• Home »
• Newsroom »
• News Releases »
• Year 2007

SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today announced 78 grantees will share $13.1 million in grants from the William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy Program. For a list of grantees, please visit Funding Results: William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy Program.

"Learning how to read and write early in life are key factors that will determine how children succeed in school and later in their careers," said O'Connell. "Ensuring that all students gain these critical skills is an important part of our effort to close the achievement gap that exists between groups of students who are African American or Latino and their peers who are white or Asian. We have a moral, ethical, economic, and social imperative to close this gap and help all children succeed in school. In turn, this will help lift young people out of poverty to become productive members of our communities."

The purpose of the Even Start program is to break the cycle of poverty and low literacy by improving the academic achievement of parents and their young children, aged birth through 7 years and adult. The program integrates early childhood education, adult education, parenting education, and interactive literacy activities.

The Even Start program is funded by the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 that was folded into the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The program was named in honor of its original Congressional sponsor and advocate, William F. Goodling. Grantees include institutions of higher education, local education agencies, and nonprofit organizations.They are also required to apply jointly and have a track record of working in family literacy programs. Funding priority was given to applications that had higher percentage or number of children and families in need of Even Start services, applications in geographical locations within California that have never received Even Start funding, and to continuing projects that have met their performance indicators.

The awards range between $120,750 and $241,500. All grantees were required to find matching funds. The grants were also contingent upon the availability of federal funds. Grantees were selected based on multiple criteria, a rating system, and the quality of their programs. The highest ranked grantees from among a pool of 58 applicants were funded.

Closing the achievement between groups of students who are African American or Latino, and their peers who are white and Asian is a top priority of O'Connell's. He has asked education, business, labor, and community leaders in his statewide P-16 Council to examine what is causing the gap and find ways to close it. O'Connell will also host an Achievement Gap Summit that will bring together national education stakeholders in Sacramento November 13-14 to discuss the issue.

For more information on the William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy Program grants, please visit Past Funding Profile (ID 1076): William F. Goodling Even Start Family Literacy Program. For more information on O'Connell's Achievement Gap Summit, please visit GAP Summit - Request to Attend [http://www.sjcoe.org/summit/index.aspx] (Outside Source).