Field Tested Evaluation Process

This guide was the result of consultation over a two year period with four volunteer literacy programs in Ontario, which sought to develop practical alternative strategies to assess success in implementing family literacy initiatives. Taking the lead from practitioners who had different perspectives on evaluation, project consultants first sought to learn about each program's operations and practitioner goals for evaluation. It was the intention to develop a process for evaluation based on existing program practices, in the context of practitioner decision making.

When people begin to collaborate and genuinely share in problem solving, ideas blend together so that chosen solutions are more than any one idea and represent an intermingling or pooling of perspectives and suggestions. This guide represents ideas and suggestions which were useful in the context of four programs which participated and which fit into their current practices. Since no program had incorporated procedures for standardized assessments of learner literacy performance, this particular evaluation strategy was not considered for this project and no discussion of standardized literacy assessment measures has been included in this guide.

The wide variety of family literacy program types in Ontario reflects the multicultural and geographic diversity of its many communities. In consultation, we sought to work with practitioners from different program types in order to identify evaluation strategies which would be widely applicable. The participating programs included a rural library outreach program, a community based after school homework program, an ABE program for parents with limited English, and a school based program which offered parent and child together literacy activities as follows:

The Book Bag Club
Described as a library of books and tapes, delivered to members of the "club" in their homes by volunteers, a major objective of this library program was to make reading material accessible, in a non-threatening way, to families at home. Once contact was made, another objective was to assist families to develop activities and resources that further children's literacy development. Staff included a coordinator and four book bag volunteers. Evaluation consultation was primarily undertaken with the coordinator and visits to book bag staff.