Evaluation: First 5 LA’s Family Literacy Initiative

Sarah always took notes during parent education classes and had lots of questions, Bonnett recalled in a year-end report. But, while she and Riley were making great achievements, her 5-year-old-son, Gabriel, was struggling in school and at risk of being held back, Bonnett wrote.

Sarah "was determined to do everything she could to help him," as well as ensure that Riley did not go down the same difficult path, Bonnett wrote.

"'Read' is the advice we gave," Bonnett wrote. "Read every day and have him read every day. Have him see you read and make it a way of life in your whole family."

Sarah read more at home with the children, and spent extra time on homework and activities. It wasn't long before she became their "first and most important teacher," Bonnett adds.

The First 5 LA Family Literacy Initiative is a comprehensive program to promote language and literacy development, parenting knowledge and skills, and economic self-sufficiency among low-income families in Los Angeles County. First 5 LA hired American Institutes for Research to evaluate what long-term effects the family literacy programs have for children like Riley.

Researchers learned that children who participated in First 5 LA-funded family literacy programs had higher attendance rates in elementary school and performed better on the English language arts and mathematics sections of the California Standards Test, compared to students who attended the Los Angeles Unified School District's School Readiness Language Development Program before kindergarten.

The eight-year evaluation of the Family Literacy Initiative showed children who participated in this program had significantly higher English language and math scores in elementary school than their peers. In addition, alumni parents appeared to maintain, or even increase, their level of involvement in their children's schooling after leaving the program.

Researchers did note that there were some limitations to the analysis, such as missing data on some of the family literacy students after leaving the program and small sample sizes as the groups of students grew older.

"Despite these limitations, results presented here suggest that Family Literacy participants continued to show positive outcomes - both behavioral and academic - long after their Family Literacy experiences and well into elementary school," the report concludes. "Although performance differences between Family Literacy children and the comparison group are generally modest, the fact that results consistently show Family Literacy children outperforming their peers should encourage further interest in this comprehensive parent-and-child program model from policymakers and program developers."

Click here to read Children's Elementary School Outcomes After Participating in Family Literacy Programs Research Brief (pdf)

*Names have been changed to protect participants' privacy.

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