Building Home–School Relationships to Enhance Reading Achievement for Students From Families With Limited Financial Resources

In Phase I, expectations for parental involvement were evaluated in a Title I school with a history of low reading achievement. Interviews were conducted with the principal, parent liaison, two first-grade teachers, and four families with limited financial resources whose children struggled in reading. Administrators and teachers believed parents’ lack of involvement at school events conveyed the wrong values to their children and served as a primary reason for continued poor academic performances. In Phase II, parents and teachers partnered to tutor students. For those families who participated in tutoring, their children’s reading progress after 2 months of tutoring matched or exceeded their growth during the previous 7 months of receiving only classroom instruction. Teachers’ initial skepticism regarding parents’ ability to tutor was replaced by a new appreciation for their efforts. Discussion focuses on both the quantity and the quality of parental involvement using a framework by Pomerantz and Moorman.