Five-Tiered Approarch to Parent Education Chart

Data to Collect/Analyze	Program Data Examples and Possible Resources
Tier 1: Needs Assessment
Extant data on target population and services currently available. Interviews with community leaders. Interviews or surveys from prospective participants. Information about similar programs in other locations.	Demographics (community/school district, region, state, nation) Contact state demographer. Environmental scan of existing programs and services offered throughout community. Assessment of needs of parents themselves. Should be done on ongoing basis informally and formally to adapt to changes in demographics of community. Needs assessment resources: From Needs Assessment to Action: Transforming Needs into Solution Strategies by James W. Altschuld & Belle Ruth Witkin and Planning and Conducting Needs Assessments: A Practical Guide by Belle Ruth Witkin & James W. Altschuld.
Tier 2: Monitoring and Accountability
Data to Collect/Analyze	Program Data Examples and Possible Resources
MIS (management information system) data; collected at program, county and/or state level. Case material obtained from interviews with clients, record reviews, etc. Community reactions to program	Details on intensity of services or types of service delivery. Individual level of participation; classroom environment and interaction such as classroom content (support, information, skills), instructional strategies, number of hours participation (have portfolio/file on each parent/family), interaction between educator(s) and parent(s)/child(ren). Further reading on intensity of participation can be found through Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP). Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/afterschool/resources/issuebrief7.html Annual Report and Participant Questionnaire forms for on-line data reporting. Examples: The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) provides questionnaires in 11 languages to participants in Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) and School Readiness programs. http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/Learning_Support/Early_Learning_Services/ Coordinator_Resources/Questionnaires/index.html School districts are required to submit program and participant data and program plans to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE). Here is where you find the Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) Annual Report form: http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/Learning_Support/Early_Learning_Serv ices/ Coordinator_Resources/Annual_Reports_Plans/index.html
Tier 3: Quality Review and Program Clarification
Data to Collect/Analyze	Program Data Examples and Possible Resources
MIS data. Case material. Qualitative and quantitative data on program operations, customer satisfaction and perceived effects; obtained using questionnaires, interviews, observations, and focus groups.	Details on content and program implementation (e.g. Parent Education Core Curriculum Framework) Staff assessments and performance reviews within agency guidelines and requirements. Parent ed core competencies—a possible framework is available from the Parent Education Center at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension: Goals, purposes/mission, guiding principles of program (e.g., answers to commonly asked questions about program). Use of quality indicators/rating systems (e.g. ECFE Quality Indicators). ECFE Quality Indicators http://education.state.mn.us/mde/Learning_Support/Early_Learning_Services/ Early_Childhood_Programs/Early_Childhood_Family_Education/ECFE_Quality_Indicators/002656 Use of program enhancement processes (e.g. ECFE Program Enhancement Process Manual) ECFE Program Enhancement Process Manual http://education.state.mn.us/mdeprod/groups/EarlyLearning/documents/Manual/030434.pdf Parent goal setting. Parent growth/change—individual and aggregated—for assessing parent satisfaction and improving instruction (e.g. Forest Lake ECFE & Hopkins ECFE). Based on individual programs. Hopkins ECFE http://npen.org/pdfs/hopkins.pdf Harry Ireton’s instruments: http://www.ChildDevelopmentReview.com Development of program logic model: http://npen.org/work/evaluating/1.html#oneb
Tier 4: Progress Toward Achievement of Outcomes
Data to Collect/Analyze	Program Data Examples and Possible Resources
Client-specific data; obtained using questionnaires, interviews, goal attainment scaling, observations, and functional indicators. Community and client social indicators. MIS data.	Parent Growth Inventory (PGI): Observational measure available by e-mailing here. Forest Lake and Hopkins ECFE Parent Education Evaluation Hopkins ECFE http://npen.org/pdfs/hopkins.pdf Parent Self-Assessment on-line version developed by H. Wallace Goddard. Parent Self-Assessment http://psa.uaex.edu Christa Treichel’s four assessments designed for parent education and support programs: one about parent-child interaction, one about child development knowledge, one about discipline knowledge, and another tool for working with parents of critically ill or premature infants. Contact Christa Treichel for more information. Parents As Teachers: http://www.parentsasteachers.org. Robert Strom Parent as a Teacher Inventory (PAAT): http://www.public.asu.edu/~rdstrom/paatm.html Case studies. HFRP Evaluation Exchange Catalog of Family Process Measures (In the HFRP Evaluation Exchange, issue 28). HFRP Evaluation Exchange, issue 28 http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/eval/issue28/index.html Dimensions of parenting behavior associated with different indicators of school readiness to informoutcomes and indicators. See article and interviews: Brooks-Gunn & Markman http://www.futureofchildren.org/usr_doc/Volume_15_No_1.pdf#page=139 nurturance language discipline materials in the home monitoring management of the home direct teaching of skills to children Various links with different types of overviews: Article-The Future of Children-Princeton http://www.futureofchildren.org/usr_doc/Volume_15_No_1.pdf National Center for Families and Children by the Authors at Columbia http://www.rikidscount.org/matriarch/documents/School Readiness Presentation.pdf Interview with authors http://www.tc.columbia.edu/news/article.htm?id=5214 Evaluating parenting programs http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/eval/issue28/qanda.html Southwest Educational Development Laboratory http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/readiness-synthesis.pdf
Tier 5: Establishing Program Impact
Data to Collect/Analyze	Program Data Examples and Possible Resources
Client-specific data, obtained using questionnaires, interviews, goal attainment scaling, observations, and functional indicators. Community and client social indicators. MIS data. Comparable data for comparison group.	Research on different models/approaches impacting parent and child outcomes and link between parent outcomes and child outcomes. Primarily the responsibility of researchers; test links among program logic model components. Development of program logic model http://npen.org/work/evaluating/1.html#oneb
Source: Adapted from Jacobs, F., Kapuscik, J., Kates, E., & Williams, P. (2001). Making it count: Evaluating family preservation services. Medford, MA: Tufts University, Family Preservation Evaluation Project.

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