Family Literacy: An Annotated
Bibliography
(August 2000)
Part A: Family Literacy
Section 5: Program Development, Assessment,
and Evaluation Procedures
Holt, D.D. (1994). Assessing success in family literacy projects:
Alternative approaches to assessment and evaluation. McHenry,
IL: Delta Systems.
This handbook serves as a resource for staff members interested
in evaluating family literacy projects as it presents alternative
approaches to assessing and evaluating family literacy projects.
Alternative approaches are defined as those that are flexible, represent
the curriculum, are relevant to learners, and indicative of the
abilities and knowledge acquired. Chapter two offers a model for
integrating program planning, implementation and evaluation activities.
Chapter three presents the use of initial assessments at intake
of a family literacy project. Chapter four demonstrates the use
of alternative assessment and evaluation for documenting learners'
progress. Chapter five presents four alternative approaches to assessment
and evaluation, and discusses the processes involved with collecting
data, analyzing data, using data, and reporting data and findings.
Chapter six provides a description of the process used to design
this handbook.
Johnson, R. L., Willeke, M. J., & Steiner, D. J. (1998).
Stakeholder collaboration in the design and implementation of a
family literacy portfolio assessment. American Journal of Evaluation,
19(3), 339–353.
Despite the strong advocacy for stakeholder input in collaborative,
participatory, and empowerment forms of evaluation, little is documented
in the literature describing the involvement of stakeholders in
the decisionmaking processes that occur in evaluation. This case
study examines the implementation of portfolio assessment in an
Even Start Family Literacy Program in Nebraska. Unique to this evaluation
is the strong degree of collaboration between staff and evaluator.
Staff and evaluators collaborated by (1) identifying what was to
be assessed, (2) the decision of the use of the portfolio as a means
of assessment, (3) designing the portfolio assessment, and (4) reviewing
the portfolios. Participants in the family literacy program also
assisted staff by selecting and collecting items to go into the
portfolio. This article ends by offering several lessons learned
from this collaborative evaluation experience.
Le Tendre, M. J. (1997). Strengthening the ties between Title
I and family literacy. Journal of Education for Students Placed
At Risk, 2, 3–5.
The author of this article provides suggestions on how Title I can
support initiatives such as family literacy to enhance parent involvement.
Because Even Start limits family involvement to families with children
between the ages of 0 to 8, Title I funds can target family literacy
initiatives for families with children older than 8 years. Schools
can also use Title I monies to implement family literacy models
or supplement existing programs. For example, Title I funds can
be used for preschool services.
National Center for Family Literacy. (1996). Outcomes and
measures in family literacy programs. Louisville, KY: Author.
This publication serves as a resource guide for the evaluation of
family literacy programs. Developed by the National Center for Family
Literacy, this manual focuses on evaluating those goals that are
the embodiment of family literacy programs. To assist with planning
program evaluation, the manual is divided into six sections. The
first section is entitled "Important Terms and Concepts"
and defines literacy, as well as family literacy, in order to identify
the outcomes of family literacy programs. The second section, "Assessment
Issues," describes the purpose and types of assessments. To
aid in the selection of measures, the manual provides lists of advantages
and disadvantages associated with different types of assessment.
Section 3, "Participant Outcomes and Measures," provides
a list of short- and long-term participant outcomes for each of
the four components in a comprehensive family literacy program.
Sections 4 through 6 provide lists of published instruments accompanied
by summaries for measures pertaining to adult learner outcomes,
parent and parent-child outcomes, and preschool child outcomes,
respectively.
National Center for Family Literacy (1997). The family literacy
answer book. Louisville, KY: Author.
The objective of this book is to address many of the questions that
are often asked about implementing family literacy programs, developing
curriculum, and meeting the needs of families. Another intention
of this guide is to provide resources for effective family literacy
programs such as lesson plans and a bibliography. This guide is
divided into 10 chapters covering the following topics: collaboration,
curriculum development, adult education, early childhood education,
infants/toddlers, parent and child together time, parent groups,
home visits, and component integration. The guide includes over
70 lesson plans involving adult education, early childhood education,
parent and child together time, and parent groups.
National Center for Family Literacy. (1997). Funding a family
literacy program. Louisville, KY: Author.
Funding a family literacy program is a 12-page guide offering
a step-by-step process to secure funding. These steps include (1)
developing a mission statement, (2) identifying the funding sources
available to you, (3) presenting your case, (4) asking for support,
(5) managing your funding, and (6) asking your funding agency for
more support. This guide offers a beginning framework valuable to
a family literacy program starting to think about funding.
Popp, R. J. (1992). Family portfolios: Documenting the change
in parent-child relationships. Louisville, KY: National Center
for Family Literacy. (ERIC Document Reproduction Services No. ED
342 819).
This guide proposes a method for family literacy programs to
document the evaluation of parent-child relationships. The National
Center for Family Literacy advocates the use of portfolios because
this method enables parent-child relationships to be examined within
a context that encompasses not only the change but how and why the
change occurred. The purpose of this guide is to introduce and describe
portfolio assessment, explain how to begin this type of assessment,
and suggest how it can be implemented in family literacy programs.
The author also includes a description of the three problems the
National Center of Family Literacy has encountered in implementing
portfolio assessment and suggestions for solving these problems.
In addition, methods for analyzing and summarizing portfolios are
discussed. Included in this guide is a reference list of articles
discussing portfolio assessment as well as programs using portfolio
assessment.
Quezada, S., & Nickse, R. (1992). Community collaborations
for family literacy handbook. Boston, MA: Massachusetts State
Board of Library Commissioners.
This handbook is the result of a 16-month project in which six Massachusetts
communities worked on the development and implementation of a collaborative
plan for family literacy. The goal of the project was to enable
the public libraries in the participating communities to serve at-risk
families through the development of a family literacy program. The
handbook is divided into three major sections. The first provides
general background on the history of family literacy and the family
literacy initiative, as well as a discussion on the importance of
collaboration and steps to consider when designing a collaborative
project. Part two takes a more in-depth look at the collaboration
process and makes specific suggestions on ways to best facilitate
progress. Part three helps the reader through the step-by-step process
of writing a successful literacy proposal. Appendixes include an
analysis of the Massachusetts Community Collaborations for Family
Literacy Project Model (the motivation behind this handbook). Also
included is an extensive annotated family literacy resource guide
for parents, teachers, and family literacy and community collaboration
program development.
Ryan, K. E. (1991). An evaluation framework for family literacy
programs. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American
Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL. (ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. ED 331 029).
This article presents a definition of family literacy programs,
a conceptual framework by which components and goals of family literacy
programs can be identified, and an evaluation model for family literacy
programs. The evaluation outlined by the author includes a five-step
approach: (1) needs assessment; (2) accountability; (3) process
evaluation; (4) progress toward objective; and (5) program impact.
The article applies this evaluation process to a family literacy
program. Ryan argues for constructing a portfolio for assessments,
which can include work samples selected by an instructor, samples
selected by the participant, and universally required samples that
can be compared against a normative sample. The author recommends
using this portfolio instead of relying solely on standardized test
results.
Thompson, L. W. (1988). Even Start: Factors to consider in
planning an intergenerational literacy program. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Services No. ED 321 227).
This document reviews literature pertaining to adult, preschool,
and family literacy programs. In her discussion of adult literacy
programs, Thompson identifies specific programs, as well as what
makes these programs effective. With respect to preschool literacy
programs, she highlights the importance of the family in a child's
literacy development. She identifies two types of intergenerational
family literacy programs in addition to several important factors
to take into consideration when planning an Even Start program.
Appendix A presents this information in an outline form.
Wolter, D. L. (1995). Becoming family literacy advocates in
early childhood education. Early Education Journal, 23(2),
89–91.
This article discusses the important role that early childhood educators
can play in promoting family literacy. Ways are addressed for early
childhood educators to be sensitive and supportive of family literacy.
Wolter emphasizes the need to (1) "Recognize that family literacy
is highly individualized;" (2) "Provide nonjudgmental
and confidential support;" and (3) "Use strengths as resources
for literacy enrichment in the classroom."
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