Investing in Early Literacy Pays Off
Friday, April 7, 2006

Portland, Oregon - A modest investment in early literacy programs can yield substantial benefits, according to an independent study of programs funded by PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning. The study, conducted by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL), found that the reading initiatives are helping teachers rescue children who arrive at kindergarten unprepared to learn how to read and also are boosting the amount of time that low-income families spend helping their struggling readers at home.

Through its corporate foundation, PacifiCorp - which operates Pacific Power and Utah Power - is investing $1.75 million in reading programs in five Western states: Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Washington. An evaluation by Dr. Steffen Saifer of NWREL showed that the programs - which served about 10,000 children - exceeded their anticipated goals for the number of families and children impacted and the number of books distributed:

* Oregon's Project Optimize, created by University of Oregon
researchers, provided small-group instruction in phonics and alphabet recognition to targeted kindergartners in six elementary schools.

NWREL's evaluation found that 78 percent of the children in the program were reading at benchmark by the end of kindergarten compared to 57 percent of the children in a comparison group.
* Families served in Idaho by Parents as Teachers Plus (PAT+)
increased the amount of time they spent reading to their children from an average of 14 minutes a day to 21 minutes a day. All children who participated in PAT+ scored at or above grade level on the Idaho Reading Indicator at kindergarten entry.
* Wyoming's Raising Readers program increased the number of
families who are building home libraries and are using information about how to help their children develop literacy skills.

* The newest program, Washington Motheread/Fatheread, has
distributed 534 books and trained 11 instructors in one city with further expansion underway.

* The Utah Motheread/Fatheread programs distributed more than
1,150 books last year and worked with adults and children to build critical thinking and literacy skills. Sixty-five percent of a sample of parents who participated in the program increased their reading ability by at least one level.

"Participating parents are reading to their children more often and are increasing their own reading skills," says Saifer, who heads NWREL's Child and Family Program."This is particularly true among immigrant parents. Participating children are more interested in books and more ready for kindergarten than children who did not participate in the PacifiCorp Foundation-funded programs."

In taking on the issue of early literacy, the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning was looking for a visionary, but replicable, project that would work in both metropolitan and rural areas. Its goals were to invest in programs that were cost effective, had realistic and measurable goals, and could leverage involvement by community groups and other local partners. "This study confirms that we accomplished what we set out to do," says Rich Walje, the foundation's board chair. "We targeted a need -early literacy- identified a strategy, and helped implement a program that's sustainable and easily replicated. For a corporation with a modest foundation budget, we were able to contribute more than $1 million and facilitate real, needed change in education."