Parental involvement in reading: the influence of socio‐economic status and supportive home visiting

SUMMARY: This paper describes the deployment of the technique for non‐professional tutoring of reading known as ‘paired reading’ on a large scale in the Kirklees Local Education Authority. From the very large amount of data generated in multi‐site field trials, particular attention is focused on the relationship between supportive home visiting (if any), an index of the socioeconomic disadvantage of the catchment area of each participating school, and outcomes in term of gains on norm‐referenced tests of reading. Some surprising conclusions emerge.