The Effect of Parental Involvement on Reading Success of Kindergarten Students

Abstract

The purpos e of this study was to determine whether the reading achievement of kindergarten students was affected by a parent involvement workshop intervention. This workshop taught parents strategies and best practices to use while reading at home with their childre n. Parent s and caregivers who were not able to attend the workshop were given a handout outlining the key points. The sample consisted of 15 kindergarten students, some of wh om have parents who speak little to no English. The study too k place over three we eks. After a ttending the workshop or reviewing the materials prepared for it, parents or caregivers were asked to read nightly with their child and complete a response to their reading activity three nights a week. Using a pre - test and post - test design, st udents ’ reading accuracy, comprehension , and strategy use were assessed . t - tests for dependent samples indicated significant gains in the areas of accuracy and st rategy use , suggesting that parent involvement may be associated with improvement in literacy achievement among kindergarten students. Recommendations for future research include conducting controlled studies designed to identify specific practices for parent s to implement to improve students’ reading achievement.