8.4 Guidelines for the evaluation of programs

• Take into account the criteria for quality in a family literacy program in the program evaluation.
  
• Study the program model before offering it, to ensure it fulfills the criteria.
  
• Take into account the needs of participants that are identified at the time the program is
  implemented.
  
• Develop an evaluation plan at the outset of the program.
  
• Evaluate all aspects of the program.
• Make the evaluation participative so that participants can reflect on their learning.
• For practitioners and volunteers, have participative evaluations on questions about the
  teaching approaches and the evaluations.
• For the manager, focus the evaluation on the way he manages families, partners, practitioners
  and volunteers.
• For the children, use a formative evaluation.
• Evaluate partnerships in collaboration with the respective partners.

The For My Child reports state that each year, the family literacy programs in the six partnering centres
were evaluated at the end of the program. In addition, the reports recommends that each centre choose a
family literacy program model that answers its needs by using the criteria set out in section 3.3.1.
It is important to include a formative evaluation. The results allow the development of ongoing training for
program directors and practitioners to improve their practice. It is an opportunity to reflect on how to go
about integrating and applying the values that inform a family literacy program based on multiple
literacies. Note that in the Coalition francophone's research, after each cohort was evaluated, the
participating centres integrated the various recommendations, and by doing so improved their program's
quality.

8.5 Conclusion

In this chapter, we reviewed winning features for the implementation and ongoing delivery of a high
quality family literacy program. Organized and written in bullet points, these guidelines are easy to refer to
and can aid organizations in offering a family literacy program. They can also be used as items in program
evaluations.

The next chapter contains recommendations that we have formulated after analyzing the information
presented in this report.