Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative Year 4 Report 2013-2014

The Oregon Parenting Education Collaborative (OPEC) is a multi-year initiative led by The Oregon Community Foundation (OCF), The Ford Family Foundation, and Oregon State University (OSU). Financial supporters include the Meyer Memorial Trust, The Collins Foundation, and OCF Donor Advised Funds. The initiative supports expanded access to best practice parenting education programs, with a focus on programs reaching parents of children prenatal to age six, and supports efforts to develop and strengthen regional parenting education "Hubs." OPEC is unique in its collaborative, foundation-approach in building a statewide infrastructure for parenting education through community-based non-profits and public agencies. The initiative was launched in July 2010. In 2013-2014, there were twelve regional parenting Hubs serving 19 Oregon counties and Siskiyou County, California. During this past year the OPEC initiative also funded ten Small Grant projects in the Portland Metro area to provide evidence-based classes and/or home visiting for specific groups of parents. The OSU evaluation team synthesized overarching lessons and impacts for the program year

Evaluation of the Ford Institute Leadership Program: 2011 Report

Evaluation revealing the impact of the Ford Institute Leadership Program on individuals and communities

Evaluation of the Ford Institute Leadership Program: 2010 Report

Findings of the 2010 evaluation of the Ford Institute Leadership Program. Evaluation assessed impact of the Leadership Program on individuals, organizations, and communities

Evaluation of the Ford Institute Leadership Program: 2009 Report

Findings of the 2009 evaluation of the Ford Institute Leadership Program. The evaluation focused on assessing the impact of the Leadership Program on individuals and networks. In addition, some suggestions for the future of the program were discussed

Early family risk and children's academic achievement

Children who have multiple family risk factors are at increased risk for poor developmental outcomes, including poor academic achievement. The present study focused on charting the pathways through which early family risk – as indexed by ethnic minority status, low maternal education, low family income, and chronic maternal depressive symptoms – influences academic achievement in first grade using data on 1,364 children from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. In addition, the mediating role of children's social competency and behavioral regulation at 54 months was explored.Structural equation modeling indicated that family risk factors during early childhood negatively influenced social competency, behavioral regulation, and academic achievement in first grade, but the mechanisms by which each risk factor exerted influence on academic achievement varied. Child's ethnicity emerged as being significantly and directly related to lower achievement. Maternal education and average family income-to-needs ratio were primarily associated with lower achievement directly with a small indirect effect through behavioral regulation. In contrast, maternal depression had a modest indirect effect through behavioral regulation, such that as the number of time points a mother showed significant depressive symptoms increased,children's behavioral skills decreased, which, in turn, was related to lower academic achievement in first grade.In addition, behavioral regulation significantly predicted better reading,mathematics, and vocabulary achievement in first grade after controlling for early family risk factors. Results suggest that strengthening a child's behavioral regulation skills prior to school entry may help to compensate for early exposure to family risk factors and decrease the likelihood of poor academic adjustment and later academic failure.KEYWORDS: behavioral regulation, social competency, academic achievement, family risk factor

Relations between early family risk, children's behavioral regulation, and academic achievement

This study examined relations among early family risk, children’s behavioral regulation at 54 months and kindergarten, and academic achievement in first grade using data on 1,298 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Family risk was indexed by ethnic minority status, low maternal education, low average family income from 1 – 54 months, and high maternal depressive symptoms from 1 - 54 months. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that minority status, low maternal education, and low family income had significant negative effects on reading, math, and vocabulary achievement in first grade. Modest indirect effects were also found from ethnicity, maternal education, and maternal depressive symptoms, through 54-month and kindergarten behavioral regulation to first-grade achievement. Discussion focuses on the importance of behavioral regulation for school success especially for children facing early risk.This is the authors' post peer-review, final manuscript as submitted to the publisher. It contains no copy editing. The final published version, which is copyrighted by Elsevier, can be found at:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/08852006Keywords: Early family risk, Children's behavioral regulation, Academic achievemen