The Effect of Parent Involvement on Reading Comprehension on the Academic Achievement of Second Grade Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether second graders’ reading comprehension was affected by a brief parent involvement intervention which consisted of reading together with students at home. Twenty students in a selected second grade classroom and their parents, some of whom did not speak English, comprised the convenience sample for this study. In order to identify the effects of parent involvement on reading comprehension, a parent or primary caretaker was instructed to read books on the child’s reading level with each student four nights a week. Using a pre-test-post-test design, students’ reading comprehension test scores were compared using a t-test for paired samples. Results indicated that the students’ reading test scores did improve significantly, so the null hypothesis was rejected. Results also suggested that the intervention generally was well-received by parents and students. Future and more in depth research is recommended to identify what aspects of parent involvement have the most positive effect on diverse students’ achievement in reading and in other subjects.