DOCUMENT RESUME ED 304 539 CE 052 052 AUTHOR Alamprese, Judith A.; And Others TITLE Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS): Impact of the First Year's Task Forces. Final Report. INSTITUTION COSMOS Corp., Washington, DC. SPONS AGENCY Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Washington, D.C. REPORT NO ISBN-0-942570-33-2 PUB DATE Dec 87 NOTE 193p. AVAILABLE FROMCOSMOS Corporation, 1735 Eye Street, NW, Suite 613, Washington, DC 20006 ($9.50). PUB TYPE Reports - Research/Technical (143) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC08 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Adult Basic Education; *Adult Literacy; Commercial Television; Community Involvement; Community Programs; *Cooperative Programs; Coordination; *Illiteracy; *Literacy Education; *Outreach Programs; *Public Service; Public Television; Student Recruitment IDENTIFIERS *Project Literacy U S ABSTRACT This report details an evaluation of the effects of outreach activities of Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS) on community responses to the illiteracy problem. Part A describes general findings regarding PLUS task force activities during the campaign's first year, December 1985-June 1987. Section I is an introduction; Section II describes activities that precede' the PLUS campaign, strategies that ABC and PBS used to develop the campaign, and simultaneous national literacy activities. Section III presents the conceptual approach and data collection methods. Section IV discusses development and functioning of task forces as mechanisms for coalescing support to combat illiteracy. Sections V-VII describe activities task forces performed to accomplish the three PLUS goals--awareness raising, community collaboration, and recruitment of volunteers and adult learners. Section VIII assesses lessons learned and presents recommendations for policy and practice. Part B presents five case studies of PLUS task forces, which illustrate the strategies used in supporting the PLUS campaign. Each description covers task force development; relatr.d literacy efforts; task force organization and operation; awareness-raising activities; community participation; volunteer and adult learner recruitment; and impact on service provision. The five task forces are Beaufort County, South Carolina, St. Louis, Missouri, Los Angeles, California, Maine, and Oregon. (YLB) *********************************1************************************* * Reproductions supplied by EDFS are the best that can be made * from the original document. ***************************%******************************************* I L:r3 Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS): asN Impact of the First Year's Li' Task Forces Judith A. Alamprese Rhonda Leach Schaff U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Nancy Brigham E 'PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THI 3 4, ,a uewar erN, EC A,t()NAL PE MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTEDdY F NTERRI( r-,510, ,,,e5` ,we'rer,,,Xiu. PO as I.\ A -N '^e sc ,,rgan 711' ".7 \.1 1 Ewer, rape, r, Ploot10,11,r December 1987 0 CD, rj, ni,i ,5a,-pssa, ' 1'0 THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCES 5,1,, INFORMATION CENTER {EPIC1 Final Report Prepared for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Under CPB Account No. 1709/80636 COSMOS CORPORATION COSMOS CORPORATION COSMOS Corporation was founded in 1980. The firm offers research, Software development, and other consulting services to government, founiation, and business clients. COSMOS is distinct among firms offering similar services in that its research, software development, and consulting activities augment each other, thereby increasing the quality of the services provided. COSMOS's research adheres to the highest standards of peer review and academic publication, and its staff frequently publishes in the recognized professional and academic journals. COSMOS's software development and consulting services are undertaken only for those topics for which COSMOS has conducted prior research or has otherwise developed an adequate knowledge base--so that the services reflect the most advanced and effec- tive state-of-the-art. COSMOS Corporation consists of two divisions: the Research and Consulting Division and the Information Systums Division. In turn, the Research and Consulting Division provides services through one of five institu- tes: the Case Study Institute, the Management & Tech- nology Institute, the Education & Training Institute, the Justice Institute, and the Allied Health Institute. Each institute concentrates on a different aspect of research, management, or technical assistance. This project is one of several within COSMOS's Education & Training Institute Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS): Impact of the First Year's Task Forces Judith A. Alamprese Rhonda Leach Schaff Nancy Brigham December 1987 Final Report Prepared for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Under CPB Account No. 1709/80636 COSMOS CORPORATION ISBN No. 0-942570-33-2 CCSMOS Production Assistants: Bernice Hughes The conduct of this study and the preparation of the final report were sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting under CPB Account No. 1709/80636. Anv opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. U iii PREFACE During its first year, Project Literacy U.S. (PLUS) stimu- lated the development of over 300 community task forces that worked to combat the illiteracy problem in this country. These local task forcesinvolving community members from education, media, social services, government, volunteer organizations, religious groups, and business and industry--provideda forum for the organization of activities in support of PLUS. As local efforts, the task forces built upon the momentum generated by the national media campaign, to raise awareness about illiteracy and to promote community involvement in solving the problem. In the development of the PLUS campaign, the task forces' work was considered critical to the success of PLUS. Thus, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) commissioned COSMOS Corporation to conduct a year-long evaluation of the effects of PLUS's outreach development activities on community responses to the illiteracy problem. Of particular concern were the success- ful strategies that were utilized by the task forces,as well as the barriers that they encountered in implementing their activities. This report presents the results of the evaluation, which was undertaken during PLUS's first year, 1986-1987. At the time the evaluation was initiated, the second year of PLUS had not yet been announced. This, the evaluation was undertaken with the assumption that the PLUS campaign would end in June 1987. The report contains two parts. The first describes the general findings from an assessment of the community task forces that were developed as part of the PLUS media campaign. The results of the activities undertaken by these task forces to meet the PLUS campaign goals are described, and recommendations are made for issues that warrant consideration as the PLUS campaign continues. Presented in the second part of the report are five case studies of PLUS task forces, which illustrate various strategies utilized by task forces in supporting the national campaign. During the course of the year-long evaluation, survey data were collected from 153 PLUS task forces, of the 308 task forces in operation as of December 1986. The task forces who responded to our survey were representative of'Aie universe of task rorces in existence at the time of the survey. Thirty of the 153 task forces were studied further through the conduct of telephone interviews, and five task forces were the subject of in-depth case studies. Therefore, the evaluation is based upon a wealth of information from a variety of PLUS task force efforts across the country. I) iv Our data collection activities would not have been possible without the cooperation and support of the task force conveners, who took tame from their hectic task force responsibilities to complete our survey. We are indebted to these individuals. Special thanks are given to the conveners who participated in the two phases of telephone interviews. Their insights about the PLUS campaign and the information they provided about their task forces' activities were critical to our evaluation results. Finally, our gratitude is expressed to the task force conveners who organized our five case study site visits, and to the community members whom we met with at the sites. Each of the conveners was most helpful in ideltifying appropriate individuals for the evaluation team to interview, and in sharing extensive information about their experiences organizing and implementing task force activities. At critical points throughout the evaluation, we benefited from the guidance of staff from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and from WQED in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Mary E. Sceiford, our CPB project officer, provided advice on each of the evaluation's phases. We wish to acknowledge her support throughout the evaluation process. As well, we are grateful to Mr. Douglas Bodwell from CPB, for his perceptive insights on our evaluation :esults. Special thanks are extended to Margot Wuodwell from WQED, PLUS's national coordinator, who was instrumental in obtaining support for the conduct of the evaluation. Margot's thoughtful review of documents produced during the evaluation, as well as the assistance provided by Pat Honisek and Ricki Wertz from WQED, were invaluable to our effort. Finally, we wish to thank the coordinators of the Public Television Outreach Alliance for their time in providing information