Goal #3: Policy

• Changing the Course of Family Literacy (2017) 

• Response to Washington Post Article (2011) 

• CRS Even Start Funding Controversy (2006)

• Even Start Part Analysis: 3-page summary (2006)

• Even Start Part Analysis: 2-page summary (2006) 

• Even Start's Impact on Families (2005) - Policy Brief

• Critique of the Third National Evaluation of Family Literacy (2004) 

• Full Evaluation Critique with States' Supporting Data (2004) 

• The Face of Even Start (2004) 

• Parents' Perceptions of the Impact of Even Start Programs 

Policy Resources

• Family Literacy Infographic 2021 - The inforgraphic provides results from two surveys sent to state adult education directors and local family literacy programs in 2020.

• Although the federally funded Even Start Family Literacy Program is no longer funded, state evaluations and program overviews continue to provide evidence of positive and significant outcomes for the families that participated in these family literacy programs. Several examples include: Texas (2009-2010), Pennsylvania (2008-2009), Illinois (FY 10), Nebraska (2009-2010), Michigan (3 year review from 2008/09 to 2010/11).

• Soliman (2018) provides an overview of the The Even Start Family Literacy Program: The Rise and Fall of Family Literacy and the Need for its Return.

• Follow-up data on older children who have been in family literacy programs are provided in Is Family Literacy Achieving Its Intended Outcome? (2004) to demonstrate their success in school.

• The Brookings Institute demonstrates in the article, "School readiness: Closing racial and ethnic gaps" (2005), the importance of parental and preschool child interventions in eliminating racial and ethnic gaps in school achievement.

• The Anne E. Casey Foundation released a KIDS COUNT special report, Early Warning! Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters (2010), to emphasize the critical importance of having all children achieve grade-level proficiency by the third grade. Learning to read is paramount to children's success in school. An update was written in 2013 -- Early Warning Confirmed.

• The National Center for Family Literacy and the National Institute for Literacy developed a report, The Effect of Family Literacy Interventions on Children's Acquisition of Reading from Kindergarten to Grade 3 (2006), that reviewed the scientific literature on parent involvement and the acquisition of children's reading from kindergarten to grade 3. The results from the meta-analytic review were clear: Parent involvement has a positive impact on children's reading acquisition.