SALT LAKE CITY — A  new study confirms that Utah’s Motheread/Fatheread early-literacy program has helped parents improve their reading ability and, in turn, read to their children more often.

According to an independent study released this month by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 65 percent increased their reading level by at least one level among of a sample of participating parents. Motheread/Fatheread works with both adults and children to build parenting, critical thinking and literacy skills, and promotes reading and story sharing in the home. It works with families of at-risk children through Head Start and Even Start programs and other social service agencies.

“We are proud of the positive impact Motheread/Fatheread has had in so many families, increasing time children are read to, which we know helps prepare children for school success,” said Pippa Keene, program director for Motheread/Fatheread.  “Our program is increasing the number of books in the home and improving family communication and parenting skills.” 

Motheread/Fatheread Utah, a program of the Utah Humanities Council since 1996, was able to expand statewide with funding by the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning, which is the charitable arm of Utah Power.

Currently, Motheread/Fatheread Utah operates at 71 sites in 27 counties. In 2005, 1,150 books were distributed, helping to build home libraries for program participants. The program has served 2,440 families over the past three years.

“Our funding from the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning allowed us to expand our network of Motheread/Fatheread facilitators by training over 300 Head Start and Even Start staff and providers from other agencies working with pre-school aged children and their families,” said Cynthia Buckingham, executive director of the Utah Humanities Council. “We have been able to serve every corner of the state and to make Motheread/Fatheread a high-profile program. PacifiCorp’s challenge grant this past year has helped us to identify some new sources of support in order to keep the program going.”

“The results are encouraging,” said Dr. Steffen Saifer, director of NWREL’s Child and Family Program and Principal Investigator of the study. “Participating parents are reading to their children more often and are increasing their own reading skills. This is particularly true among immigrant parents.”

“This study confirms that we accomplished what we set out to do,” said 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.”

In other states:

• At-risk children in schools with Oregon Project Optimize did significantly better on reading assessments than did children from demographically similar schools where the project was not implemented. Seventy-eight percent of the children in Optimize were reading at benchmark by the end of kindergarten as compared to 57 percent of the children in the comparison group.
  
• In Wyoming, 7,197 children received 26,594 books the end of 2005. Raising Readers distributes 10 books to each child by the age of five years in conjunction with well-baby check-ups and at times of immunizations. Sixty two percent of participating health care providers talk to parents about reading to their child frequently or at every visit, and almost all started before the child’s first birthday.
  
• Families served in Idaho by Parents as Teachers Plus 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.
  
• The newest program, Washington Motheread/Fatheread, distributed 534 books (and an additional 522 funded by Sundquist). Eleven instructors in the Yakima Area were trained and the program has expanded to Walla Walla.

“All programs we funded exceeded their anticipated goals for the number of families and children served and the number of books distributed,” said Isaac Regenstreif, executive director of the PacifiCorp Foundation. “More than 10,000 children have been reached by the programs’ combined efforts, and it’s clear that these programs are helping kids have a better chance at succeeding in school.”

Media inquiries:newsdesk@pacificorp.com