Pre-literacy Readiness: Predictors and Effects of Parental Involvement within Low Socioeconomic Communities

The importance of parent involvement in children’s early literacy development has been identified repeatedly as a critical factor contributing to children’s school success. Research indicated that when parents engage with their children in learning activities at home, provide basic needs, and communicate with the school, their involvement can mitigate the negative impacts of poverty and prevent students from dropping out. This mixed methods study examined the impact of teacher-parent partnerships and parental involvement on children’s early literacy readiness. The study specifically analyzed the relationship between parent involvement in early literacy development and their children’s academic achievement in reading. The study included a series of workshops following the Latino Family Literacy Project curriculum, where eight parents of incoming kindergarteners were invited to join an eight-week workshop to teach them about the importance of early childhood literacy, English oral language development, as well as specific literacy skills to work on at home. Student data were later compared between those students with parents in the workshop and those who did not have parents involved to determine if there was significant growth in pre-literacy readiness of those with direct parent involvement compared to those that did not. Results indicated that students with parents in the Latino Family Literacy Project had a higher growth rate in their pre-literacy readiness scores in the first trimester, compared to students in a control group who did not have parents involved.