Accomplishments through December 2002:
Tennessee Statewide
Even Start Family Literacy Initiative

 

 

•    Established the Tennessee Family Literacy Consortium, originally with 14 members, now expanded to approximately 60 members representing agencies and organizations across the state

            •     Collaborated and networked among agencies and organizations with joint program planning to accomplish Family Literacy training and outcome goals

            •     Brought practitioners together into shared program models, including ESOL, Family Literacy, Head Start, Even Start, libraries, and community-based programs; provided information and education through vehicles including Consortium meetings, a Family Literacy Summit, print, video, and Web resources

            •     Developed two working groups of practitioners to provide guidance for major projects of the Consortium

            •     Developed the first Tennessee state-wide database of organizations interested in, or providing, Family Literacy services; the database transcends organizational lines and includes private and public, school-based, community-based, and other family-oriented literacy models

            •     Provided speakers to national and state conferences on Family Literacy

            •     Responded to multiple requests from other states for information and products developed during the Initiative

            •     Built strong and lasting partnerships between the major state educational research institution, the University of Tennessee, and Family Literacy provider agencies such as Even Start, Head Start, Family Resource Centers, pre-schools and community-based organizations

            •     Developed a pool of volunteers to work with the Consortium on future Family Literacy projects

            •     During the Initiative period, several Consortium members (such as adult educators) provided direct funding for Family Literacy for the first time, while others increased funding

            •     Developed recommendations on next steps to strengthen and expand Family Literacy in Tennessee

 

•    Sponsored the first statewide Family Literacy Summit, with 360 participants from across Tennessee

            •     Brought leading researchers and practitioners to the Summit to educate on Family Literacy topics, including Sharon Ramey, Ph.D., of Georgetown University, co-director of the original Abecedarian Project; policy expert Becky King of the National Center for Family Literacy; media and education expert Hedda Sharapan, who shared family learning episodes from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood; and Susan Benner, Ed.D., of the University of Tennessee

            •     Provided opportunities for sharing Family Literacy and related services and program resources, including a resource-sharing fair at the Summit which brought together materials and information from 20 organizations and agencies at local, state, and national levels

            •     Leveraged additional funds ($11,000) from member agencies that enabled the Consortium to expand and strengthen the Family Literacy Summit

            •     Honored an outstanding Family Literacy program participant and learned from her experiences as she shared them in her role as guest speaker at the Family Literacy Summit

 

•    Increased public awareness of Family Literacy

            •     Recorded and broadcast on television and radio two video and two audio PSAs with Family Literacy messages targeted to Tennesseans, reaching thousands of families

            •     Partnered with the National Center for Family Literacy to promote 1-877- FAMLIT1, a Family Literacy information hotline that helps people find nearby Family Literacy programs

            •     Wrote, edited, designed, and published a mail brochure to promote awareness of Tennessee Family Literacy programs

            •     Wrote, edited, designed, and published two newsletters, with a combined circulation of 2,400, promoting public awareness and education about Family Literacy and featuring events and programs within the state of Tennessee and nationwide

            •     Obtained live radio interviews of the Director of Family Literacy, Tennessee Department of Education, so thousands of listeners heard more about Family Literacy

            •     Developed the Family Literacy in Tennessee Website as a resource for parents, teachers, and policy makers (http://cls.coe.utk.edu/tnfamlit/)

            •     Publicized Family Literacy training opportunities through discussions at the Consortium meetings and the Summit, articles in the newsletter, and postings on the Website

            •     Surveyed Family Literacy program services in Tennessee to establish a baseline profile, or "mapping," of Family Literacy in the state

            •     Produced Family Literacy in Tennessee: A Design for the Future, a 63-page policy paper developed by Susan Benner, Ed.D., University of Tennessee, in collaboration with Consortium members

            •     Helped build membership and participation in national organizations such as Family Literacy Alliance through outreach efforts

            •     Reached every candidate for Tennessee public state office with information about Family Literacy needs and programs

            •     Reached every State legislator with professionally-produced Family Literacy awareness materials, including an Executive Summary of Design for the Future

            •     Provided public awareness materials on Family Literacy to every Title I Director and every Director of Schools in the State

 

•    Provided training, education, and technical assistance for Family Literacy practitioners

            •     Developed program quality indicators for Tennessee Even Start based on the Continuous Quality Improvement model and reflecting the attributes set forth in the Goodling Even Start Act; after creation of a core document by a highly trained and experienced professional educator and evaluator, established committees of site directors and local evaluators to continue to provide input for improvement of the indicators

            •     Developed a local evaluation system for Even Start, and trained 15 local evaluators to provide evaluation services specifically for Tennessee Even Start Family Literacy programs; as the state’s program quality indicators continue to develop, site directors and evaluators will provide input for continuous improvement of the evaluation instrument

            •     Developed a Web-based database for the Tennessee Even Start program, allowing local programs to collect, and to share with authorized parties, individual, family, and program data; the database aggregates outcomes and provides the basis for statewide reporting, and the developers provide a toll-free help line available to all users; the database will be upgraded to a fully relational system by the end of the Tennessee Initiative grant in June 2003

            •     Hosted a three-day training program for Family Literacy site directors, teachers, and program evaluators, including assessment information, policy training, and program management skills

            •     Collaborated with the Tennessee Department of Education, Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Tennessee Department of Human Services, and the University of Tennessee’s Center for Literacy Studies to develop and implement three-day Even Start and Family Literacy training tracks at the Academy for Instructional Excellence, a statewide conference for adult education and Family Literacy practitioners

            •     Many Consortium members developed their own Family Literacy materials and approaches tailored to their needs, such as a training module for Family Literacy included in a University of Tennessee teacher preparation class