Parents' Efforts Might Matter More Than School's Efforts for Kindergarten Students' Reading Achievement

• In Event: Early and Elementary Literacy

Abstract

How do schools and parents affect kindergarteners’ reading scores? The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 dataset (Nstudents: 21,260, Nschools: 1,277) was analyzed using a multilevel model to help find a possible answer to this question. Results showed that schools offering challenges to high achievers or extra support to low achievers did not differ from schools not doing so. Schools’ effectiveness in communicating with parents, however, was a significant predictor of children’s reading scores. Children whose parents read to them at least once or twice a week performed significantly better than those whose parents never read to them. Reading to children every day was the best predictor of the reading scores in this model.

Author

• Gulay Guler, University of New Mexico
  Presenting Author