Parents as Teachers
Parents as Teachers is a program designed to give new mothers the tools needed to have an impact on their children. A recent study offers a description and a testimonial to it's effectiveness:
The Parents as Teachers (PAT) Program was initiated as a pilot project in 1981 to demonstrate the value of high-quality parent education and family support in strengthening the skills parents need to enhance their children's development from birth to age 3. The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MDESE), in cooperation with the Danforth Foundation, organized and implemented the New Parents as Teachers (NPAT) project in four school districts representing metropolitan and rural communities. The 380 families, who were enrolled shortly before or after the birth of their first child, received timely information on child growth and development; periodic developmental, hearing, vision, and health screenings; monthly home visits by specially trained parent educators; monthly group meetings at parent resource centers located in neighborhood schools; and assistance in accessing needed services that were beyond the scope of the program.
The evaluation findings of the NPAT project,released in 1985, indicated the following outcomes:
- At age 3, NPAT children demonstrated more advanced achievement and language ability than did comparison children;
- NPAT children demonstrated significantly more positive aspects of social development than did comparison children;
- NPAT parents were more knowledgeable about child-rearing practices and child development than were parents of comparison children.
These findings were further substantiated by a follow-up investigation of NPAT and comparison group children as the completed the first grade in 1989. NPAT children scored significantly higher than did the comparison group on school-administered standardized measures of reading and math achievement. Parents of NPAT children were reported twice as likely as parents of comparison children to be involved in their children's school experience.31Executive Summary: The Second Wave Study of the Parents as Teachers Program
The Parents as Teachers program is currently in use in the SLSD, funded in part by the state and in part with desegregation money. The District is budgeted with 3200 slots, of which 2868 are currently filled. The cost per family is $305, of which $180 is paid by the state (thus the remaining $125 is paid for with desegregation money).
According to estimates, there are approximately 10,000 to 12,000 families which are eligible in the City of St. Louis. We propose extend funding for this number, as well as make an aggressive effort to enroll more families in the program. Costs: Desegregation funds pay $125 each for the first 3200 families, for a total of $400,000. Extending the program to an additional 8800 families at $305 per family would requires spending an additional $2,684,000, for a total of $3,084,000.
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