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U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
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Program Evaluation Report
2008-2009 Funding Year
United Way of Southeast Michigan
Women‟s Initiative
Prepared by
Ty Partridge, Ph.D.
September 18, 2009
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Executive Summary
139 families received services from the five women‟s initiative partner agencies during the 2008-
2009 grant year.
We have conducted a validation study on the literacy survey used in the Women‟s Initiative. The
findings demonstrated that the survey developed for the Women‟s Initiative evaluation has very
strong psychometric properties and fills an important gap in the measurement of early childhood
literacy skills and supportive literacy environments. The manuscript stemming from the validation
study is currently under review for the academic journal Applied Developmental Psychology.
Support from the UWSEM Women‟s Initiative is acknowledged and will bring National and
International attention to the work of the Women‟s Initiative following publication. Additionally,
the instrument could be copyrighted and become a source of revenue for the Women‟s Initiative.
Over the four years of Women‟s Initiative funding the home visitor turnover has been less than
10% with the average home visitor having a tenure span of 4 or more years. This is remarkably
higher than the National averages for home visitation programs. The National turnover rate is
approximately 50% with the average length of tenure
In a 1999 Future of Children report on home visitation programs it was concluded that… “In most
of the studies described, programs struggled to enroll, engage, and retain families.” Yet, among
the Women‟s Initiative partner agencies there has been:
o Little difficulty enrolling families. All five agencies hit target enrollments and have full
caseloads. Neighborhood Service Organization‟s HIPPY program for example has a
current wait list of 75 families. Moreover, the number of families that enroll in the
program and then drop-out is under 6% overall.
o Little difficulty engaging families with over 87% of all scheduled home visits occurring.
This is compared to National averages of 42%.
o Little difficulty retaining families. Neighborhood Service Organization‟s HIPPY program
is a shining example of the family commitments – they had a 100% retention of families
participating in their 3yr old curriculum continuing to their 4yr old curriculum.
The scope of impact is also expanding into the broader community. In a sociometric analysis we
found that the average Women‟s Initiative program participant shared what they were learning
regarding early childhood literacy with at least 2 other families. At just one step removed from the
direct service provision the programs are influencing approximately 278 additional families.
There are several key opportunities for the Women‟s Initiative to have an impact on the National
dialogue regarding early childhood literacy and home visitation.
o This is the only funded program that incorporates four of the five empirically validated
home visiting programs under one funding systems and one evaluation umbrella. Such
integration was recently recommended by the…
o The aims of the women‟s initiative parallel the direction of several key Health and Human
Service agencies including the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of
Planning, Research, and Evaluation. These agencies are targeting funding initiatives
toward early childhood literacy and school readiness programs and highlighting home
visitation as a key service delivery model.
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One-year after participating in the program, children whose families participated in the Women’s
Initiative programs:
Had school readiness scores consistent with children from low-risk families
Were significantly more prepared to enter Kindergarten than a comparison group of children
whose families had risks for poor academic achievement similar to their own family’s
Improved support for reading in the home, increased parent knowledge and expectations about
early childhood reading, and improved basic reading readiness skills combined to have a
fundamental and lasting impact on the child and his or her family.
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Background and Statement of Need
The importance of early literacy
Without question, the most vital of all intellectual skills for success in school, and in life, is the
ability to read. Reading is the cornerstone of modern society, which makes even more alarming the
current trend in America of a regression to a divided society of literate and illiterate sub-cultures. The
existence of an inclusive and enlightened society is predicated upon universal literacy. So, how do we
reverse a trend in which 70% of American 7-year-old children do not have a basic understanding of
printed materials (National Council on Reading, 2002)?
Our schools have effective curricula for reading instruction, but for these teaching approaches to
be effective, children must come to school prepared to engage. For those children who start school
lacking fundamental pre-reading skills, the educational community does have demonstrably effective
strategies for remediation such as reading recovery: yet these programs are extremely expensive, time and
resource intensive, and the child begins school already having to work twice as hard just to keep even
with his or her friends.
To be sure, pre-reading or what reading experts call emergent literacy skills are highly complex
and can seem overwhelming to a parent of a struggling reader. And yet, when these skills are learned at
the appropriate developmental time period, they seem as natural to the child as walking. Oddly enough,
the first task in learning to read is learning to hear. The child must be able to not only recognize words
when he or she hears them (what experts call receptive language), but must be able to decipher all of the
individual sounds which make up the word. We are used to thinking of words as being made up of letters
– the basic building blocks of a word. Similarly, each spoken word is comprised of “sound letters”
known as phonemes. To both hear and say a word correctly a child must be able to distinguish all of the
sound letters in a word. For example, if two year old Sally cannot distinguish between the „p‟ sound and
the „b‟ sound, the words „cap‟ and „cab‟ are identical; however, if someone tells you to take a „cap‟ to get
to the airport, it is going to be an arduous trip. The next step in learning to read is by linking the auditory
world to the visual world. Young children, if they are able to distinguish and recognize all of the “sound
letters” in a language, must then begin to understand that each “sound letter” is linked to a specific visual
letter or combination of letters. Rhyming words are extremely effective at helping the child to make these
links. As they are repeatedly presented with words which all either begin with the same sound (think the
quick queen of quincy and her quacking quackeroo) or end with the same sound (Knox in box on fox in
socks) a child begins to see that these words which have the same “sound letters” also have the same
“visual letters”. Acquiring these auditory and visual skills is foundational to learning to read words, but
to comprehend what is read, the child also needs to understand how a narrative works, in other words,
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how strings of words together tell a story or provide information beyond simple word recognition; the
sequence of ideas and events conveyed by words is important. There is no better way for children to
develop this skill than through story telling. Repeatedly hearing a parent tell or read a story and the child
having the opportunity to make up or tell his or her own story are vital to understanding the nature of
narrative.
Emergent literacy is an umbrella concept, which encompasses a host of verbal and cognitive skills that
are necessary precursors to effective reading and writing. Some of these skills include:
1. The child being able to discuss his or her experiences through out the day in a narrative format.
2. The child pretends to both write and read; writing with distinct shapes and in a linear order,
reading by telling narrative stories that are implied to be associated with a text.
3. The child is familiar with the conventions of a book: that there is a front where the story begins,
and a back where the story ends; that reading is done from left-to-right
4. That the child shows basic phonological awareness (i.e,. that individual sounds are linked together
to make words) and that there is a basic understanding of speech sounds corresponding to
individual letters of the alphabet.
5. That the child engages in repeated story-telling and links events in the story to background
knowledge.
Above and beyond these skills the context of reading in the home is critical. Consistently research
has indicated that adult monitored reading in which the pre-reading child engages in word play and is
encouraged to “pretend to read” with adult reinforcement of reading conventions leads to higher quality
reading than simple exposure to books or non-interactive reading where the parent reads aloud with no
participation from the child. Additionally, several studies have found that socioeconomic status is, in and
of itself, unrelated to emergent literacy skills and that rather it is factors such as; parental attitudes toward
education, the educational aspirations for the child of the parent, conversations in the home which are
narrative and include books, that there is accessible reading material in the home, and cultural exposure to
institutions such as the public library.
This is indeed a complicated set of skills and seems to require an elaborate training program,
specialized instruction, and an expensive budget; but nothing could be further from the truth. An engaged
adult, a healthy child, a few really good books from a local library, and 15 minutes a day are all that is
required. One might ask the question, how is it that remediation programs such as reading recovery
require such elaborate programming and yet to prepare a child to be ready to read upon entering school
costs nothing but time and interest?
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16
Human Human Brain Brain at Birthat Birth
6 Years 6 Years
OldOld
14 14
Years Years
OldOld It turns out that the reason becomes quite clear when one
takes a look at the developing brain of a young child. By the
beginning of the third-trimester the creation of new neurons in the
human brain slows considerably. In fact, while we do continue to
develop new neurons over the course of our lives, at the start of
the third trimester an individual has more neurons than they will
have at any other time in life. Yet at birth, the human infant‟s
brain is approximately 20% of his or her adult brain weight. By the time the child is 2-years-old,
however, his or her brain will weigh approximately 75% of its full adult weigh.
What accounts for this dramatic increase in brain development despite the fact that the infant is no
longer producing neurons in any meaningful number? This dramatic increase in brain weight is due to
connections between neurons. Neuron development, like muscle development, is activity dependent. The
experiences of infancy and early childhood literally build the child‟s brain. And like, muscle cells, more
activity means greater capacity and efficiency. But, perhaps most importantly, modern neuroscience has
demonstrated that the brain does not develop uniformly as a whole, but rather develops each area
sequentially. The first brain regions to develop are those
associated with hearing and movement, this is followed closely
by regions associated with vision. Later the hearing areas
expand into more complex language processing areas. Finally,
the brain areas become integrated with hearing, language and
vision all working together allowing the child to think more
comprehensively which ultimately leads to reading. What is
perhaps the striking is that the peak time for development of
these critical brain areas begins in the first few months of life.
The figure to the right shows the rate of neuron connections being made over time.
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This, however; raises a second question; why, if it is so natural for young children to acquire the
skills necessary to read is there an epidemic of children entering school unprepared to learn?
Here are some key facts underlying the lack of early literacy and educational preparedness in Metro-
Detroit.
Children living in poverty have significantly lower levels of phonemic awareness (recognizing
letter sounds), which is perhaps the most important aspect of learning to read, than their more
affluent peers (Hecht & Greenfield, 2001; Nicholson, 1997).
Only 19% of children from families receiving public assistance have requisite preliteracy skills at
kindergarten entry (National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 2000).
Only 38% of children whose mothers had a high school education or less entered kindergarten able to recognize letters, compared to 86% of children with highly educated mothers (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2000)
Only 50% of preschoolers receiving public assistance have alphabet books in their homes, compared to 97% of children with professional parents (McCormick & Mason 1986).
Children from low-SES families receive, on average, a total of only 25 hours of one-on-one picture book reading by school entry, compared to 1000 to 1700 hours for middle-class children (Adams 1990).
Approximately 69% of African American students and 64% of Hispanic students show reading skill deficits, whereas only approximately one third of Anglo American children face comparable difficulties (National Reading Council 1998). SES appears to be the primary force behind academic risk among minority children.
By age 3 children from upper SES families have been exposed to 30 million more words than their low SES peers (American Educator, 2003)
There is clear convergent evidence that early deficiencies in core skills common to children in
poverty significantly impede academic progress (National Read Panel, 1999).
These statistics are an unfortunate reality for many of the children in Detroit. For two-thirds of the
census districts in Detroit between 2002 and 2004, 16% of all live births are to teen mothers, with rates as
high as 23%. Even more striking, of the births to these teen mothers, 22% were repeat pregnancies.
Again for two-thirds of the census districts in Detroit, greater than 11% of women reported smoking
during pregnancy with rates as high as 18%. It should be noted that self-reported rates substantially
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underestimate true-rates of use. Finally, preterm and low-birth-weight infants are the key indicators of
prenatal insult and delayed neurobehavioral development. Again, two-thirds of the census districts
reported rates greater than 13% and 15% for low-birth-weight and preterm births respectively.
Detroit, despite substantial gains in the last decade still ranks among the top five cities in the United
States for rates of nearly every component of neighborhood risk. For example, on a CDC composite
index of child well-being, Detroit ranked 100th
out of the 100 largest cities. Similarly, on a composite
index of social deprivation Detroit ranked as the third-highest out of the largest 100 cities. In fact, on any
sub-component of these indexes Detroit ranked fared no better than 10th
. These sub-components
included the percent of children living in poverty, the percent of individuals with no high school diploma,
the percent of individuals living in concentrated poverty, number of households headed by single and/or
teen mothers, number of children with inadequate prenatal and neonatal health care, and per capita rates
of violent crime.
Community Need and Resource Context
Reading achievement is particularly low for Latino and African American fourth graders, 56 percent and
60 percent, respectively, of whom read at those below-basic levels that do not even provide sufficient
support to allow the completion of schoolwork (Lee, Grigg, & Donahue, 2007). National literacy
assessments reveal that levels of literacy attainment are not much better for eighth or 12th graders or even
adults,
which is not surprising, given that beginning literacy is highly predictive of later literacy
attainment. Detroit is one of the most at-risk communities in the country with respect to literacy success.
Adult literacy rates in Detroit are among the lowest in the United States, as can be seen from findings
from the Knight Community Assessment Project.
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Detroit residents have among the lowest level of library patronage in the United States.
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These risks to early childhood literacy and school readiness are persistent in not only the family but at the
community level as well. The following data present some community profiles for the areas served by the
Women‟s Initiative programs.
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Community Profiles
Below is a breakdown of the percentage of families served by the Women‟s Initiative partner programs by
zip-code. A sample of the community characteristics of these programs is provided as well.
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Community Profile 4822326
3,194 Children 0-4yrs
61% Single Parent Families
Median Income $35,731
31% Childhood Poverty
44% of 3-4yr olds enrolled in pre-school
56% Fail to meet minimum standards in 4th grade English
50% Fail to meet minimum standards in 4th grade Math
Community Profile 48209,21727
4,594 Children 0-4yrs
48% Single Parent Families
Median Income $26,197
36% Childhood Poverty
45% of 3-4yr olds enrolled in pre-school
62% Fail to meet minimum standards in 4th grade English
49% Fail to meet minimum standards in 4th grade Math
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Community Profile 48340
10/13/2009
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4,426 Children 0-4yrs
47.7% Single Parent Families
Median Income $30,356
28.2% Childhood Poverty
80% of 3-4yr olds enrolled in pre-school
63% Fail to meet minimum standards in 4th grade English
40% Fail to meet minimum standards in 4th grade Math
Community Profile 48195
10/13/2009
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1,638Children 0-4yrs
24.6% Single Parent Families
Median Income $46,927
3.5% Childhood Poverty
67% of 3-4yr olds enrolled in pre-school
37% Fail to meet minimum standards in 4th grade English
30% Fail to meet minimum standards in 4th grade Math
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Community Profile 48195
10/13/2009
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1,638Children 0-4yrs
24.6% Single Parent Families
Median Income $46,927
3.5% Childhood Poverty
67% of 3-4yr olds enrolled in pre-school
37% Fail to meet minimum standards in 4th grade English
30% Fail to meet minimum standards in 4th grade Math
The consequences of poor early literacy
On average, a child that has low emergent literacy skills by Kindergarten has an 84% chance of
being a poor reader with poor comprehension by 3rd
grade.
“it is not that children with low levels of those skills cannot succeed in the task of learning to read.
Rather, the reason is that schools provide an age-graded rather than skills-graded curriculum in
which early delays are magnified at each additional step as the gap increases between what
children bring to the curriculum and what the curriculum demands” (Whitehurst and Lonigan,
1998 p. 865).
The education level of a child‟s maternal grandmother significantly predicts the child‟s language
skills, including reading, when that child enters kindergarten. (Luster et al., 2000).
A child with a maternal grandmother on public assistance has a 53% chance of having low literacy
skills upon entering kindergarten (Oxford & Spieker, 2006).
Children not reading well by the end of first grade have 90% chance of remaining poor readers.
(Juel, 1988)
There is an 88% chance that if a child does not "get" reading by the end of 1st grade, the child will
still be a poor reader at the end of 4th grade & there is a 95% probability that those children will
never catch up with their peers (unless there is extensive, expensive intervention) (Reach out and
Read Policy Report, 2004).
38% of 4th graders can't read to grade level. Of these, 10-15% will drop-out of high school and
only 2% will complete a 4-year college degree (Juel, 1988).
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Knowledge of alphabet letters upon entry into Kindergarten is a strong predictor of 10th grade
reading ability. (Ehri, 1998)
Perry Preschool Findings
Incidence of crime. Only 7% of adults who had participated in the Perry Preschool program
had been arrested five or more times, compared with 35% of those who had not participated
in a preschool program. Of those in the preschool program group, 7% had ever been arrested
for drug-related offenses, compared to 25% of those in the no-program group.
Earnings and economic status. Adults in the program group were four times more likely
(29%) to earn $2,000 or more per month than were adults in the no-program group (7%).
Almost three times as many (36%) owned their own homes, compared to those in the no-
program group (13%). More than two times as many (program 30%, no program 13%) owned
a second car. As adults, 59% of those in the program group had received welfare assistance or
other social services at some time, compared to 80% of those in the no-program group.
Educational attainment. Seventy-one percent of those in the program group graduated from
regular or adult high schools or received General Education Development certification,
compared with 54% of those in the no-program group. Earlier in the study, the preschool
program group had significantly higher average achievement scores at age 14 and literacy
scores at age 19.
Marriage and single parenthood. Forty percent of women in the program group were
married at the time of the age-27 interview, compared to 8% of those in the no-program
group; and 57% of women in the program group were single parents, compared to 83% of
those in the no-program group.
How do the programs funded by the Women’s Initiative make a difference?
Parent-Child Home (Catholic Social Services)
Every Parent-Child Home Program site adheres to a carefully developed and well-tested model to
ensure high quality services and consistent results. Each site is run by a Site Coordinator hired by the
local sponsoring agency and trained by The Parent-Child Home Program's National Center. These Site
Coordinators then recruit and train Home Visitors. Typically, families participate in the two-year program
when their child is 2 and 3-years-old. A child can, however, enter the Program as young as 16 months and
some sites serve families with children up to 4-years-old. A Home Visitor is assigned to the participating
family and visits them for half-an-hour, twice-a-week on a schedule that is convenient for the parents. On
the first visit of each week, the Home Visitor brings a carefully-selected book or educational toy as a gift
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to the family. In the twice-weekly home sessions with the parent (or other primary caregiver) and the
child, the Home Visitor models verbal interaction and reading and play activities, demonstrating how to
use the books and toys to cultivate language and emergent literacy skills and promote school readiness.
Over the course of the two years in the Program, families acquire a library of children's books and a large
collection of educational and stimulating toys. A Program Year consists of a minimum of 23 weeks of
home visits (or 46 home visits).
Training in multicultural awareness and the ethics of home visiting are important components of the
Parent-Child Home Program training curriculum for Site Coordinators and Home Visitors. Respect and
understanding are critical for successful home visiting relationships.
THE IMPORTANCE OF PARENT-CHILD INTERACTION
All children's first years should be filled with verbal stimulation to build language and literacy skills. Each
day should be full of discovery and offer opportunities to gain new skills and learn new concepts.
Fostering verbal interaction between parents and their young children is a critical component of healthy
and successful development (Bruner, 1964 and 1966; Vygotsky 1962). The importance of this interaction
has been further validated by recent brain and language development research (Hart & Risley). Formative
research on The Parent-Child Home Program's 1965 pilot project (titled the Mother-Child Home
Program) affirmed that this critical parent-child interaction could be strengthened by modeling reading,
play and conversation for parents and children in their own homes
SCHOOL READINESS: BRIDGING THE PREPARATION GAP
Across the country, millions of children begin kindergarten unprepared. They are "left behind" as early as
the first day of school. These children have not adequately experienced books and quality verbal
interaction. They do not have the language skills they need to successfully interact with their teachers and
their classmates. They may not be able to control their behaviors or emotions as well as other students.
Without the skills they need to successfully adjust to the classroom, they begin their academic careers a
critical step behind their peers. Many of these children will never catch up.
The Parent-Child Home Program bridges this "preparation gap" by helping families challenged by
poverty, limited education, language and literacy barriers, and other obstacles to school success prepare
their children to enter school ready to learn.
THE APPROACH: MODELING VS. TEACHING
The Parent-Child Home Program utilizes a non-directive approach by modeling behaviors for parents that
enhance children's development rather than teaching behaviors. Home Visitors help parents realize their
role as their children's first and most important teacher, generating enthusiasm for learning and verbal
interaction through the use of engaging books and stimulating toys. Parents are never given homework or
assignments to complete but are encouraged to continue quality play and reading between visits with the
books and toys they receive each week. The "light touch" employed by Parent-Child Home Program
Home Visitors is non-intimidating and empowers parents, allowing them to become their child's first and
most important teachers and take pride in their commitment to, and impact on, their child's education.
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HIPPY (Neighborhood Service Organization)
HIPPY‟s Guiding Theories
Given the growing awareness of a connection between early educational experiences and adult
success in the social and economic spheres, the importance of early childhood education for children in
families with fewer resources and advantages became a focal point of research and policy in the latter half
of the twentieth century. Considerable research over the past several decades has established a strong link
between home environment and school performance (Bertrand, McCain, Mustard, & Willms, 1999; Chao
and Willms, 2000; Lillie 1975; Mantzicopoulos, 1997), and several studies have suggested the existence
of preconditions that are favorable to school success, such as specific aspects of the home environment
(Vernon-Feagans, Hammer, Miccio & Manlove, 2001; Wasik, Dobbins & Herrmann, 2001); the value of
education in the home and expectations of parents (Fan & Chen, 1999); and verbal interaction patterns
between parents and children (Hart and Risley 1995). Indeed, research on parent involvement has
suggested that the involvement of parents in their children‟s educational activities in the home is an
important predictor of school success (Bennett, Weigel, & Martin, 2002; Fehrmann, Keith, & Reimers,
1987; Ho and Willms, 1996; Parker, Boak, & Griffin, 1999; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). Despite
recognition of the importance of the home as an educational setting, most programs that have been
developed to address inequities in educational access and attainment have concentrated their efforts
within the school system. HIPPY, however, is designed to target intervention within the family.
HIPPY‟s focus on the parent also follows the growing research base on the importance of the primary
caregiver during early childhood in stimulating early development of young children (Wagner, Spiker,
Linn, Gerlach-Downie, & Hernandez, 2003).
Recognizing that barriers to early intervention within the homes of vulnerable families may
include not only limited access and resources for educational materials but also limited parental awareness
of the home as an educational setting and lack of self-efficacy among parents (Lombard, 1994), the
HIPPY approach has two points of focus: 1) the strengthening of the parents‟ self-efficacy through the
activities he or she does as “an educator in the family setting”, and 2) the educational enrichment of the
child through the provision of curriculum activities, books, and other educational materials (Lombard
1994, p 8). HIPPY addresses these areas through a structured home visitation model that includes the
delivery of instructional materials with a cognitively based curriculum, role play as a teaching method for
the parent, and a staffing plan that encourages community participation and growth.
HIPPY‟s approach to curricular design is based on programmed instruction principles. Early
research in instructional technique has indicated that young children from disadvantaged families can
achieve success with highly structured materials (Lombard, 1994). The HIPPY activities, therefore, are
structured to “progress in simple, planned stages with the objective of providing children with a series of
tasks that they can master easily as they advance to levels of increasing difficulty” (Lombard 1994, p 18).
The content of the HIPPY curriculum responds to early childhood learning goals in seven domains:
literacy, language development, physical and motor development, social/emotional development,
mathematics, science, and creativity (Greene, 2003). Recognizing the range of functioning experienced by
young children, learning activities emphasize the development of a series of concepts over a three year
period; the curriculum is structured to progress by adding and expanding upon a child‟s emerging skills
(Lombard, 1994; Greene, 2003). Lessons are scripted to facilitate use by novice “teachers,” eliminating
the need for the parent to make independent decisions about instruction technique or progress. Parents
become more sensitive to their role as instructor over time as their children‟s mastery of the concepts
grows.
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The use of role play in the parent training element of the HIPPY program is grounded in
experiential learning theory, which emphasizes interaction, doing, and reflection (Fenwick, 2003; Shields,
Aaron, & Wall, 2001). According to experiential learning theory, the concrete experience afforded by
role play provides the parent and home visitor the foundation and opportunity for discussion and
reflection about the activity and learning process, through which abstract concepts and generalizations
about learning and teaching are developed (Lombard 1994; Sala, 1986; Shields, Aaron, & Wall, 2001). In
role play, learning occurs through modeling and through the dialogic reflection between the parent and
home visitor. Role play promotes self-efficacy and confidence in a way unique among instructional
techniques by requiring parents to take an active part in the instructional process, either as the teacher or
the learner. Additionally, role play is a desirable method of instruction because it can be easily mastered
by individuals with limited formal education and literacy skills (Willis and Gueldenpfenning, 1981).
HIPPY‟s Target Population
HIPPY is intended for any parent who wants educational enrichment for his or her preschool aged
child. HIPPY, however, was developed to support and foster the active involvement of parents who may
lack the confidence and/or skills to “educate” their children due to their own negative educational
experiences. These parents are often also low income, but socio-economic level is not always an indicator
of the need for HIPPY. The HIPPY model was specifically designed to remove barriers to participation in
early childhood programs caused by poverty, lack of education, or social isolation. Additionally, the
model‟s approach to recruitment of home visitors and parents is designed to engage parents with children
who are at greater risk of school failure because of poverty, parents‟ lower levels of education, and other
risk factors.
HIPPY‟s Guiding Principles
HIPPY is built upon these guiding principles:
1) All parents want what is best for their children;
2) All young children can learn, though each child is unique in his/her rate of growth and
development;
3) All children mature in the same developmental areas;
4) Early learning and development are multidimensional and the developmental domains are
highly interrelated;
5) Parents are the primary and most important educators of their young children; and
6) Knowledge and understanding of child growth and development and age-appropriate materials
and techniques are essential to maximize educational experiences for children and to support
parents in their roles as their children‟s teachers. (Greene, 2003)
The HIPPY Method (Teaching Model)
HIPPY programs are staffed by home visitors drawn from the target population or community,
who are supervised by a professional coordinator who has a background in an area such as early
childhood or social work. The curriculum is delivered (and role play occurs) during home visits
interspersed with bi-weekly group meetings. In the HIPPY teaching model, the home visitor meets with
the parent to role play a lesson and the parent then completes the activity packets in the lesson with his or
her child during daily 15-20 minute sessions. This method both fosters parent-child interaction and
provides parents the experience of teaching their child themselves.
The HIPPY model includes the use of a unique and developmentally appropriate curriculum, with
role play as the method of teaching the parent the skills needed to implement the curriculum with their
child. Each of the three HIPPY curricula (for ages three, four, and five) contains 30 weekly activity
packets, nine storybooks for each year as well as a set of 20 manipulative shapes. The HIPPY curriculum
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focuses on exposing children to skills, concepts, and experience with books that together constitute school
readiness for young children (Lombard 1994; Greene 2003). Skills and concepts are developed and built
on sequentially through completion of the weekly activities. In addition to the core HIPPY materials,
HIPPY USA has developed enrichment materials to enhance the curriculum and provide additional
learning opportunities for children.
Group meetings, interspersed with home visits, are an integral part of the HIPPY model. During
group meetings, parents come together to learn as a community with a focus on topics relating to school
involvement, community involvement, child learning, and personal development. Group meetings are
considered an important element because they are a means for breaking the social isolation frequently
experienced by low income and low education populations and an opportunity for parents to develop
social networks.
Each HIPPY program is supervised by a professional coordinator whose primary responsibilities
are to recruit parents, hire and train home visitors, organize parent group meetings, track family progress,
link families to other services, and ensure program sustainability. The coordinator and the home visitors
meet weekly to role play the materials, to discuss the previous week‟s activities, and to share experiences
and problems. Supervision of home visitors by coordinators occurs largely through these weekly
meetings.
HIPPY home visitors are members of the participating communities and are also current or former
parents in the program. The home visitors‟ knowledge of their unique communities facilitates the
development of rapport and trusting relationships with families, and, by having used the HIPPY materials
with their own children, home visitors identify with the challenges parents face. Because home visitors
and parents speak the same language both literally and figuratively, they interact as peers.
The HIPPY Logic Model
The HIPPY Logic Model diagram presents a series of activities and outcomes that are expected to
occur for parents and children who are enrolled in the program for at least curriculum years 4 and 5, but
preferably for all three years. The model progresses linearly, and presents a chain of events that may be
read as a logical progression using “if… then” statements. However, as with most complex systems
involving behavior change and skill development, the events and stages in the logic model are recursive
and will experience feedback and possibly reversion before moving forward. Below is a narrative
description of the stages in the HIPPY Logic Model describing the chain of events that links the activities
of the HIPPY program to the final outcomes for children and parents who participate in the program.
HIPPY Activities
HIPPY USA has published a list of required and recommended program practices, which outlines
the guidelines for operating programs. Programs seeking certification are assessed annually during on-
site visits by HIPPY USA trainers. Once certification is obtained, programs are assessed every 3 years.
HIPPY USA trainers use the comprehensive Self-Assessment and Validation Instrument (SAVI) to assess
programs. The SAVI contains indicators for practices in the program areas of Home Visiting, Group
Meetings, Role Playing, Curriculum, Staffing/Training/Supervision, Administration, Outreach and
Collaboration, and Documentation.
Home visits are employed as the primary means of contact with participating families, and are
conducted at least biweekly. Home visits last at least 30 minutes with the bulk of the time devoted to role
play. The parent is the focus of the home visit, and home visitors are required to individualize the home
visit to the family‟s language needs, including parent literacy level. During home visits, parent educators
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set the stage for parent instruction by helping parents set goals for themselves and their child. Home
visitors also model teaching behavior for the parent and provide support and encouragement to the parent
throughout the HIPPY year. Home visitors are trained in strategies for building rapport and begin each
visit with a short period of conversation meant to build connection and engage parents.
The structured home visit activities include:
- Review the previous week‟s completed activity packet with the parent;
- Discuss the educational objectives of the current activities or review the Parent Skill Boxes (new
home visitors);
- Share child development activities and concepts;
- Share activity related information discussed during the previous staff meeting;
- Role play the current activity packet with the parent;
- Provide the parent with other educational materials, extension activities or resources, if
appropriate; and
- Inform the parent of program, school or community events.
In addition to home visits, programs are expected to hold a minimum of ten group meetings on a
biweekly basis during the program year. Group meetings must be held at a time and place convenient to
parents, and parents select topics for group meetings.
During group meetings the following activities occur:
- Parents role play the weekly activity packet
- Parents are presented with additional parenting information
- Parents receive additional educational materials, information, and resources
- Parents learn about school culture and organization
- Parents are exposed to a variety of topics that support their personal growth
The role play and instruction parents receive during home visits and group meetings are designed
to encourage and support parents to complete the weekly activity packets with their children. After role
playing activity packets during home visits and group meetings, parents work with their children to
complete the assigned activity packets. Parents are expected to spend approximately 15 minutes per day,
five days per week working on the activity packets with their child. Parents may also complete the
supplemental extension activities with their child if they choose to do so. Activity packets include
explicit directions for parents to use in instructing their child. Role play models appropriate instructional
and interactive behaviors and also assists parents with creating a learning environment conducive to
positive interactive exchanges including establishing a work setting in the home and a routine and
schedule for completing the activities. Through these activities, parents provide their children with
developmentally appropriate pre-academic instruction.
Stage 1 Outcomes
Stage 1 outcomes are the changes in children and parents that are expected to occur during the
time the family is enrolled in HIPPY.
In the course of reviewing and role playing the weekly activity packets with home visitors, parents
gain knowledge in child development as well as a better understanding of age appropriate expectations for
their child‟s development. They learn HIPPY teaching principles and techniques (repetition of words,
positive correction, and appropriate encouragement) as well as skills for initiating, monitoring and
directing educational activities with their child. Parents are encouraged to find new ways to become
involved in their child‟s pre-academic learning and apply skill building techniques learned in HIPPY to
daily interactions with their HIPPY child and other children. Through participation in HIPPY it is also
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expected that parents will progressively improve their time management skills, become more responsive
and responsible (as they are coached in the use and care of HIPPY materials) and thereby establish habits,
routines and schedules for interacting with their child around educational activities.
At the same time that parents are increasing the time they spend on educational activities with
their child, the HIPPY activity packets are increasing in complexity and length, thus providing further
learning opportunities for HIPPY children. These educational opportunities and learning activities will
foster children‟s development across domains and the acquisition of pre-academic skills.
HIPPY is designed so that parents develop more empathy for their child and gain a better
appreciation of their child‟s skill level and progress. As parent and child complete the weekly packets,
they will naturally spend more time in quality interactions, thereby increasing the bond, on-going
communication, and the confidence levels and feelings of achievement for both parent and child.
Parents are instructed using developmental concepts and terminology. Therefore, they acquire
knowledge of the professional language used by educators that allows parents to be more effective
communicators and advocates for their children with teachers, physicians and other professionals.
Through HIPPY parents develop increased understanding of their responsibility in guiding their child‟s
preschool instruction and their academic support role once the child is in school, leading to involvement
in school activities.
A goal for parents attending group meetings with other parents from their community is an
increased level of comfort participating in social interactions and group learning. As a result, parents often
form new social networks and interact in a cooperative manner with other parents (e.g. joint outings,
trading child care services etc.). Group meeting topics inform parents about parenting skills; community
resources and events; and school events, personnel, policies, and procedures thus reinforcing information
distributed by staff during home visits. This exposure translates over time into an increased connection
between the parent and the child‟s school (once the child begins formal education) and between the parent
and the community. This provides the foundation for parents to become active members of the home-
school-community partnership, often volunteering within and advocating for, the schools and related
activities (e.g. parent-teacher organization, classroom volunteer, holiday parties, little league etc.).
Stage 2 Outcomes
Stage 2 outcomes are the changes in children and parents that are expected to have
occurred by the time the family has completed the HIPPY 3, 4 and 5 curricula or HIPPY 4 and 5
curricula.
After completing a minimum of two years of HIPPY with their children, parents will have
acquired skills and habits necessary to teach academic skills to their children and to guide their
educational experiences in the home and the community. Through the addition of the HIPPY materials
and the new knowledge and skills learned by both parents and children, the general home literacy
environment will also have improved, and the level of parent-child interaction will have increased.
Through completing HIPPY activities with their parents, children will have acquired the pre-academic
skills and knowledge in HIPPY‟s seven key learning domains that enable them to be successful in
kindergarten. This should be reflected in successful performance on standardized tests of school readiness
and academic progress.
Through the skills and information conveyed during the home visits and group meeting activities
parents will have become comfortable as their children‟s teachers and will have the language, knowledge,
experience and confidence to assume an active role as their child enters a formal academic environment.
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They establish a routine and conducive environment for homework and use their skills to effectively
monitor and assist their child with homework. They advocate for their child and communicate regularly
and successfully with their children‟s teachers. They attend school events, participate in school-based
parent activities, and volunteer in their children‟s classrooms.
Stage 3 Outcomes
Stage 3 outcomes are the changes in the child and parent that are expected to occur after the family
has completed HIPPY.
In the long term it is expected that the training and experiences parents receive through HIPPY
and the resulting early educational experiences their children receive will result in sustained parent
involvement in the school system and in assisting their children with homework, providing learning
activities for their children at home and in the community, increased family involvement in local
communities, stronger parent-child relationships, and long-term academic success for children.
Health Families America (Oakland County)
1) Eligibility assessment completed anytime during pregnancy or by the 75th
day of the birth of the child.
2) Eligibility determination is made based on a score through the validated rater reliable Kempe Family
Stress Checklist.
The Kempe Family Stress Checklist is the assessment toll required by Healthy Families Indiana to assess
the needs of all families. The Kempe assesses for the presence of factors including increased risk for child
maltreatment or other poor childhood outcomes.
3) Home-based services that include:
Focus for the first 3-6 months will be basic childcare including; infant/child development, bathing,
nutrition, and activities to do with the baby.
Promoting positive parent/child interaction and bonding
Use of parent child interaction curriculum
Child‟s health care needs
Linkage to medical provider/medical home
Immunizations – acceptable rate is 90%
Family‟s health care needs
Financial management
Linkage to community resources
Transportation issues/needs
Appropriate relationship issues
Assessment issues
4) Tools for assessing child development needs:
Individual Family Support Plan (IFSP) – is used as a guide for services through the use of curriculum,
literature, and referrals to community resources.
Denver II Development Screen – Monitors healthy growth for the child and insures proper referrals to
such programs as First Steps when a child demonstrates delays or fails on the Denver II. The Denver II is
completed at 3, 6, and 12 months, and every 6 months after year one up through age three on the child of
focus. The Denver II is then completed yearly after age three.
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H.O.M.E. Inventory – used to assist in evaluating the impact of a child‟s surroundings on later cognitive
growth.
Community Life Skills Scale (CLSS) & Difficult Life Circumstances (DLC) – Both the CLSS and DLC
are used to measure the existence of chronic family problems and the family‟s ability to negotiate in the
community.
5) Curriculum
Indiana Healthy Families uses curricula and other appropriate materials that are representative of our
target population, and considers the culture, race, ethnic and linguistic make of families. Curriculum
included, but not limited to; PIPE, Help at Home, San Angelo, Resource Mother, Middle of the Night,
Great Beginnings, First Steps with Your Baby, Parenting the First Year, Gymboree, Partners for a Healthy
Baby, Prenatal Curriculum, and Growing Child.
6) Training for Family Support Specialist
130 initial required hours
Ongoing in-service training (30 hours per year)
Advanced training for supervisors
CPR and First Aid certification required
8) Quality Assurance
To insure that families are receiving best practice, the supervisor is required to do Quality Assurance
Calls/Shadowing on a specific number of families on their FSS staff:
Supervisors do quality assurance calls on new employees at the end of the 90-day introductory
period.
15% of the FSS‟s total caseload is contacted
Supervisors do quality assurance calls on all FSS staff one time every six months on 50% of
the caseload or a minimum of 10 clients, whichever number is great or more frequently as
determined by the supervisor and program manager.
All new employees are shadowed a minimum of three (3) times within their first 90 days of
employment
Supervisors shadow all new sign on visits with new employees until they reach 75%
Supervisors shadow sign on visits with established staff that fall below 75% and who exhibit a
pattern of low sign rate as detected by reports, supervision, etc.
9) Graduation from Program
Graduation from the program occurs when the target child has reached at least three (3) years
of age, has been on Level IV for at least three months, the family has maintained stability in the
home for a minimum of three (3) months, the child of focus is in a stable and nurturing
environment that may include pre-school, Head Start, or childcare, the child‟s growth and
development are age appropriate, immunizations are current, and the family agrees to end
services.
If the supervisor and FSS determine the participant is eligible for graduation, they fill out a
Graduation Level Form and submit this to Data Entry for entry into the DATATUDE system.
The participant, FSS, and supervisor decide what type of graduation ceremony will take place.
This may include a presentation at a Group function, at an Advisory Council meeting or privately.
Some participants will never qualify to graduate from the program for a variety of
reasons. These participants will receive a certificate of participation but no formal graduation
procedure.
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Parents as Teachers (Guidance Center and Leaps & Bounds)
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Women’s Initiative Logic Model
Despite different program models and curricula, there are several universal features of the home visiting
programs funded by the Women‟s Initiative. The basic logic model across program type is provided in
the figure below.
Women’s Initiative Universal Logic Model
These commonalities are now being recognized as a value by home visiting advocates at a National level
as indicated by the common statement of purpose released by the five major home visiting prevention
programs in the summer of 2009.
Shared Vision Statement Rationale
• Prevention services in general are underfunded and a low priority on our nation’s domestic policy
agenda. The complexity and volume of need among families and young children in this nation far exceeds
the capacity of any one of our programs. Therefore, we will work together to advocate for a greater
investment in effective prevention programs for children and families.
• Home visitation is a service delivery strategy that is essential to better support our country’s youngest
children. We are unified in our view that building relationships with parents and children in their home
environments is a uniquely valuable approach to nurturing parental competence and successful early
childhood development. Together, we intend to make this type of service delivery practice more broadly
accepted and a welcome and trusted approach in family development.
• Communities require a strong continuum of effective programs for children and families in need of
support throughout their life spans. There are many communities that are successfully implementing
multiple home visiting programs in an integrated approach to building that continuum of care. We
applaud those communities for successfully collaborating to meet the varied needs of families.
• Different programs may be eligible for different sources of funding and those differences can be helpful
in reducing competition and improving collaboration. We each will work to expand existing and build
new funding streams for home visiting services from all possible sources and support funding streams that
allow states and communities to choose among quality programmatic options.
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• We are all committed to ensuring each of the local implementations of our respective national models is
strong and effective. We are all working to provide guidance and support that will enable local agencies
to adhere to the quality standards set by each model.
• All of our programs commit to maintain and enhance our capacity to use solid and rigorous research
and evaluation to implement our programs effectively and to assess and strengthen outcomes for children
and families. We recognize that each program contributes its own experiences and perspectives to the
discussion on program efficacy. We will continue to support one another’s commitment to continuous
quality improvement and ongoing program evaluation to better meet the needs of the families we serve.
National Home Visiting Programs' Shared Vision Statement
The senior programming, advocacy and executive leadership of five of the leading national home
visitation programs (Healthy Families America, HIPPY, Nurse-Family Partnership, Parents as Teachers
and The Parent-Child Home Program) have developed a shared vision to nurture the healthy, secure
development of our nation‟s children and families. These organizations are committed to maintaining an
on-going, direct and honest dialogueand improved communication among our programs. Each
organization shares a passion for and a commitment to improving the well-being of our nation‟s children
and families and focusing national attention on home visiting as a critical service delivery strategy for
strengthening America‟s children and families. While each program is uniquely designed, they all have a
valuable role to play in meeting the complex needs of families and communities across the country. The
organizations have determined that they have a great deal in common and endorse this, as their common
vision:
Core Program Beliefs
Communities are Best Served by a Range of Quality Home Visitation Program Options
Families Nationwide Need Access to Early Childhood Home Visitation Services
Continuous Quality Improvement is Essential
The Universal Logic model of the programs funded through the UWSEM Women‟s Initiative illustrates
an additional innovation that has undergirded much of the success of the Women‟s Initiative programs
over the last four years. Unlike many of the large scale evaluations that have been conducted on the
effectiveness of home visitation prevention interventions, this program emphasizes a uniform and well-
defined outcome in early childhood literacy. This focus has afforded several key advantages.
1. It is an objective, tangible outcome that can be directly linked to intervention activities. In many
large scale evaluations the outcomes are too broad and not directly impacted by the program
services, thus leading to mixed evaluation findings.
2. We have developed a measurement tool that links program activities to program outcomes in a
demonstrable way. Because the constructs used in defining outcomes in many evaluation studies
are too broadly conceptualized, measurement concerns limit the degree to which program impact
can be observed.
3. The parent and child outcomes have the potential for rapid improvement and are highly evident to
both home visitation specialists and families, thus increasing the likelihood for family engagement
and lower levels of home visitor burn-out. They can both see the difference the program makes.
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The primary outcomes in many evaluations of home visitation programs are so distal to the
program activities that neither the parent nor the home visitor get much immediate reinforcement
and as a result families often disengage prematurely and there is high home visitor turn over due to
burn out.
In keeping with the core value of the shared home visitation vision statement, providing high quality
continuous quality improvement evaluation is central to the work of the Women‟s Initiative. The
evaluation philosophy and conceptual models employed in the evaluation of the Women‟s Initiative
partner programs is provided below.
Evaluation Conceptualization Model
Developmental Science & Community Partnerships
Service
Providers
Families in
the
Community
Developmental
Science
Philanthropy &
Development
Continual
Discourse
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Action Oriented Evaluation ModelProcess
Evaluation
Outcome
Evaluation
Needs
AssessmentProgram Design
Monitoring &
Accountability
Quality
Review /
Program
Clarification
Defining Need and
Scope
Mediating
Outcomes
Program
Community
Impact
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Process Evaluation Outcomes
Overall Units of Service:
Catholic Social Services o 38 families were served o 363 home visits were made – an average of 10.5 per family
The Guidance Center o 35 families were served o 92 home visits were made – an average of 3 per familiy
There were 402 total contacts with families, however; because the Parents as Teachers model uses center based activities and regular phone contact follow-up in addition to home visits.
Leaps and Bounds o 47 families were served o 98 home visits were made – an average of 3.1 per family
Healthy Families Oakland o 23 families were served o 253 home visits were made – an average of 11 per family
Neighborhood Service Organization o families were served o 384 home visits were made – an average of 12 per family
Number of Visits/Contacts significantly predicts: o Family Engagement
These programs are only effective when the family fully participates. o Quality of Relationship with Home Visitor
Across all four agencies home visitor quality is very high and retention of the home visitor is well above national trends in home visitation programs. There has been no turn over in home visitors across the three funding years. The National average rate of home visitor turn-over is approximately 9-months.
o Effectiveness of the Intervention o Long-Term Maintenance of Effects
Having access to social service referral sources and home visitor training in social service referral systems is associated with increased focus on literacy during the home visit and improved family participation. All home visitors would benefit from having full 211 training.
Mother feeling that she can “relate” to the home visitor strong predictor of program success
Shrinking resources for early intervention services such as Early On & Even Start have a negative impact on program effectiveness for highest risk children facing multiple social and cognitive risks.
Lack of availability and resources for high quality child care negatively impact program performance. Fostering greater communication and partnerships between home visitation programs, quality child
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care sources, local school systems, and additional early childhood services would greatly increase the scope of coverage, the program efficiency and maintenance of effects through out the child’s development. Perhaps the biggest need in early-childhood services is improved coordination and integration of programming.
Secondary Influences of Home Visiting
One innovation from the current program year in terms of evaluation is that we used a snowball
recruitment technique to assess the degree to which home visiting services were reaching families beyond
the target families. This methodology asks caregivers receiving direct home visitation services to identify
the number of other caregivers with whom they discussed the literacy knowledge and skills they were
acquiring in the program. This is an indicator of secondary or ripple effect influences of home visitation
programs. We found that across the program participants were transferring their knowledge to an average
of 2.3 other adults who were primary caregivers for children under the age of 5. Thus the program does
have substantial ripple effects in the community beyond those being served directly.
Measurement Tools
We have conducted a validation study on the literacy survey used in the Women‟s Initiative. The findings
demonstrated that the survey developed for the Women‟s Initiative evaluation has very strong
psychometric properties and fills an important gap in the measurement of early childhood literacy skills
and supportive literacy environments. The manuscript stemming from the validation study is currently
under review for the academic journal Applied Developmental Psychology. Support from the UWSEM
Women‟s Initiative is acknowledged and will bring National and International attention to the work of the
Women‟s Initiative following publication. Specifically we found that the reliability of the early childhood
literacy assessment (ECLA) was .93 and the individual sub-scale reliabilities ranged from .76 - .91. The
industry standard for acceptable measurement reliability is .70. So the early childhood literacy
assessment developed for the Women‟s Initiative evaluation has demonstrated a high degree of reliability.
Further, the ECLA was correlated with the verbal subscales of the ASQ at .53, but it was not significantly
correlated with non-verbal subscales such as fine and gross motor scales. This indicates that the ECLA
has substantial construct validity.
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The following figures present the measurement model for the ECLA assessment tool.
Measurement ModelsParent Attributes
Reading a Habit
How Often Reads to Child
Designated Reading Time
Reading Environment
Provides Books of Interest
Number of Books
Measurement ModelsParent Attributes
Amount of T.V.
Age Began Reading to
Child Attitudes About Reading
Importance of Reading
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Measurement ModelsParent Attributes
Play Rhyming Games
Teach Letter Sounds
Use Contextual Print
Reading Quality
Snuggle
Change Expression
Emphasize Rhymes
Use Pictures to increase Vocab
Encourage Repeating
Encourage Active Reading
Read Same Stories
Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Interest in Newspapers
Asks to be read to
Interest in books
Interest in Reading
Asks for help reading in context
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Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Fills in Narrative
Points to Pictures
Ask Questions about
Characters Reading Engagement
Identifies Words in Environment
Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Makes up Stories
Pretends to Read
Narrative Skills
U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
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Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Notices Rhymes
Plays Rhyming Games
Produces Independent
Rhymes Language Awareness
Tells Nursery Rhymes
Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Number Letters ID
Tries to Name Letters
Attempts Letter Sounds
Letter Recognition /
Phoneme Awareness
Number Letter Sounds ID
U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
Page 36
Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Asks for Help Writing
Child Draws
Attempts to Write Letters
Emergent Writing
Asks for Help Spelling
Measurement ModelsChild Outcomes
Role of Title
ID Front of Book
ID Title of Book
Print Awareness
Words Tell Story
Directionality
U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
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Impact Evaluation Outcomes
Literacy Outcomes
The pre-post test findings on each of the 8 dimensions measured by the Early Childhood Literacy
Assessments indicate significant improvement over the course of the program. Table 1. Below provides
the mean scores for each dimension of the ECLA for pre and post tests. The following graphs display the
degree of improvement for each subscale. All sub-scales demonstrated statistically significant
improvement using paired-sample t-tests.
Report
Administration
Number
Supportive
Reading
Environment
Adult
Reading
Quality
Child
Interest
in
Reading
Child
Reading
Engagement
Child
Narrative
Skills
Child
Language
Awareness
Letter
Recognition
and
Phoneme
Skills
Child
Emergent
Writing
Pre-
Test
Mean 2.4716 2.6650 2.4609 3.3750 3.5312 2.2424 2.5455 3.1136
Std. Error of
Mean
.08578 .08155 .09984 .16725 .21409 .18851 .22818 .18267
Post-
Test
Mean 2.8718 3.3671 3.2333 4.2333 4.4000 3.8750 3.9167 4.0417
Std. Error of
Mean
.08688 .10808 .09280 .21749 .16330 .32755 .23863 .18727
U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
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U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
Page 39
U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
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U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
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U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
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U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
Page 43
U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
Page 44
U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
Page 45
U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
Page 46
One-year follow-up
One-year after participating in the program, children whose families participated in the Women’s Initiative programs:
Had school readiness scores consistent with children from low-risk families
Were significantly more prepared to enter Kindergarten than a comparison group of children whose families had risks for poor academic achievement similar to their own family’s
Improved support for reading in the home, increased parent knowledge and expectations about early childhood reading, and improved basic reading readiness skills combined to have a fundamental and lasting impact on the child and his or her family.
71%
53%
86%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Women's Initiative 1-
year follow-up
High Risk Control
Group
Low Risk Contrl
Group
Percent of Children Ready for School at 1-year post intervention
U n i t e d W a y o f S o u t h e a s t e r n M i c h i g a n W o m e n ’ s I n i t i a t i v e
I n i t i a t i v R e p o r t
Page 47
Summary and Conclusions
With this second, three-year cycle of funding the Women’s initiative has added two new partners; Leaps and
Bounds Family Services and Healthy Families Oakland. With the addition of these two programs, the
UWSEM Women’s Initiative has a unique opportunity to contribute to the National dialogue regarding the
impact of home visitation programs on early childhood development. The four most prominent and well-
developed home visitation approaches; Parent-Child Home, Parents as Teachers, Home Instruction for
Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), and Healthy Families, are included as a part of the Women’s
Initiative evaluation. This summer these programs issued a shared vision statement. Yet, there is, at present,
no other single evaluation study, which includes all four of these intervention approaches. Because of this
unique situation, the UWSEM Women’s Initiative is in a position to make an important contribution to our
understanding of what makes home visitation programs effective. This is going to be even more important
given the growing recognition of the importance of positive early-childhood development.
In addition to this unique compilation of home visitation programs, the women’s initiative partner
agencies have demonstrated a remarkable level of commitment from their families and staff. Much of the
success of home visitation programs depends upon the skills and abilities of the home visitor. Unfortunately,
on a National level, there is tremendous turnover in home visitor staff. But, among the women’s initiative
programs there has been no turnover across the last three-and-a-half years. This is an astounding level of
consistency. This commitment on the part of the home visitors is reflected in the commitment of the
families. Just as an example, the Neighborhood Services Organization HIPPY program has retained 100% of
their families across two years. One of the consistent findings across all home visitation programs is that the
key to their success is getting families to become engaged in the program process. It is clear that the
Women’s Initiative partner agencies are quite successful in this often difficult task. As a result, not only are
we seeing impressive program impacts, we are now able to track the progress of these children and families
across early childhood and into the critical primary grades. The Women’s Initiative partners have
demonstrated a substantial positive effect on the early reading achievement of the children living in the
Metro-Detroit area.