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Grant funds assessment
Researchers play key role in migrant education project
Friday, Oct. 1, 2010
By Julie Titone, College of Education
PULLMAN - WSU researchers will measure the impact of an effort to improve education for low-income migrant families in East Yakima.
The U.S. Department of Education recently awarded a Migrant Education Even Start grant to Ready by Five, a Yakima nonprofit organization, totaling $379,217 for the first year. Of that, $33,924 will go to WSU’s Learning & Performance Research Center (LPRC).
Second year funding also has been approved, and the grant may continue for four years if federal money is available.
"Our role is to determine how well Ready by Five succeeds at helping kids and their families,” said Mike Trevisan, professor, co-director of LPRC and lead researcher on the project. He will be assisted by doctoral student Jennifer LeBeau.
The researchers will measure results in three ways: With standardized achievement tests, counts of the numbers of families served, and surveys that capture the perceptions, feelings and motivation of the participants. Comparisons will be made over time and to similar students and families in Yakima.
The project dovetails with the research center’s mission and with WSU President Elson S. Floyd’s initiatives in support of early childhood education, Trevisan said.
The grant will serve parents and children, ages birth to 7 years, with interactive family literacy programs, adult literacy, parenting classes and basic education and English acquisition in addition to early childhood education.
Along with WSU, the partners, collaborators and supporters involved with the grant include the Yakima School District, Perry Technical Institute, Yakima Valley Community College, Catholic Family & Child Service, La Casa Hogar, Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, Yakima Neighborhood Health Services, Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, Yakima Family YMCA, Enterprise for Progress in the Community, Opportunities Industrialization Center, Washington State Migrant Council, Migrant Education Resource Office 105 and Educational Service District 105, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Thrive by Five Washington.
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