Promoting School Readiness: The Role of the Parents as Teachers Program

This study used path analysis to test a hypothesized model of how the Parents as Teachers (PAT) program affects children's school readiness. The subjects were 2,375 kindergarten children chosen to be representative of all children beginning public school in the state of Missouri in the fall of 1998. Teachers rated the children's school readiness, and parents provided information about home and preschool experiences. The causal model, which postulated both direct and indirect effects of PAT on school readiness, was strongly supported by the data. Parents in the PAT program read to their children more often and were more likely to enroll them in preschool, both of which increased school readiness. Evidence was also found for direct effects of PAT upon school readiness, suggesting that the parents' childrearing practices were changed in other beneficial ways beyond those assessed in this study. The most striking finding was that when a preschool program followed PAT, children from impoverished homes entered school with readiness scores that equaled those of children from more affluent homes.