Florida HiPPY Training & TecHnical assisTance cenTerCollege of Behavioral and Community SciencesUniversity of South Florida13301 Bruce B Downs Blvd, MHC 2113ATampa, Florida 33612Phone (813) 974-2177Fax (813) 974-6115

http://floridahippy.fmhi.usf.edu

sTaTe direcTorMary Lindsey, Ph.D.Lindsey@usf.edu

assisTanT sTaTe direcTorDabaram RampersadRampersad@usf.edu

HiPPY Usa1221 Bishop StreetLittle Rock, AR 72202Tel: (501) 537-7726 Fax: (501) 537-7716

http://www.hippyusa.org

FLORIDA

FloridaHIPPYStateOffice

FloridaHIPPY

How Do You Measure the Success of a Program?Mary Lindsey, Ph.D., State Director

This was an incredible year for Florida HIPPY. We experienced unprecedented growth expanding the number of sites from eleven to twenty-one serving over 1,600 children. Parents were empowered with the skills, tools, and support required to prepare their children for early school success. They worked with their children weekly to teach them developmentally appropriate skills and participated in monthly group meetings. The Florida HIPPY Longitudinal Study results show that the HIPPY program is effective in working with preschool parents to teach their children the skills they need to be successful in kindergarten. 90% of Kindergarteners were promoted to the first grade, and 95% of first graders were promoted to second grade. Five-hundred and thirty-one families read 21,666 books in our “100 Books in 100 Days” during the first HIPPY Read-a-Thon.

The state office organized trainings, site visits, and professional development workshops for HIPPY staff. Home visitors attended over 900 training hours, delivered over 20,000 HIPPY Curriculum Activity packets to parents, and conducted 31,571 home visits.

HIPPY USA established standards and accreditation procedures to recognize outstanding programs. Ten out of twelve Florida HIPPY programs were accredited and recognized for providing high quality services.

It is with great expectations that we look forward to implementing strategies that will identify and seek additional funds and resources that will increase the number of children that will enter Kindergarten ready to learn. The plan includes capacity building, networking, advocacy, grant writing, and engaging in research activities that will impact the future of Florida HIPPY in many years to come.

Highlights in this Issue

sPring 2015

Director’s Note .......................................... 1Florida HIPPY Sites Get On Board with New

Research! ....................................................... 2

100 Books in a 100 Days Read-a-Thon ................ 3Bi-lingual Reading with HIPPY ........................... 4

A Love of Learning Begins at HomeA Love of Learning Begins at Home

Ruby Joseph, MPA, Florida HIPPY Researcher

The Florida HIPPY Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA) center has a five-member research team under the leadership of Mary Lindsey, Ph.D., HIPPY State Director, and Ms. Ruby Joseph, MPA, HIPPY Researcher. Research faculty members have diverse educational backgrounds and experience in community research, student academic testing, and quantitative and qualitative research. The team has developed a robust research agenda that currently includes research on the twenty-two Florida programs.

Specifically, the Florida HIPPY sites research model comprises the Statewide Longitudinal Study which tracks HIPPY children when they enter kindergarten through third grade. The model evaluates the following educational outcomes: students’ kindergarten readiness scores, attendance, promotions and standardized assessment tests. Data from 2012-2013 school year indicate that HIPPY Children were successful in school. Almost 70% of HIPPY Children were ready for kindergarten and these kindergarten students had a 95% attendance rate and 90% of them were promoted to the first grade. First graders had a 97% attendance rate, and 95% of HIPPY first grade students were promoted to the second grade.

In addition to tracking past HIPPY students, for children who are currently enrolled in Florida HIPPY programs, sites conduct pre and post Parental Involvement Surveys and pre and post Bracken School Readiness Assessments. The Bracken assessment is designed for Pre-K to 2nd grades and focuses on the child’s understanding of colors, letters, numbers, sizes/comparisons and shapes. The Parental Involvement Survey captures parental interaction and involvement with their children. To date, a total of 725 Pre Bracken School Readiness Assessments and 560 Pre parental Involvement surveys have been completed. Post assessments of the Bracken and Parental Involvement survey will be collected in May and data analyses conducted in June. We hypothesize that from pre to post, there will be overall improvement in the Bracken scores of HIPPY children and that parental involvement and interactions will show significant improvement as well.

Progress is being made with the Efforts to Outcomes data management system. As of March 23, 2015, nine sites were designated ETO All Stars and had less than 5% missing data in ETO. *Top Honors for that month went to 5 sites that had 0% Missing Data. This means that for the data had been inputted in ETO at that point there was no missing information. This is exceptional!

Florida HIPPY Sites Get On Board with New Research!

Florida HIPPY Sites ETO All-StarsThe sites listed below received less than 5% of missing data

1. Centers for Family Services, W Palm Beach, Palm Beach County *

Martha Gomez

2. Communities In Schools NE FL, Putnam County*

Jillian Overby

3. PAEC, Gadsden County*

Xochitl Paz

4. PAEC, Madison County*

Marixa Soto

5. R’Club Child Care, Pinellas County*

Shonyell Johnson

6. Bible Based Fellowship Church, Hillsborough County

Brenda Brinson

7. Family Central, Broward County

Lidia Clark

8. Marion County Public Schools

Kim Gibas

9. PAEC, Washington County

Lucia Esquivel

* Sites that had 0% missing data

A Love of Learning Begins at HomeA Love of Learning Begins at Home

Florida HIPPY Programs

100 Books in a 100 Days Read-a-ThonMary Reed, Florida HIPPY Training Coordinator

Congratulations to the five-hundred and thirty-one families who participated in the first “100 Books in 100 Days” Reading Challenge! As a group, these families agreed to read a minimum of one book each day for a hundred days, and the grand total was 21,666 books read. The Read-a-Thon began the first week of December 2014, and ended the first week of March 2015. Each day, parents kept a record of all books read together with their HIPPY child. These reading logs were gathered by participating HIPPY programs at the end of the Read-a-Thon, with a program celebration and a top prize winner for the highest number of books read. Each child who participated in the “100 Books in 100 Days” Reading Challenge will receive a certificate of participation and their own copy of Transportation/El transporte, one of the Barron’s first bilingual book series. The top reader for the state was Gainesville HIPPY’s Arron Gray, who read a total of two-hundred and fifty-one books! He was awarded an E-reader and several other books in efforts to help continue his reading success.

AlAchuA Gainesville HIPPY, Inc.

BrAdford Bradford County School District

BrowArd Family Central, Inc.

desoto Sarasota Family YMCA, Inc.

escAmBiA Escambia County School District, McMillian Center

frAnklin Panhandle Area Educational Consortium

GAdsden Panhandle Area Educational Consortium

Gulf Panhandle Area Educational Consortium

hAmilton Exceptional Student Education- Greenwood School Campus

hArdee Sarasota Family YMCA, Inc.

hillsBorouGh Bible-Based Fellowship Church of Temple Terrace, Inc.

mAdison Panhandle Area Educational Consortium

mAnAtee Manatee Community Action Agency- Resource Connection for Families

mArion Marion County Public Schools

miAmi-dAde Miami-Dade County Public Schools AND Family Central, Inc.

PAlm BeAch Center for Family Services, Inc.

PinellAs R’Club Child Care, Inc.

PutnAm Communities in Schools of Northeast Florida

sArAsotA Sarasota Family YMCA, Inc.

wAkullA Panhandle Area Educational Consortium

wAshinGton Panhandle Area Educational Consortium

Gainesville HIPPY awarding the grand prize winner of the first ever Read-a-thon challenge

HiPPY Mission sTaTeMenT

HIPPY partners with parents to prepare their children for success in school.

Supported by funds from The Children’s Board of Hillsborough County and Florida’s Office of Early Learning in collaboration with the University of South Florida.

Events, activities, programs, and facilities of the University of South Florida are available to all without regard to race, color, marital status, sex, religion, national

origin, disability, age, Vietnam or disabled veteran status as provided by law and in accordance with the University’s respect for personal dignity.

Bi-lingual Reading with HIPPYMarisol Paiz, West Palm Beach HIPPY Parent

How Can I Help? Make a Donation Today!Checks payable to: USF Foundation (Memo Line: Acct # 530004 HIPPY Services Fund)

Please send all donations to: Florida HIPPY Foundation Account, 13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd., MHC 2113A, Tampa, FL 33612

I am honored and privileged that my children have had the opportunity to have HIPPY accessible to them. The oldest of my three children is Leonel, he is eight-years-old and in the third grade. He is currently enrolled in a dual language program for English and Spanish – he reads, writes and speaks Spanish perfectly. Leonel started the HIPPY program at age three. Yesenia is my oldest daughter, and she is five now and in Pre-K. She started HIPPY at age four at the beginning of Pre-K when she was having problems, but her teacher has told me she has improved a lot, and I believe the reason is because of HIPPY and the activities we do together. Solimar is my youngest, she is three-years-old. Her assignments have helped her develop mentally, physically and emotionally. She loves doing her homework, and feels like a big kid with a big responsibility when doing HIPPY.

There aren’t enough words to express my gratitude towards this program, and the wonderful teachers are no exception. HIPPY has allowed me to spend more time with my children in an educational way. Without HIPPY my children wouldn’t be as smart, and as confident as they are today.