Baby face qualitative Evaluation

 
Baby FACE 
Wilder Research, January 2015 
 
Qualitative Evaluation 
1 
Introduction 
Background
The Baby FACE program is a home visiting program for American Indian families with children 
prenatal to age three in rural, tribal communities. On October 1, 2010, the U.S. Department of 
Education awarded a 5-year Investing In Innovations (i3) grant to Parents as Teachers national 
center (PATNC) and a consortium of 20 Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) funded schools to 
provide this program. 
The Baby FACE program uses the evidence-based Parents as Teachers model and is implemented 
by Parents as Teachers National Center (PATNC). Families receive services from a trained 
parent educator: home visits, health and developmental screenings for the children, group 
meetings and events, and referrals, as needed. Each site has a designated supervisor, and one to 
three parent educators who implement the model with families. 
The grant is entitled Improving Education Outcomes for American Indian Children. The goals are 
to narrow the achievement gap of American Indian children at kindergarten entry and to improve 
student achievement in reading and math through the third grade. The objectives are a) early 
identification of health and developmental issues and referral for intervention of any delays;
b) increasing parental knowledge of child development; c) increasing access to literacy resources 
in the home; d) increasing literacy activities; e) increasing parent involvement in their child’s 
education; and f) increasing school readiness.
Research & Training Associates is conducting an independent evaluation of the effects of the 
Baby FACE program on the home environment and on children’s development, using a quasi-
experimental design in most sites and a randomized control trial design in one site. As a 
complement to this quantitative evaluation, PATNC contracted with Wilder Research to conduct a 
qualitative evaluation with the goal of explaining the factors that promote or impede high quality 
implementation, and how high quality implementation fosters positive outcomes for families.