown in previous studies to increase struggling readers, tested reading achievement by 8 to 9 months during a 12 week, in-school program. This article reports on the first study of the Reading Apprenticeship method conducted in the summer using parents, rather than supervised volunteers,…

"Changing the Course of Family Literacy" re-examines the importance and value of family literacy programming and offers several policy recommendations to focus attention on the four-component model used in Even Start. This paper explores the current status of Family literacy and, after gathering information from 47 states, found that 11…

Within a learning family, every member is a lifelong learner. A family literacy and learning approach is more likely to break the intergenerational cycle of low education and inadequate literacy skills, particularly among disadvantaged families and communities. The selection of case studies presented in this compilation show that for an…

Literacy programs often target preschool children who are from minority groups, are from low socioeconomic backgrounds, and are second language learners, as they are deemed to be at risk for academic difficulties. The family literacy program described in this article is unique in that it focuses on families who have an additional risk…

This qualitative case study examines an after-school, bilingual family literacy programme that brought together several groups to form a community of practice (CoP) that worked to support the literacy development of English language learners and their families. We explored the following question: How do parents, teachers, students, and other…

The author describes the aptly-named "Better Beginnings" early childhood literacy project. Conducted by the State Library of Western Australia, sponsored by the WA State Government and Rio Tinto Limited, and closely monitored by Edith Cowan University, "Better Beginnings" has been successful from the outset, with proven…

This study investigates the effects of the Family and Child Education (FACE) prekindergarten program on school readiness. The FACE program is located in Bureau of Indian Education-funded schools on some of the most rural American Indian (AI) reservations in the United States. It explicitly integrates the language and culture of the communities in…

The social nature of language learning and development has been widely acknowledged, as has the importance of family relationships in language learning processes. The role that the first language plays in the literacy development of English language learners (ELLs) and their families is irrefutable. Advocates of family literacy programs have…

This article reports on a family literacy program that began with the creation and implementation of a Welcome Center in an elementary school in the Southwest United States. This center was intended to be a place where recent immigrant students and their families, teachers, as well as other community members, came together to participate in…

One of the ways that Movement for Canadian Literacy (MCL) fulfills its mandate is by providing a forum where people from provincial/territorial and national organizations can work together to identify, discuss and address issues of common focus. This project, Mapping the Field of Family Literacy, reflects MCL's goal of building consensus, capacity…

The federally funded Even Start Family Literacy Program supports local family-centered education projects intended to help families with young children break the cycle of poverty and illiteracy. This report documents the efforts of nine Even Start projects that demonstrate promising practices in serving infants and toddlers and their families. The…

A Tucson, Arizona elementary school is one of 45 development sites for the Toyota Families in Schools Program, which brings in parents to learn alongside their children and in their own classrooms for 4 hours daily. Parents also receive vocational instruction aligned with local job opportunities. (MLH)

The study described in this issue of "Look at Even Start" evaluated the Staff Mentoring Sites program, a mentoring program provided as technical assistance in Even Start family literacy programs. Staff from five Even Start programs with successful family recruitment and retention records were selected as mentors. Requests for nominations…