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The Third National Even Start Evaluation and Latinos: Do the Data Distort Reality?

Summary

In May of 2003, Abt Associates, on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, completed the third national evaluation of the effectiveness of Even Start, a federal family literacy program serving severely educationally and economically disadvantaged children and families. This study has been widely cited by education policy-makers and federal legislations as evidence that the Even Start program is ineffective. The main finding, that Even Start children and parents did not gain more on outcome measures than a control group, has fueled reductions in federal funding and put the whole program at risk of complete elimination. This critique by Linda M. Espinosa, Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia, asks the question: How do these findings apply to the burgeoning Hispanic/Latino population?

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