Evaluation Report Brief

The Colorado Parent and Child Foundation: 

Parents as Teachers, and Home Instruction for 

Parents of Preschool Youngsters

1 

What are the goals of the program? 

The first five years of life are a time of enormous developmental 

growth for children, and their environment can have a powerful 

impact on what they learn. Children in low-income households or 

communities can be at risk of falling behind because parents or 

caregivers may have less resources and time to create an 

environment where children can learn, play, and engage. The 

Colorado Parent and Child Foundation (CPCF) operates Parents 

as Teachers (PAT) and Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool 

Youngsters (HIPPY). The PAT and HIPPY programs support and 

train parent educators who visit primarily low-income families at 

home (i.e., home visiting) to share age-appropriate learning 

materials and help provide meaningful parent and child 

interactions to support development. 

What was the purpose of evaluation?

The PAT and HIPPY programs utilize evidence-based home 

visiting models. The PAT program sites use the national PAT 

model, which has demonstrated statistically significant effects on 

parent and child outcomes, in particular the frequency with 

which parents engage in activities with their children. The SIF 

funded evaluation assessed the implementation or expansion of 

the six PAT and one HIPPY program sites and the extent to which 

they were implementing their models with fidelity.

What did we learn from the evaluation?

Some key findings from the evaluation are listed below. 

Location and Characteristics of Families Served 

 Children living closer to the program site were more likely to be served. 

 The program was successful in reaching its target population of low-income families; 33% of parents in

the program had less than a high school education (compared to 12% of US adults age 25 and older); 

31% of families in the program reported an income of less than $20,000; and 39% reported an income 

between $20,000 and $40,000.1

Children’s Early Literacy Outcomes

 Children’s gender and the frequency of literacy activities in the home were significant predictors of 

language development and ability to communicate with others (as measured by the Ages and Stages 

questionnaire). Boys were 3.8 times more likely to have communication concerns, and a child whose 

parent reported lower levels of literacy activities was 3.3 times more likely to have concerns. 

 

1

 Education level data was available for about 50% of parents, and household income data was reported by less than 50% of families. 

Program At-a-Glance

CNCS Program: Social Innovation Fund

Intervention: Parents as Teachers (PAT) and 

Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool 

Youngsters (HIPPY)

Subgrantee: The Colorado Parent and Child 

Foundation

Intermediary: Mile High United Way (MHUW) 

Social Innovation Fund 

Focus Area: Youth Development

Focus Population: Parents with children ages 0

to 5, particularly those who are low-income

Communities Served: 14 counties across 

Colorado

Evaluation At-a-Glance 

Evaluation Designs: Implementation Study and 

Impact Study

Study Population: Parents and children ages 0 

to 5

Independent Evaluator: Butler Institute for 

Families at the University of Denver

This Evaluation’s Level of Evidence*:

Preliminary

*SIF and AmeriCorps currently use different definitions of levels of 

evidence.

Office of Research and Evaluation, Corporation for National and Community Service 

nationalservice.gov/research 

April 2016 
Evaluation Report Brief

The Colorado Parent and Child Foundation: 

Parents as Teachers, and Home Instruction for 

Parents of Preschool Youngsters

2 

Parent Engagement 

 Parents reported statistically significant increases in talking

about books with their child, looking at/talking about 

shapes with their child, and their child’s ability to write 

his/her name. 

Program Staff and Volunteer Reports 

 Staff and volunteers reported that participation in the 

program increased the organizations’ capacities in different 

ways including serving more families, providing a new 

aspect of programming, or expanding their existing program.

Notes on the evaluation

The evaluation took place in 2014 as the CPCF neared

the end of its second year in the Social Innovation 

Fund (SIF) grant process. CPCF did not complete the 

5-year SIF grant process; it chose to discontinue after 

two years of participation. Furthermore, the HIPPY 

program site participated in qualitative data 

collection only. 

How is the CPCF using the evaluation experience 

and findings to improve? 

As a result of participation with the SIF, the Colorado 

Parent and Child Foundation reported making changes to improve their PAT and HIPPY programs. To work 

towards reaching their goal of serving more families, PAT and HIPPY program sites hired additional program 

staff, provided additional services such as a bilingual family night, and expanded into new regions in 

Colorado. 

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF), a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), 

combines public and private resources to grow the impact of innovative, community-based solutions that have 

compelling evidence of improving the lives of people in low-income communities throughout the United States. 

The SIF invests in three priority areas: economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development. 

The content of this brief was drawn from the full evaluation report submitted to CNCS by the grantee/subgrantee. The section of the brief that 

discusses evaluation use includes contribution of the grantee/subgrantee. All original content from the report is attributable to its authors. 

To access the full evaluation report and learn more about CNCS, please visit nationalservice.gov/research. 

Study Locations

(by county)

Office of Research and Evaluation, Corporation for National and Community Service 

nationalservice.gov/research 

April 2016