Copyright 1999 Federal News Service, Inc.
Federal News Service
MAY 12, 1999, WEDNESDAY
SECTION: IN THE NEWS
LENGTH:
2732 words
HEADLINE: PREPARED STATEMENT OF
MS.
SHARON DARLING
NATIONAL CENTER FOR FAMILY LITERACY
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY
BEFORE THE HOUSE EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE COMMITTEE
SUBJECT - ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT
BODY:
Good morning Chairman Goodling and
members of the Committee. My name is Sharon Darling. I am the President and
Founder of the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL), a national nonprofit
organization based in Louisville, Kentucky, that provides advocacy, research,
and training for family literacy programs and service agencies throughout the
country. During my 30 year career in education, I have worked at the local,
state, and federal levels to help establish a support system for literacy
programs that teach parents and children together in order to break the
intergenerational cycle of poverty and undereducation.
In my time today, I
would like to briefly describe the national family literacy movement, its
effectiveness in helping thousands of families attain self-sufficiency and
improve academic achievement, and other information that may be appropriate to
consider in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
The National Center for Family Literacy is now in its tenth year of guiding the
practice of family literacy, through improvements in teaching techniques,
research-related projects, and program development, to meet the demands of
social and economic change. To date, NCFL has conducted family literacy
trainings in all 50 states, as well as Washington DC, and has provided training
or technical assistance to more than 15,000 practitioners. Over the course of
the past decade, NCFL has worked with administrators in Head Start, Title I,
Even Start, Adult Education, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and has collaborated
with numerous national nonprofit organizations and corporate partners.
One
of the keys to family literacy's success has been its flexibility and
adaptability, as evidenced by recent initiatives that focus on family literacy
as a strategy for welfare-to-work and forging local business collaboratives to
sustain community education programs. Currently, NCFL is working to expand
family literacy's outreach through the Toyota Families in Schools project, which
targets the families of elementary school-aged children who are at high risk of
academic failure. Our latest initiative involves working with the Community
Action Agencies under the Community Service Block Grants Act to provide training
and technical assistance to the Community Action Agencies which are a primary
support for millions of Americans living in poverty. It is from this vantage
point that I speak to you today about quality family literacy programs and what
they can mean to the nation.
The correlation between undereducated parents
and the potential failure of their children in school is well-documented.
Parents who lack basic skills not only have great difficulty fulfilling their
roles as workers and citizens, their resources for supporting their children
both educationally and non-educationally are often extremely limited. Even the
most well-meaning parents pass on a legacy of undereducation to their children,
who don't receive the support they need in the home environment to achieve
academically. We continue to see this cycle repeated through poor reading and
other test scores in our elementary schools and beyond.
The quality family
literacy services about which I'm speaking today are not just a matter of
getting parents to read to their children, but rather these services take a
comprehensive approach to working with the whole family to improve basic skills,
job skills, and life skills. Family literacy services, as defined by the 105th
Congress in Even Start, Head Start, the Reading Excellence Act, the Community
Services Block Grant Act, and the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, seek
to make sustainable changes in a family through the integration of four
components:
1. Interactive literacy activities between parents and their
children.
2. Training for parents regarding how to be the primary teacher
for their children and full partners in the education of their children. 3.
Parent literacy training that leads to economic self-sufficiency.
4. An
age-appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life
experiences.
It is the organized integration of these components that make
family literacy a more powerful intervention than stand-alone programs for
either adults or children. Each component and its curriculum support the other
components, making for a unified learning experience that addresses the multiple
needs of the whole family.
The goals for a quality family literacy program
are ambitious but attainable, both in the short-term and long-term for varied
populations that include children, men and women, rural and urban populations,
speakers of languages other than English, American Indians, people with learning
disabilities, migrant workers, teen parents and grandparents. Family literacy
builds on the strengths of its participants, which makes it a particularly
effective and relevant approach to working with the many diverse cultures
throughout the country.
Family literacy services aim to:
- improve basic
and/or English language skills and to raise the educational level of parents;
- help parents develop skills and knowledge needed to become employed or to
pursue further education or training;
- increase the social and educational
skills of preschool children and elementary school children to improve their
chances for success in school;
- assist parents in becoming more familiar
with and comfortable in school settings and to promote parental involvement;
- improve the learning relationship between parents and their children in
order to help foster an educational environment in the home;
- enhance the
parenting skills of adult participants and their understanding of their child's
educational development.
Family literacy reaches out to those adults and
children at the very lowest ends of the economic continuum, many of whom slip
through the cracks or are politely ignored. Rather than giving them a handout,
family literacy offers these parents and children a handup, helping families
build a solid foundation of education that will endure for generations to come.
NCFL has strong, long-term evidence that family literacy programs can
contribute significant and lasting results. In 1997, NCFL documented the results
of high quality Even Start programs. The programs were identified by the study's
author, Dr. Andrew E. Hayes of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington,
as sites "that were implemented consistently with the quality standards.
"
Of the 534 children studied, the following percentage were rated
"average or above" by their current classroom teacher (grades K-5):
- 67% on
overall academic performance
- 78% on motivation to learn - 83% on support
from parents - 89% on relations with other students - 91% on attendance - 84% on
classroom behavior - 73% on self-confidence - 75% on probable success in school
90% of the children showed satisfactory grades in reading, language and
mathematics.
That same study showed that adults made significant changes in
their lives:
- 54% of those seeking education credentials received the GED
or its equivalent.
- 45% of those on public assistance reduced the amount
they received or ceased to receive aid altogether.
- 40% were enrolled in
some higher education or training program.
- 50% of those not currently
enrolled in an education or training program are employed.
Additional
studies by NCFL and others on the impact of family literacy programs have
revealed the following:
- Adults participating in family literacy programs
showed greater gains in literacy than adults in adult-focused programs, and
children participating in family literacy programs demonstrated greater gains
than children in child-focused programs. Participants in family literacy
programs were less likely to drop out of the program than were participants in
adult-focused programs.
- Parental involvement in education increases in
families who take part in family literacy programs. The NCFL Parent Survey shows
practically and statistically significant gains in the frequency that parents
talk to their school-age children's teacher, talk to their children about their
day, read or look at books their children, are seen reading or writing by their
children, take their children to the library, volunteer at school, help children
with homework, and attend school activities.
- A follow-up study of former
family literacy children in Rochester, New York, showed that while only 11%
scored above the 20th percentile on a nationally-normed vocabulary test upon
entering the family literacy program, 87% scored above the 20th percentile on a
standardized reading test four years later as first and second graders.
These statistics, as powerful as they are, don't even begin to represent the
real-life stories of the thousands of parents and children who have found
success with the help of family literacy programs--the families who started with
little money and education and even less hope, who are now self-sufficient, and
looking forward to a brighter future for their children and for their children's
children.
Quality family literacy programs do exactly what we want federal
programs to do--they maximize the investment, working to meet the needs of the
whole family together rather than fragmenting services. Pulling Title I funds
into family literacy weaves another strong thread into the quilt, the human
fabric of our nation.
Against this backdrop of the success of the national
family literacy movement, NCFL urges the committee to consider several
recommendations during the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act.
Recommendations:
- 1. 18 Family Literacy Strategy with
Comprehensive School Reform The Comprehensive School Reform demonstration
program is an excellent strategy for encouraging Title I schools to adapt proven
models of school reform to individual sites.
NCFL believes that this program
should be incorporated into the Title I authorization with one important
modification. The implementation of "family literacy services," as defined in
Even Start and the Reading Excellence Act, should be encouraged in this section.
Funding should be encouraged for direct costs associated with implementing
family literacy services, as well as costs for receiving technical assistance
and training in family literacy implementation, and to help bring together
family literacy collaborators, such as adult education, English language
instruction, parental support programs, and early childhood development
services.
- 2. ab Family Literacy Services Definition, Cross Referenced to
Even Start ESEA makes reference to family literacy services and
Even Start in several places; however, there is no definition of family literacy
services outside the Even Start and Reading Excellence Act parts. This limits
family literacy services to a funding source, rather than being seen as a set of
services that will benefit children and parents regardless of the funding
source. The definition of family literacy services should be included for all of
ESEA as follows:
Add Section 1202 (f) Definition. -- For
the purpose of this Act -- "(1) the term 'family literacy services' means
services provided to participants on a voluntary basis that are of sufficient
intensity in terms of hours, and of sufficient duration, to make sustainable
changes in a family and that integrate all of the following activities: (A)
Interactive literacy activities between parents and their children; (B) Training
for parents regarding how to be the primary teacher for their children and full
partners in the education of their children; (C) Parent literacy training that
leads to economic self-sufficiency; (D) An age-appropriate education to prepare
children for success in school and life experiences."
This definition
reflects the definition of family literacy services that is consistent with
congressional action during the 105th Congress and regulatory effect such as in
the guidance for the implementation of the Family Literacy Federal Work-Study
Waiver (34 CFR Part 675).
This definition will give guidance to all
references to family literacy services and is placed in section 1202 (f) (the
Federal Even Start Family Literacy program) in order to give practitioners and
policy makers guidance on the structure of best practices for family literacy
services.
3. Modify FINDINGS, Section 1001 (C)(7)
All parents can
contribute to their children's success by helping at home and becoming partners
with teachers so that children can achieve high standards. "FOR PARENTS WITH LOW
LITERACY OR ENGLISH LANGUAGE SKILLS, PARTICIPATING IN FAMILY LITERACY SERVICES
CAN ENHANCE THE CONTRIBUTION THEY MAKE TO THEIR CHILD'S SUCCESS."
(The
original statement does not adequately recognize the difficulty that parents
with low literacy or English language skills have in supporting their children's
education. Family literacy is an effective strategy for strengthening the
parents' involvement and support of their child's learning.)
4. Modify
Statement of Purpose, Section 1001 (d) (6) "affording parents meaningful
opportunities to participate in the education of their children at home and at
school, AND, WHEN NECESSARY TO FACILITATE THIS PARTICIPATION, HELPING CHILDREN
AND THEIR PARENTS OBTAIN ACCESS TO FAMILY LITERACY SERVICES."
(Title I is
appropriately aimed at improving classroom learning for children. However, it
must recognize the role of parents in the learning process and that parents with
low literacy and English language skills can play a more constructive role if
they obtain effective family literacy services.)
5. Modify LEA Assurances,
Section 1112 (c) (1) Amend section 1112 (c) (1) by adding after subparagraph (E)
the following:
"(F) coordinate and collaborate, to the extent feasible and
necessary as determined by the local education agency, with other agencies for
the purpose of providing family literacy services to families of children
attending schools participating in this title;" and redesignate succeeding
subparagraph accordingly.
6. Modify Building Capacity for Involvement,
Section 1118 (e) (2) (B)"training to help parents to work with their children to
improve their children's achievement, INCLUDING THE DELIVERY OF FAMILY LITERACY
SERVICES;"
7. Allow the Bureau of Indian Affairs to administer the Indian
Even Start the same way in which it administers Title I. Also, recognizing the
Bureau of Indian Affairs as a state education agency for the purposes of Even
Start will help Even Start reach more of this population in great need of family
literacy services.
Chairman Goodling was generous enough to conduct a policy
roundtable with Representative Ernie Fletcher and Representative Anne Northup at
the National Conference on Family Literacy last month. At this public forum,
some of these recommendations were discussed, as were several others. A
transcript of the event is being prepared by a court reporter and will be
distributed to all the members of this committee. Once this transcript has been
received, I respectfully ask the Chairman that the transcript be submitted for
the record.
Conclusion
Implementing an effective family literacy program
is not easy, because it requires integration of services to focus on the entire
family unit, rather than just one fragment of the family. It also requires
quality in all of the component parts, so that the synergy of combining them
will yield results that far outmeasure the components offered in isolation.
For more than ten years, NCFL has been at the forefront of efforts to make
the most important connection in education -- giving parents the tools they need
to be their child's first and best teacher. Recognized by academics and policy
makers as invaluable to American education and multigenerational empowerment,
family literacy, as supported by NCFL, improves the lives of children and
families like few other efforts. Reauthorization of ESEA
provides Congress with a golden opportunity to expand this effort. I deeply
appreciate the opportunity to participate in today's hearing and present our
perspective on how family literacy can build upon the foundation of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as we move closer to our goal of
strengthening families and breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty.
Thank you.
END
LOAD-DATE: May 13, 1999
