Betty Trigo is the Even Start coordinator for the Corpus Christi Independent School District (CCISD). Her program, which serves 75 to 80 families a year, will shut down in a few months, thanks to a deep overall cut in federal Even Start funding, from $225 million in fiscal 2005 to $99 million in fiscal 2006. "Twenty-four programs in Texas will shut down on August 31st," Trigo said. "That's lots of lost programming."

The following year will see an even bigger loss, if President Bush succeeds in pushing through his proposal to zero out funding for Even Start in fiscal 2007.

The administration points to a 2004 assessment by the Office of Management and Budget that rated Even Start "ineffective" and recommended its elimination. OMB uses something called the Program Assessment Rating Tool, or PART, to measure the effectiveness of federally-funded programs. But Even Start supporters say PART itself is an ineffective way to rate programs, and that the OMB assessment is outdated and unfair.

The Roots of Even Start

Even Start was originally authorized in 1988 as a small demonstration program under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). It started out with $14.8 million allocated to 76 projects across the U.S, administered by U.S. Department of Education. From the beginning, Even Start took on the nation's most vulnerable families, providing them with what the Department of Education calls the four core components of family literacy: early childhood education; adult literacy; parenting education; and interactive literacy activities between parents and children.

When funding exceeded $50 million in 1992, administration of Even Start was turned over to the states. That transition may have set the stage for the current problems, because states were not initially given much guidance or required to demonstrate that their programs were working.

The Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy, housed at Penn State University's College of Education, works to improve family literacy education through research and its application to practice and professional development. Its operating funds come from an endowment established at the university with a $6 million federal appropriation. The Institute is named for Republican William F. Goodling, who championed Even Start while representing the 19th District of Pennsylvania from 1975 until his retirement in 2001.

Goodling Institute co-director Barbara Van Horn says that with the 2001 reauthorization of Even Start, Congress recognized that problem and provided legislative guidance for the states on accountability. The reauthorization, called LIFT (Literacy Involves Families Together) "was passed and strengthened the program by requiring professional standards for Even Start teachers, state performance indicators, local evaluations for program improvement, and accountability on performance."

But, says Van Horn, there was no federal system of reporting until last year. "The states were left to come up with their own standards for evaluation," Van Horn said. "In 2005, the feds specified evaluation instruments like Peabody Pictures Vocabulary and PALS Pre-K letter naming."

Even Start reached a funding peak of $250 million in 2001 and 2002. Funding has steadily decreased since, from $248 million in 2003; $246 million in 2004; $225 million in 2005; and $99 million in 2006. Advocates like Van Horn and the National Even Start Association say that the 1,200 projects nationwide will have to make hard choices with only 44 percent of funding in fiscal 2006. All with the threat of zero funding for fiscal 2007 looming.

How Even Start Evolved in Texas

Trigo's Even Start program in Corpus Christi is one of 92 programs operating at 207 sites across the state of Texas. Like their counterparts in other states, Corpus Christi's Even Start serves very low-income families with very low rates of adult literacy. Betty Trigo points with pride to Even Start participants who have made the best of what the program offers. "We had a young mother in our program who made it through basic ESL [English as a Second Language] and got her GED," Trigo said. "Her three daughters are now doing very well in public school. The whole family is moving in the right direction."

Trigo credits Texas LEARNS, the Texas Adult Education and Family Literacy Partnership, with providing much-needed guidance to the Texas Even Start programs for curriculum design and assessments. "They've done a beautiful job in helping us design activities in a holistic approach," said Trigo. "This has made a big difference because we help our families overcome the obstacles that extreme poverty can bring—like the need for transportation. We also do developmental assessments, which can make a huge difference when they're done early enough." Even Start is the only education program that targets families with children from birth through the age of 7.

The program emphasizes and reinforces the idea that parents are their children's first teachers. While working to improve both adult and child literacy, Even Start also teaches parents interactive literacy activities to do at home with their children. While parent literacy education is intended to lead to economic self-sufficiency, it also supports parents' efforts to help their kids in school. Meanwhile, early childhood education programs are a major component of Even Start, and children undergo a series of assessments when their families begin the program and throughout their participation.

Last year the Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning did a pilot study to assess the impact of Even Start on parents who participated in 2003-2004. The findings were encouraging. When asked how often they helped their children with their homework before and after participating in Even Start, the parents were given choices ranging from "not at all" to "5 times a week." The percentage of parents who answered "not at all" dropped from 20 percent before participating in Even Start to 1 percent afterwards. The percentage of parents who helped 5 times a week more than doubled after participating in Even Start, from 20 to 48 percent.

Similar results were found when parents were asked how much they read to their children. The percentage of "not at all" responses before participating in Even Start dropped from 26 percent to 1 percent after participation. Those who reported reading 5 times a week to their kids jumped from 15 percent pre-Even Start to 49 percent post-Even Start.

Thirty-three percent of the respondents said they either completed high school or obtained a GED while participating in Even Start, while 23 percent had enrolled in further training or education after leaving the program. Employment rates and wages also increased after Even Start participation. More than half of the parents in the pilot study received public assistance before enrolling in Even Start. This number was reduced by one-third after Even Start participation.

Failing Grade from the Feds

Why, then, does Even Start get a failing grade from OMB and the Bush administration?

The administration argues that as measured through PART, Even Start has failed to demonstrate positive outcomes in improving child and adult education, and that three national evaluations of the program also showed little impact.

But PART, says Van Horn and other advocates, is a blunt instrument, a cookie-cutter approach to evaluating effectiveness that does not measure the things that matter. "PART was used to rationalize eliminating this program," Van Horn said. As for the other evaluations, she says they are outdated. "None of the three national evaluations cited by the Administration used data after LIFT was enacted and put the pieces in place for greater accountability."

Van Horn points to the PART claim that Even Start duplicates such programs as Head Start, Adult Education, Early Reading First, and Reading First as an example of flaws in the assessment system. "This completely disregards the unique nature of Even Start," she said. "It's required to integrate early education, adult literacy, and parenting into a unified family literacy program." Van Horn notes that of all the programs cited by PART, only Even Start serves children from birth to age three, which is the most important period for brain development, and also the time when parental engagement is most critical to good language development. And, says Van Horn, "No other federal program requires eligible parents to commit to developing their academic and literacy support skills while their children receive early childhood education services."

Trigo says that of all the adult education programs provided by the CCISD, Even Start is the most popular and best-attended. "Of all the Adult Ed programs we offer, Even Start is the most successful," Trigo said. "It's because the program is so comprehensive in meeting the needs of our families."

Data compiled by Texas LEARNS indicates that participants in Even Start programs across the state are out-performing participants in other Adult Ed programs. Statistics for 2004-2005 show that that 84 percent of Even Start participants accomplished their goal of retaining their job or advancing, compared to 33 percent of Adult Ed participants. Sixty percent of Even Start participants obtained their GED, compared to 6% of Adult Ed participants.

"Even Start serves our most vulnerable families. We're getting outcomes that are positive, but no one wants to listen to us," Van Horn said.

Resources

• Even Start Family Literacy Program
• National Even Start Association
• Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy
• National Center for Family Literacy