Our work involving parents and families in education began in the 1980s, with assistance to the federal Head Start and Even Start programs and with consultations to help shape district and school policies to support effective parent involvement. We have provided technical assistance to federal and state Even Start and other parent programs through professional development and evaluation services, developed resources for practitioners, and have coordinated services to Parent Information and Resource Centers.

Highlights

The Parent Education Profiles (PEP) Scales
This observational tool guides a wide range of professionals in assessing parental behaviors, skills, and attitudes related to children's literacy development. RMC has also created materials and training to support the use of the Parent Education Profiles Scales.

Parent Information Resource Centers (PIRC)
For ten years, RMC served as the Technical Assistance Coordination Center for 78 Parent Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs) funded by the U.S.E.D.'s Office of Innovation and Improvement to provide information and services to parents and educators. In addition to conducting annual national conferences and regular training institutes, we provided ongoing support through site visits and telephone contacts and an interactive website and listserv. More recently, RMC conducted evaluations of PIRC outreach in a number of states.

Even Start
RMC has been a key contributor to this innovative federal program for nearly thirty years. We have developed products and technical assistance approaches to guide state and local Even Start programs in continuous program improvement, literacy training, and evaluations of program performance. The Even Start Guide to Quality is a comprehensive framework for local EvenStart evaluations, from key concepts to reporting and using findings; the Guide to Local Evaluations of EvenStart Family Literacy Programs explains why and how to conduct evidence-based evaluations of program effectiveness.

Parent Leadership Programs Evaluation
The Connecticut Commission on Children has engaged RMC to develop recommendations for the evaluation of its statewide parent leadership programs. The state's Parent Leadership Training Initiative aims to prepare and empower parents to catalyze change in their schools and communities to improve outcomes for all students. In addition to evaluation recommendations, we produced case studies and an alumni survey to inform a model for understanding how community engagement can improve schools. Read the Executive Summary.

Other work:

• RMC developed materials for Head Start programs to use with parents
• Parent products RMC created for the National Institute for Literacy include Dad's Playbook: Coaching Kids to Read, Big Dreams, and the Shining Stars series.