Evaluation of the First 5 LA Family Literacy Initiative: Final Evaluation Report
The First 5 LA Family Literacy Initiative, which began in 2002, is a comprehensive program to promote language and literacy development for children and their parents, and to promote parenting knowledge and skills, with a goal of greater economic self-sufficiency among low-income families in Los Angeles County.
Each Family Literacy Initiative grantee provided services through each of four interrelated family literacy program components:
- Early childhood education (ECE)
- Parent-child interactive literacy activities (PCILA)
- Parenting education (PE)
- Adult education (AE)
In addition to providing direct funding to family literacy programs, First 5 LA also funded the Family Literacy Support Network (FLSN) to provide assistance—through training and technical assistance—to grantees for program improvement activities. From 2002-2012, First 5 LA contracted with AIR to conduct a comprehensive process and outcome evaluation of the Family Literacy Initiative. The evaluation included an analysis of child and parent outcomes during program participation, assessments of sample of children over time, a follow up survey with parents several years after participating in the program, and an analysis of elementary school outcomes for Family Literacy participants compared to their peers.
