Parental involvement and student success in reading.

1. Parental involvement and student success in reading. Marquita Bailey Ed. 7201T Spring 2012

2. Table of Contents • Introduction 3 • Statement of the problem 4-5 • Review of literature 6-9 • Statement of the Hypothesis 10 • Method • Participants 11 • Instruments 11-12 • Experimental Design 13 • Threats to Validity 14 • Results 15-19 • Discussion & Implications 20 • References 21

3. Introduction • Early reading skills are acquired at home through specific experiences (Senechal and LeFevre, 2002) • Parents are the first teachers in their children’s lives. • Parents are the ones who begin their children’s learning at home before they enter school. • Parents who foster positive attitudes about school and reading set good examples for their children.

4. Statement of the problem • Teachers encounter parents who are deeply involved in their child’s education, some that are partially involved and some that aren’t involved at all. • When parents are involved at home, there is more of an impact than parental involvement in school activities (Christenson & Sheridan, 2001).

5. Statement of the problem (cont’d) • Educational achievement is greatly influenced when parents are involved in literacy activities at home (Senechal & Lefevre, 2002). • “Parents must be viewed as partners in the learning process because their role in their child’s early learning is crucial” Faires (2000)

6. Review of literature • “ Young children are active learners who learn through their early years at home more quickly than at any other time in their life”. (Al-Momomani, Ihmeideh, & Naba’h, 2010). • “Deliberate, cooperative intervention efforts by parents and educators to modify academic conditions in the home have an outstanding record of success in promoting achievement”. (Walberg, & Paik, 1997). • “Effective parenting makes important contributions to children’s education and achievement”. (Campbell, & Verna, 2007).

7. Review of literature (con’d) • Traditional parental involvement …included helping with homework, encouraging reading, and promoting school attendance as well as school based activities…(George, & Mensah, 2010). • “When homework assignments encourage interaction between parents and children, improvements are shown in reading skills” (Bailey, Silvern, Brabham, & Ross 2004, Bailey, 2006).

8. Review of literature (con’d) • PROS • According to the Harvard Family Research project, parental involvement results in higher reading scores, greater language growth and development, and increased motivation to achieve. (as cited by Mccollough, & Ramirez, 2010). • Parental encouragement and assistance contributes to students’ higher achievement, report card grades, better attitudes, and higher aspirations”(Cottrell,2005).

9. Review of literature (con’d) • Parental involvement has been associated with stronger academic achievement…increases in student attributes conducive to academic success…improved school attendance and behavior, more positive perceptions of classroom and school climate, stronger self-regulatory skills, stronger work orientation, and higher educational aspirations (Hoover-Dempsey, Walker, Jones, & Reed, 2002). CONS: • Disadvantages include differences between parents’ and school goals, language differences, limited skills for helping, and a legacy of low efficacy for school tasks derived from personal educational history (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2002)

10. Research Hypothesis Increased parental involvement via teacher designed daily reading homework for 20 minutes per week day, over a 4 week period to 13 first grade students in P.S.X of Brooklyn N.Y will increase students’ reading levels as measured by mCLASS Literacy assessment.

11. Methods • Participants • 13 first grade students ages six to seven (6 girls 46% & 7 boys 54%) • Instruments • Pre/post mCLASS literacy assessment(an observation reading assessment that measures students’ ability to read with comprehension. • Parent survey- 28 questions (15 attitude, 13 frequency). • Student survey- 31 questions (11 attitude, 20 frequency).

12. Methods • Feelings/attitude- scale of 1 to 4 1=strongly disagree and 4 =strongly agree • Frequency- scale of 1 to 5 1=never (0 times per week) and 5=always (5+ times per a week) • Daily reading assignment where students and parents read stories together and answer questions.

13. Experimental Design • Quasi Experimental design with one designated treatment group (X1). • The participants were not randomly assigned (currently in a 1st grade class at P.S X of Brooklyn). • One-group pretest-posttest design, the single group will be pretested (O1) to record their performance before the treatment, exposed to a treatment (X), and then post tested (O2) to see if there was any change. • Symbolic Design O1XO2

14. Threats to internal and External validity

15. Results • Pre and post reading scores. • Eleven or 85% of students had an increase in their reading score. • Each students’ reading scores increased by 2-8 points. • Two or 15% of students’ scores remained the same and showed no increase or decrease. • The average grade increased from 8 (pre-test) to 12 (post-test). Table 1 Student pre/post-test reading scores Table 3 Averages for the pre/post-test

16. Results • Post-survey responses to the question “My parent(s)/guardian(s) help me with my reading homework” and students’ post-test results. • Students chose numbers 1-5 • There is a moderate or fair (positive) correlation of .5 . • About 77% of students received reading homework help four or more times per week, and 23% of students receive reading homework three times per week.

17. Results • Parents’ post-survey answers to the question "I understand my child's reading assignments" and students' post-survey test scores. • There was an rxy of .4. This means that there is a low correlation. • 31% of parents understand their child's reading homework usually (3 times per week), 15% understand rarely (1 time per week), and 54% understand their child’s reading assignments always (4+ times per week). • More than half of the parents surveyed always understand their child’s reading assignments.

18. Results • Students’ responses to the question "My parent(s)/guardian(s) set aside time for me to read" and student post-test scores. • There was an rxy of .4 meaning that there is a low (positive) correlation. • About 38% have time set aside for them to read usually (3 times per week), 54% have time set aside always (4+ times a week), and 7% never have time set aside for them to read.

19. Results Both the pre-test and post-test scores fall within +/- two standard deviations.

20. Discussion & Implications This study analyzed the effects of parental involvement on student reading success. Although the results from this study generally support previous research that suggests that parent involvement is associated with students’ reading success, the data correlations were very low. This means that there are possibly other factors that are contributing to students’ success in reading. This in addition to the duration of the study (4wks.) and the small sample size proves that more research should be done to find out exactly what those factors are. A deeper look into socioeconomic status, educational level, culture, etc. can provide a better look into these factors. This research proves the need for more parental involvement in student reading in order for students to be successful academically.

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