SPECIAL PROJECTS - A STATEWIDE INITIATIVE:
The Texas Family Literacy Assistance Center

Family literacy encompasses a wide variety of programs that promote the involvement of both parents and their children in literacy enhancement activities. It assumes that parents are the child's first and most influential teachers. Family literacy recognizes the importance of the family context to learning. In successful programs parents and children learn together and enhance the lives of each other. Practices that enhance literacy of all family members include:

• focusing on the family as a unit
• coordinating the literacy activities offered to parents and children together, and
• sharing a common understanding that a child's literacy development will benefit from parents who are interested in advancing their own literacy.

Since 1973 adult education has been administered by the Texas Education Agency. The number of adult education programs has grown steadily. The Family Support Act of 1980 and the National Literacy Act of 1991 aided in the expansion of services. In many programs the expanded services have included services to families.

Parental involvement has been a major component of federally funded programs for disadvantaged children. The enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 (ESEA) required schools receiving the money to involve parents in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of programs. Parent Advisory Committees (PAC) for Title I Regular and Migrant students have provided direct literacy services to children and indirect literacy services to parents since the late 1960's.

Newer initiatives such as Even Start have promoted the idea of direct literacy services to children combined with direct literacy services to parents. The evolution of literacy service to families has included the following:

• Direct literacy services to children through Title I, Migrant Bilingual, ESL Programs with indirect literacy services to parents through Parent Committees
• Direct literacy services to children and direct literacy services to parents Adult Education
• Direct literacy services to parents and children together

A critical area in family literacy is the delivery of direct literacy services to parents and children together with a focus on congruence of instruction. The challenge is how to provide cooperatively planned and funded programs. A linkage must be made between adult education and programs offered to children.

The Texas Family Literacy Assistance Center (TFLAC) is a special project of the Texas Education Agency Division of Adult and Community Education. The project is a joint effort of Baylor University and Southwest Texas State University. Baylor University is the single contact point for requesting services. The purpose of the Center is to promote the development of family literacy programs in Texas by providing a support system for the implementation of projects. The project is in year two of implementation. During year one of the project, project staff developed, piloted, and published Family Literacy: Implementation Framework for Collaboratively Planning and Delivery of Services. This planning document has been used by organizations around the state. The TFLAC also established a task force to advise and inform the project. The membership is representative of all organizations that service children and their families. A statewide seminar was conducted in September with 175 participants.

TFLAC services include the following: on-site technical assistance to explore funding options, developing collaborations, linking Adult Education, Title I, Migrant, JTPA, SCE, and others, curriculum development, staff development, and on-site visits by TFLAC staff members. Training sessions are planned by TFLAC staff to meet local needs and have included several levels of holistic math for families, reading for families, science and social studies activities for families, assessment of the learner and program, training sessions using job manuals for workplace literacy and AFDC recipients, and Even Start/early childhood staff training for teachers. TFLAC's support network include the Texas Family Literacy Task Force and Adult Education Professional Development and Curriculum Consortium.

To access the services of TFLAC, contact Diane Browning at (800) 557-FLAC.

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