Parent and Family Outcome Measures

The EDS measured parent outcomes through direct assessment of literacy and parent self-report.

Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery -- Revised. The WJ-R (Woodcock & Mather, 1989,1990) was described earlier under measures for children. The WJ-R is appropriate for assessing the academic development of individuals into adulthood. In the EDS parent assessment, we used four subtests that measure reading achievement: Letter-Word Identification, Word Attack, Passage Comprehension, and Reading Vocabulary. Each of these subtests was described earlier.

Parent Report of Literacy at Home. The ESPIRS records parent report of literacy skills including reading and writing done at home. We included these items in the parent interview that was administered to parents of all children in the EDS (both in Even Start and in the control group). The following variables were constructed:

• Variety of parent reading at home: Has values from 0-12. Value increases by 1 if parent reads letters/bills, advertisements, street signs, books, newspapers, food labels, coupons, notes from teacher/school, magazines, TV Guide, instructions, religious materials.
• Variety of parent writing at home: Has values from 0-11. Value increases by 1 if parent writes appointments on calendar, grocery lists, notes/memos, forms/applications, letters, checks/money orders, greeting cards, crosswords, journal/diary, recipes, stories/poems.

Parent Report of Parent-Child Reading. Four variables were constructed to assess various aspects of parent-child reading including whether the parent reads to the child daily, the amount of reading that the parent does with the child, the variety of reading that is done with the child, and the quality of the reading that is done with the child:

• Reads to child daily (all children): Has value 1 if parent reads to the child each day; has value of 0 otherwise.
• Amount of reading to/with child (all children): Has values from 0-3. Value increases by 1 if parent reads to child every day, someone else reads to child every day, parent tells story to child every day.
• Variety of reading to/with child (all children): Has values from 0-5. Value increases by 1 if parent reads the following to/with child: newspapers, magazines, store catalogs, funnies or comic books, TV listings.
• Quality of reading to/with child (all children): Has values from 0-5. Value increases by 1 if, when reading to child, parent stops/asks what is in a picture, stops/points out letters, stops/asks what happens next, reads same story over and over, asks child to read.

Parent Report of Literacy Resources at Home. Three variables were constructed to assess the literacy resources available at home: the number of books that the child has, the variety of non-print resources in the home, and the variety of print resources in the home.

• Number of books that child has (all children): Has values from 0-5. 0 = no books, 1 = 1 or 2 books, 2 = 3 to 10 books, 3 = 11 to 25 books, 4 = 26 to 50 books, 5 = 51+ books.
• Variety of non-print resources at home (all children): Has values from 0-16. Value increases by 1 if the following are available at home: rattle/squeak toys, pull toys, crayons and paper, scissors, blocks, scotch tape, tinkertoys, puzzles/paint/magic markers, picture catalogs, yarn/thread/cloth, clay/playdough, make-believe toys, plants in pot or garden, pens/pencils, typewriter/computer.
• Variety of print resources at home (all children): Has values from 0-5. Value increases by 1 if the following are available at home: books, magazines, newspapers, TV Guide, comic books.

Parent Report of Support of Child's School. Two variables were constructed to assess the parent's support of school: the extent to which parents participate in school activities and parent opinion about school.

• Parent participation in school activities (age 2 years, 7 months and older): Has values from 0-12. Value increases by 1 if parent has conference with a teacher, observes classroom activities, attends school event, attends after-school program, meets with PTA, attends parent advisory committee meeting, helps with fundraising activities, volunteers in school office or library, volunteers in child's classroom, volunteers for school trips, works as paid employee, serves on preschool committee.
• Parent opinion about school (age 5 years, 0 months and older): Has values from 0-14. Value increases by 1 if parent agrees with the following: school places priority on learning, school assigns worthwhile homework, child is challenged at school, child is treated fairly at school, school standards are realistic, child is respected by teacher, parent is respected by teacher, parent would select this school, child gets needed help at school, school is a safe place, it is important for parents to participate in school, parents have a say in school policy, parents support school policy, school maintains discipline.

Parent Report of Economic Self-Sufficiency. The parent interview includes parent self-report of years of parent education and annual household income.

• Parent education: Number of years of education.
• Parent GED attainment: Does parent have a GED or high school diploma? Has value 1 if parent has GED or high school diploma, has value of 0 otherwise.
• Parent employment: Was parent employed? Has value 1 if parent was employed, has value of 0 otherwise.
• Annual household income: Has values from 1-8. 1 = under $3,000, 2 = $3,000 - $5,999, 3 = %6,000 - $8,999, 4 = $9,000 - $11,999, 5 = $12,000 - $14,999, 6 = $15,000 - $19,999, 7 = $20,000 - $25,000, 8 = more than $25,000.

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