Parent Involvement and Literacy Achievement Vanessa DeVito Education Spring 2008

Table of Contents Introduction -Statement of the Problem -Review of the Related Literature -Statement of the Hypothesis Method - Participants -Instruments -Experimental Design (Threats to Validity) -Procedure Results -Correlational Graphs/Charts Discussion Implications

Introduction Statement of the Problem: *Is there a direct correlation between parent involvement and literacy achievement in the third grade? Review of the Related Literature: Yes, parental involvement is related to literacy achievement NCLB Act of 2001-parents and schools must work together to meet goals in reading and math-Hoff (2007); Machen, Wilson & Notar (2005). Parents are the first and most influential teachers – Hawes & Plourde (2005).

*Create a seamless wave of learning between school and home- Crawford et al. (2006). Piaget/Vygotsky *Parent’s attitudes towards literacy influence the way children perceive literacy-Biggam (2003); Edwards (2003); DePlanty et al., (2007). *When parents become involved…students are more motivated to read voluntarily & participate in literacy activities-Gonzalez- DeHass et al., (2005); Dearing (2004). *Increased social interactions between parent and child promotes literacy achievement-Darling et al., (2004); Senechal (2006).

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Incorporate technology and literacy-parents & children team up to create family histories, cookbooks & holiday letters- Jacobi et al. (2003). Parental Involvement Is Somewhat Related To Literacy Achievement No concrete definition of Parental Involvement-it is difficult to measure its effectiveness-Feuerstein (2000). Inconsistent demographics result in parental involvement program flaws- Prislin et al. (2002).

Involvement may do little to encourage students’ learning …but it effectively prevents students’ misbehavior-Domina (2002). The long-term effects of parental involvement must be further researched-National Literacy Trust (2001). No, Parental Involvement Is Not Related To Literacy Achievement * Cannot judge a subject specific area [such as literacy] of achievement-a students’ GPA is a better overall indicator –Fan & Chen (2001).

Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism Parents aspiration & expectation for children’s educational achievement…has the strongest relationship with students’ academic achievement- Fan et al. (2001). Statement of the Hypothesis: *Effective parent involvement leads to literacy achievement for eighteen 3 rd grade students at PS 206 in Brooklyn, NY.

Method Participants: rd grade students from class (general ed.) rd grade students and one of their parents Students: 11 boys 7 girls 8-8 yrs. Old 10-9 yrs. Old Parents: 1 male 17 females classroom teacher 32 year old female Instruments: -Parent/Student Consent Form -Parent Questionnaire -Student Questionnaire -Teacher Questionnaire

Experimental Design: *Quasi-Experimental-Single Group *One group-one designated treatment group (X¹) no control group (X²). *One-Shot Case Study *Single group exposed to a treatment (X) and posttested (O). *Symbolic Design: XO Threats to Internal Validity: * History * Maturation * Instrumentation * Mortality

Threats to External Validity: * Generalizability *Ecological Validity *Specificity of Variables *Experimenter Effects Procedure: * Research conducted Feb. –April 2008 *Feb. 15-Parent/Student consent forms distributed *Feb Parent/18 Student Participants *Feb. 26-First of eight weekly literacy assessments *April 7-Parent Questionnaires distributed *April 15-Student Questionnaires completed -Teacher Questionnaire completed

Parental Involvement (x): Parent Questionnaires, Student Questionnaires, Teacher Questionnaire Literacy Achievement (y): *Students’ views of Parental Involvement, attitudes towards literacy self-concept and literacy achievement *Average of 8 Scholastic Reading Counts! Scores as measured by SAM. Mirrors the goals of the NCLB Act of *Scores were correlated to Frequency of Paired Reading to determine if a relationship existed.

Results * Strong positive relationship between parent involvement and literacy achievement. *Levels of parent involvement mirrored child’s views of level of parent involvement-consistent involvement throughout the year. *3/18 parents reported higher frequencies of involvement in comparison to their children. *Teacher implements consistent strategies to engage parents. *50% of parents agree that lack of time is the biggest challenge. *Parents with positive attitudes towards literacy had children with these same views.

*Strong positive correlation between literacy achievement and frequency of paired reading. * The coefficient (.rxy) is It is positive for line of best fit.

*Salient findings about parents’ educational levels in reference to their child’s literacy achievement: ‹ HS =78%, 72% Graduated HS=68% Masters +=96%

*Parent involvement occurred much more frequently in the home than at school.

Discussion * Findings were consistent with Vygotsky’s theory of social constructivism (Biggam, 2003; DePlanty et al., 2007; Edwards, 2003; Fan et al., 2000; Hill et al., 2004; Wherry, 2007). *Lack of time due to work and the home is the greatest challenge (Anderson et al., 2007; Lee et al., 2006). Parents are more involved at home than at school. *Frequent paired reading mirrors Piaget’s teaching theories (Albee, et al., 2003; Darling et al., 2004; Senechal, 2006). *Learning should be constant both at home and at school (Crawford et al., 2006). *Mixed research about the long-term effects of specific types of parent involvement (Dearing, et al., 2004; Gonzalez-DeHass, et al. 2005; Fox 2003).

*More targeted research is needed to determine the correlation between SES and literacy achievement (Flowers, 2007; Mattingly et al., 2002). *No findings of the relationship between parent involvement and child behavioral problems could be made (Barton, et al., 2004; Domina, 2002).

Implications *No validity and reliability coefficients-pilot study *Larger sample size *Diverse cultural backgrounds/SES *Variations of parent involvement *Other measures of literacy achievement *More long-term studies

References O’Connor-Petruso, S. (2008). Descriptive Statistics PowerPoint. Brooklyn College, Graduate Department of Education.