The Effect of Family Literacy Interventions on Children's ...

1 The Effect of Family Literacy Interventions On Children s Acquisition of ReadingFrom Kindergarten to Grade 3A Meta-Analytic Review Conducted by Monique S n chal For the National Center for Family LiteracyDeveloped by:Produced by RMC Research CorporationPortsmouth, New Hampshire2006 The Effect of Family Literacy Interventions On Children s Acquisition of ReadingFrom Kindergarten to Grade 3A Meta-Analytic Review Conducted by Monique S n chal For the National Center for Family Literacy4 This publication was developed by the National Center for Family Literacy under a cooperativeagreement with the Partnership for Reading at the National Institute for Literacy . It was designed andedited under a contract with RMC Research Corporation. The views expressed herein do not necessarilyrepresent the policies of the National Institute for Literacy .

2 No official endorsement by the NationalInstitute for Literacy of any product, commodity, or enterprise in this publication is intended or should be National Institute for Literacy ,an agency in the Federal government, is authorized to helpstrengthen Literacy across the lifespan. The Institute works to provide national leadership on literacyissues, including the improvement of reading instruction for children, youth, and adults by sharinginformation on scientifically based research. Sandra Baxter,DirectorLynn Reddy,Deputy DirectorThe Partnership for Reading,a project administered by the National Institute for Literacy , is a collaborative effort of the National Institute for Literacy , the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Services to make scientifically based reading research available to educators, parents, policymakers, and others with an interest in helping all people learn to read Partnership for Reading publication describes strategies proven to work by the most rigorousscientific research available on the teaching of reading.

3 The research that confirmed the effectivenessof these strategies used systematic, empirical methods drawn from observation or experiment; involvedrigorous data analyses to test its hypotheses and justify its conclusions; produced valid data acrossmultiple evaluators and observations; and was accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts. The application of these research-based strategies will increase the likelihood of success in reading instruction. Adherence to scientifically based research in thispublication was ensured by a review process that included representatives of each Partnership forReading organization and external expert reviewers. For detailed information on this review process,contact the Partnership for Reading at the National Institute for Literacy , 1775 I Street NW, Suite 730,Washington, DC report has been peer reviewed and approved by the Institute of Education Sciences at the Department of author expresses her gratitude to Laura Westberg, Tim Shanahan, and Akeel Zaheer for theirinvaluable support and help on this project.

4 The report was enhanced by the thoughtful reviewsprovided by Chris Schatschneider and the Institute of Education Sciences. The author extends her thanks as well to Jaime Palmer and Laura Young for conducting the searches and coding the studieswith great Partnership for Reading acknowledges the editorial and design support of C. Ralph Adler, Elizabeth Goldman, Lisa T. Noonis, and Robert Kozman of RMC Research additional copies of this booklet, download PDF or HTML versions at To order print copies, contact the National Institute for Literacy at ED Pubs, PO Box 1398, Jessup, Maryland20794-1398. Call 1-800-228-8813 or email believe that parents can help their children learn to read. But what evidencesupports this belief? And if parent involvement does matter, what kinds of parent involvementare most efficient?

5 The goal of this report was to review the scientific literature on parentinvolvement in the acquisition of reading from kindergarten to grade In the present review, parent involvement in Literacy acquisition was narrowly definedto include parent-child activities that focus on reading. Moreover, the 14 studies that wereanalyzed were those that included an intervention where researchers tested whether parentinvolvement enhanced children s Literacy . Standard meta-analytic procedures were used toanalyze the study : combined results for the 14 intervention studies, representing 1174families, were clear: Parent involvement has a positive impact on children s reading mean Effect size for the combined studies was moderately large ( Effect size = .68). Thiseffect size corresponds to a 10-point gain on a Literacy test (with a standard deviation of 15) for the intervention children as compared to the control : Intervention type.

6 The three types of parent involvement represented in the reviewdiffered in their effectiveness. Having parents teach specific Literacy skills to their children was two times more effective than having parents listen to their children read and six times moreeffective than encouraging parents to read to their the present review, providing supportive feedback to parents during the intervention didnot alter effectiveness. Also, the duration of the intervention did not moderate its : Participant characteristics. Parent involvement had a positive impact fromkindergarten to grade 3. In addition, the Interventions were as effective for children experiencingreading difficulties as they were for normally-developing children. Finally, the socioeconomiclevel of the participating families did not affect the positive impact of the : Study that included standardized tests yielded smaller effects thanother can help their children learn to read.

7 The effectiveness of parents help,however, varies according to the type of parent-child activities. Educators, when deciding whichtype of intervention to implement, will have to weigh the differences in effectiveness across thedifferent types of intervention against the amount of resources needed to implement S n chal is associate professor of psychology at CarletonUniversity in Canada ( ). She is also a member of theCanadian Language and Literacy Research Network ( ).iiiiiTable of Contents1 Introduction4 Methodology 9 Findings: Overall Effects10 Findings: Intervention Characteristics14 Findings: Participant Characteristics16 Findings: Study Characteristics19 Implications22 Future Directions for Research23 References26 Appendix: Statistical Formulas27 Study Summaries1 IntroductionGoalEducators believe that parents can help their children learn to read.

8 But what is the evidence thatsupports the idea that involving parents in their children s Literacy acquisition will result in betteroutcomes for the children? And if parent involvement does matter, what kinds of parent-childinteractions are associated with improvements in children s Literacy acquisition? The goal of thisreport was to review the scientific literature on parent involvement in the acquisition of literacyfrom kindergarten to grade can be involved in their child s Literacy development in a variety of ways. Indeed, parentinvolvement can be classified in at least three categories: school-based involvement, home-school conferencing, and home-based involvement (Fantuzzo et al., 2000; Hill and Craft, 2003).The first type of parental involvement is school-based involvement, which includes variousparental activities and behaviors occurring in their children s school environment.

9 Someexamples of school-based involvement activities include volunteering in the classroom, acting asa chaperone for class field trips, participating in fundraising activities in the school, or planningclassroom activities with second type of parental involvement is home-school conferencing, which involvescommunication between parents and teachers or other school staff regarding children s academicachievement, enjoyment of school, and rate of progress. Some examples of home-schoolconferencing activities include talking to a teacher about a child s areas of strength or weaknessin school, attending parent-teacher conferences to discuss a child s progress and performance,scheduling meetings with school administrators in order to solve problems or to learn moreabout what is occurring in school, or talking with a child s teachers about classroom rules anddaily class third type of parental involvement is home-based involvement, which involves parentsactively encouraging children to engage in learning in the home setting and providing learningopportunities for their children.

10 Some examples of home-based involvement include reviewing achild s homework, spending time working with a child on number skills or reading and writingskills, bringing home learning materials such as books or educational videos for a child, ortalking to a child about the parent s love for learning. In the present research synthesis, wefocused on parent-child activities occurring at home that aimed at improving children s of the most studied parent-child activities that is assumed to promote early Literacy isjoint book reading. Indeed, the results of a meta-analytic review of 17 studies revealed anoverall positive association between parents reading to their children and children s emergentliteracy or reading achievement (Bus, van IJzendoorn, and Pellegrini, 1995). Another review ofthe research literature also revealed a positive association between joint book reading and earlyliteracy in some, but not all, of the 12 correlational studies examined (Scarborough and Dobrich,1994).