REXBURG, Idaho — A  new study confirms that the Parents as Teachers Plus early literacy program is increasing the amount of time parents spend reading with their children. In addition, children who participated in PAT Plus scored at or above grade level on the Idaho Reading Indicator at Kindergarten entry.

More than 1,650 children have participated in PAT Plus, which is funded by the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning, the charitable arm of Rocky Mountain Power (formerly Utah Power). In partnership with the Dollywood Foundation’s Imagination Library and Brigham Young University-Idaho’s Child Development department, the program provides an additional 10 minutes of literacy activities to Parents as Teachers home visits, professional development on early literacy to PAT home visitors, and monthly book distribution. 18,200 books have been provided to children through the program, which is administered by the Madison School District.

The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL), a nonprofit education research, development and services firm, conducted a study of the early-literacy program’s effectiveness. It found that PAT Plus parents increased the amount of time they spent reading to their children from an average of 14 minutes a day to 21 minutes a day. This is significant because experts recommend that parents read to their children a minimum of 15-20 minutes per day. Between 88 and 97 percent of parents agreed or strongly agreed that as a result of the program, their children’s interest in books increased, they know what to expect from their children in regard to their reading and writing ability, and their children were more ready for kindergarten and to learn to read.

“Parents as Teachers Plus has clearly demonstrated the influence and impact parents can have on their children’s literacy development,” said Janet Goodliffe, Parents as Teachers Plus project director and Madison School District grants administrator. With the generous support of the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning, and the collaboration or our BYU-Idaho partners, we have impacted the lives of Madison County children and provided them with a solid foundation for future reading success. We are working with our community to continue this successful program in the future.”

In 2002, the PacifiCorp Foundation selected three initiatives: Oregon Project Optimize, Utah Motheread/Fatheread and Raising Readers of Wyoming. It expanded to fund Idaho’s Parents as Teachers Plus in 2003, and Washington Motheread/Fatheread in 2004. The Foundation is the charitable arm of PacifiCorp, which operates in six western states as Rocky Mountain Power, Utah Power and Pacific Power. All programs exceeded their anticipated goals for the number of families and children served and the number of books distributed, and more than 10,000 children have been impacted.

“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. Participating children are more interested in books and more ready for kindergarten than children who did not participate in PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning-funded programs.”

“This has been a phenomenal undertaking and we owe our success to many of the partner organizations and schools who implemented these initiatives,” said Isaac Regenstreif, executive director of the PacifiCorp Foundation. “It’s clear that these programs are helping kids have a better chance at succeeding in school.”

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. 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. Ninety-two percent of all eligible medical care providers participate in Raising Readers. The Health Care provider's perception is that through the book distribution and conversations regarding the books and reading, they are contributing to better parent-child relationships. The report shows that many more families are building home libraries and are receiving and using information about how to help their children develop literacy skills than would have without the programs.

• The Utah Motheread/Fatheread programs served 2,440 families over the past three years and distributed 1,150 books just in this past year. 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. Sixty-five percent of a sample of parents who participated in the program increased their reading level by at least one level. The Utah Motheread/Fatheread program has operated at 71 sites in 27 counties.

• 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.

“This study confirms that we accomplished what we set out to do,” said Rich Walje, the PacifiCorp 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 across PacifiCorp’s service area and facilitate real, needed change in education.”

For more information about the specific initiatives, log on to  www.pacificorpfoundation.org .

All programs are building sustainable partnerships and are leveraging additional dollars from other funding sources. They will all likely be sustained beyond the 3-4 years of PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning funding.

Media inquiries: newsdesk@pacificorp.com