need

• Children's literacy levels are strongly linked to the educational level of their parents, especially their mothers.
• Parental income and marital status are both important predictors of success in school, but neither is as significant as having a mother (or primary caregiver) who completed high school.
• Children of parents who are unemployed and have not completed high school are five times more likely to drop out than children of employed parents.

solution

The National Center for Family Literacy supports programs that include four essential components for family literacy:

1. Early Childhood Education: focuses on pre-literacy skills such as vocabulary building and verbal expression.
2. Adult Literacy Education: helps parents enhance their own reading, math and language skills.
3. Parent and Child Together (PACT): brings parents and children together in the pre-school classroom in order to teach parents how to best fulfill their role as their child's most important teacher.
4. Parent Time: offers topics for study and discussion, including child nurturing, managing and coping with child behavior, self-esteem, career options, and community resources.

outcomes

• Adults stay enrolled in family literacy programs longer than in most adult-only programs, and their attendance rate is higher.
• Children participating in family literacy programs in 15 cities made gains at least three times greater than would have been expected based on their pre-enrollment rate of development.
• Adults significantly improve their self-confidence, confidence in their parenting abilities, and their employment status (29 percent increase).
• Children showed an 80 percent increase in reading books, and made twice as many trips to the library.
• Long-term National Center for Family Literacy follow-up studies* found the following:

1. Fifty-one percent of adults participating in family literacy pro- grams earned their GED or the equivalent.
2. Forty-three percent became unemployed, compared with 14 percent before enrolling.
3. Thirteen percent enrolled in higher education or training programs and another 11 percent continued in GED programs.
4. Twenty-three percent of those who were on public assistance when they enrolled are now self-sufficient.

* "The Power of Family Literacy," 1996 Edition (available by calling (502) 584-1133).
All information obtained from the National Institute for Literacy at (202) 632-1500.

P.O. Box 1036 | Okemos, MI 48805 | (517) 349-7511

 mli@voyager.net - email

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