This study was inspired by the literary elements of "cuentos tipicos" (culturally-relevant stories). The book "Prietita y la llorona" ("Prietita and the Ghost Woman") written by Anzaldua (1995) is a good example of a "cuento" that provides information about medicinal herbs and also includes…

Examines early educational interventions aimed at preventing school failure. Presents typology of prevention and intervention. Describes four examples of preventive intervention and critiques their effectiveness, acceptability, and generalization: High Scope, Reading Recovery, Focused Literacy Programme, and parent involvement programs to support…

The Even Start program, designed to demonstrate ways of implementing and delivering family literacy services, has had strong evaluation requirements since its inception. An analysis was conducted to determine the types of evaluations programs had conducted and their findings concerning Even Start outcomes. A convenience sample of 4 state…

Describes the Support at Home for Early Language and Literacies (SHELLS) project, an early literacy intervention for families of children between birth and age 3 in rural Australia. Findings from monitoring suggest that this collaborative, flexible model has the potential to assist families from a range of social, cultural, economic, and…

This newsletter issue focuses on the issues surrounding and benefits of childcare that actively involves the family. Articles include: (1) "The Working Parents' Dilemma"; (2) "The Consortium of Family Organizations"; (3) "Children's Services: Directions for the Future"; (4) "Implementing Strategic Policies for…

This fact sheet begins with an overview of family support programs, which includes a discussion of the premises of family support programs and the assumptions on which they are based, and a list of typical program components. The remainder of the fact sheet focuses on one type of family support program, family literacy programs. These programs…

This report of a hearing presents testimony on H.R. 2535, the School Excellence and Reform Act, also cited as the "Even Start Act," a bill aiming to combine into a single educational program adult basic education for parents and school readiness training for children at risk. The specific intent of the legislation was to establish a…

Using interviews and videotaped observations, this study examined family contributions to their 5-year-olds' literacy development in a 5-month family literacy program developed by their children's teachers. Results suggested that children's literacy can be developed through everyday family experiences and that the richest resource for literacy…

"The ERIC Review" announces research results, publications, and new programs relevant to each issue's theme topic. This second issue contains three principal articles: "Issues in Adult Literacy Education," by JoAnn Crandall and Susan Imel; "Emergent Literacy: An Early Reading and Writing Concept," by Carl B. Smith;…

Early literacy experiences play an important role in later literacy skills and school achievement. Communities offer early literacy experiences in a variety of venues to meet the diverse needs of families. The author of this article provides four vignettes illustrating community-based early literacy activities: (1) private group classes such as…

Stressing the need for activities that are amusing, useful, and fun, this paper outlines a family literacy project that provides parents preparing for the General Education Development (GED) test with literacy activities they can do with their children at home. The paper explains that the project was developed for participants of the Indiana…

This report describes an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Oklahoma City Public Schools' Even Start Family Literacy Project (ESFLP). The ESFLP sought to: (1) improve parents' basic literacy and employment skills; (2) enable parents to take a teaching-guiding role with their children; (3) encourage parents to become true partners with schools…

This report presents findings from the evaluation of the Oklahoma City Public Schools Even Start Program, also called the Family Intergenerational Literacy Model (FILM), now in its twelfth full year of operation. The evaluation focuses on the total population of adult students, preschoolers, adult graduates, and preschool graduates. The…

The Even Start program represents an innovative combination of programs for adult basic education, parenting education, and early childhood education. Focusing on parents and children as a unit, Even Start projects have three interrelated goals: (1) to help parents become full partners in the education of their children; (2) to assist children in…

The Even Start Literacy Program, established in 1989, aims to simultaneously improve the literacy of children and their parents through (1) early childhood education; (2) parenting education; (3) adult education; and (4) parent-child joint literacy activities. The report details findings from the third national Even Start evaluation. The…