Third National Even Start Evaluation Follow-Up Findings From the Experimental Design Study

Eighteen Even Start projects and 463 families participated in the EDS -- 309 families were randomly assigned to participate in Even Start and 154 were assigned to a control group that could avail themselves of any educational services to which they were entitled, but they could not participate in Even Start. Pretest data on child and adult literacy skills were collected in the fall, posttest data were collected in the spring/summer, and follow-up data were collected in the following spring. Although analysis of pretest compared with posttest data did not show that Even Start children and adults performed better than control group children and adults (see St.Pierre, Ricciuti, Tao, et al, 2003), it was hypothesized that follow-up data might show positive effects of Even Start due to either, or both, of two factors. First, families that were assigned to Even Start had the opportunity to participate in the program for approximately one school year between pretesting and posttesting. Collecting follow-up data nine months after posttesting gave those families the opportunity to participate in Even Start for a second school year, possibly leading to positive effects under the assumption that a greater amount of exposure to Even Start would lead to larger literacy gains and to statistically significant program impacts."