United Way for Southeastern Michigan, and ACCESS: ACCESS to School

The ACCESS to School program uses an empowerment-based approach to school readiness to address the needs of immigrant parents and caregivers with children aged 0-5 living in Southwest Detroit. These program components include:

1. Culturally adapted Parenting Education,
2. Parent and Child Interactive Learning Activities (PCIL),
3. Comprehensive Care-management for families, and
4. Adult English as a Second Language (ESL) instruction.

1. To refine and describe the ACCESS to School program
2. To evaluate its outcomes.

• Implementation Questions:
  • How did the program as implemented compare to the original program model?
  • How many sessions were implemented?
  • To what extent did parents participate in each component of the program? 
  • How complex is the program?
  • How did program complexity affect program implementation?
  • What strategies were used to support implementation?
  • How were these strategies perceived by staff involved?
  • How was the quality of delivering the intervention, in relation to:
    • participant responsiveness,
    • recruitment, and
    • context?
• Impact Questions:
  • Do parents who receive the ACCESS to School program significantly superior to those in the comparison group on the following outcomes:
    • reading time
    • parenting attitudes
    • parenting stress in the home
    • cognitive activity
    • parenting-related self-esteem
    • child social-emotional well-being (reported by parent)
  • Are parents who participate in both the Parenting Education and PCIL components of the ACCESS to School program superior to those who only receive Parenting Education on the following outcomes:
    • reading time
    • parenting attitudes
    • parenting stress
    • cognitive activity in the home
    • parenting-related self-esteem
    • child social-emotional well-being (reported by parent)
  • Are children of parents who receive the ACCESS to School program significantly more ready for school than children in the comparison group on the following outcomes:
    • colors
    • letters
    • numbers
    • sizes
    • shapes
    • School Readiness Composite (SRC) of above measures
  • Are children of parents who participate in both the Parenting Education and PCIL components of the ACCESS to School program superior to those who only receive Parenting Education on the following outcomes:
    • colors
    • letters
    • numbers
    • sizes
    • shapes
    • School Readiness Composite (SRC) of above measures
  • To what extent do parent-level outcomes (such as reading time to child, parenting attitudes, parenting stress, cognitive activity in the home, parenting self-esteem) predict child school readiness?
  • To what extent do parent-reported improvements in child social-emotional well-being (such as social competence, anger/aggression, and anxiety) predict child school readiness?

Findings:

The evaluation found the following:

• Parents who participated in ACCESS to School had considerably less negative attitudes and significantly lowered parental stress compared with the comparison group.
• Children of parents who received ACCESS to School had significantly improved School Readiness Composite scores (which measured understanding of colors, letters, numbers, sizes, shapes).
• The Case Management component of ACCESS to School was found to reduce family vulnerability with regard to employment, income, healthcare, transportation, spoken English language proficiency, and social connections.

For more information, download the full report and report brief.