The prevailing issues in the development of family literacy were reviewed, and assumptions about families, family support, and learning upon which the concept is being developed were examined. A total of 173 studies on the following topics were reviewed: parent-child relationships and reading, parent-child early reading, parent/family beliefs and…

A critical element in South Carolina's Early Childhood Development and Academic Assistance Act is the parenting and family literacy component that targets families of children aged birth to 5 years, with a special emphasis on serving parents and families of children at risk for school failure. This manual offers guidelines for developing parenting…

Family literacy programs have been demonstrated to have significant and widespread benefits for children, parents, families, and society. Documented benefits of family literacy programs to children appear in the following areas: children's achievement in school, school attendance, oral language development, reading comprehension and vocabulary,…

A study reports on the Nevada Even Start Family Literacy Program (NEST), which provides educational opportunities to parents and children as a family unit through core services such as adult, parenting, and early childhood education. Questions asked in the study were who the program serves, what services are received, how funding is allocated, how…

These transcripts provide testimony given on the implementation of the Even Start Family Literacy Program, a program designed to help parents work with their children to improve the educational opportunities for both. Prepared statements and testimony was given by John T. MacDonald, Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education,…

This report presents the early findings from the analysis of a family literacy demonstration project under the direction of the National Center for Family Literacy. The data in this report are based upon the experiences of over 300 families who participated in the Toyota Families for Learning Program during the 1992-1993 school year. The first…

The questions and answers in this document focus on the way that families affect and create the conditions for literacy development and use among family members. The following questions are addressed: (1) What is family literacy? Is it the same as intergenerational literacy? (2) What are the goals of family and intergenerational programs, and what…

Describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of Project Literacy Education and Families (LEAF), a family literacy program that provides experiences for parents to develop their skills and confidence that will enable them to see possibilities instead of limitations. Details four Program components: adult literacy, early childhood…

The present review of the literature aims to look at two-generation programs and their effects on children and parents as a potential strategy to improve parent involvement in Head Start while responding to the self-sufficiency needs of families. This paper reviews several two-generation program evaluations: Comprehensive Child Development…

A randomized experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of Even Start, a federally supported family literacy program providing early childhood education, adult education, parenting education, and joint parent-child literacy activities to children and parents from low-literate families. The evaluation of 18 Even Start projects followed 463…

Leaders in the field of literacy regard family literacy projects that seek to involve both children and their parents or caregivers as vital. The importance of parents as a child's first teachers has long been acknowledged. Nevertheless, the topic of family literacy is not one of those receiving attention in the field. In an annual survey of…

This paper reviews 5 articles published in 1995 on family literacy research. The articles reviewed are: (1) a study on literacy in Iceland by Ronald Taylor which examined how Icelandic families share language and reading related activities; (2) an article by Barbara Moss and Gay Fawcett which describes and comments on different home literacy…

This newsletter theme issue focuses on the impact of learning disabilities within families, specifically families with low literacy skills. It explores the effectiveness of family literacy programs, examines the connection between the field of family literacy and learning disabilities (LD), and offers suggestions on how to work with students with…

This document consists of a brief final report and a handbook from a project conducted to develop family numeracy activities and incorporate them into adult basic and literacy education (ABLE) classes in two Pennsylvania counties. The 10 activities, which were designed to help adult learners foster the development of numeracy concepts/skills in…

An exploratory study examined the past and present participation in education of 34 parents enrolled in 5 model family literacy programs in North Carolina and Kentucky. All respondents were high school dropouts. Over half had dropped out of adult basic education classes before completing a high school equivalency certificate. The study focused on…