Date of Award

2010

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Curriculum and Foundations

First Advisor

Bagaka's, Joshua

Subject Headings

Reading -- Performance, Parental -- involvement, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Individual growth analysis, Reading performance, Parental involvement, Race/Ethnicity, Gender, Individual growth analysis

Abstract

Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K)), the study utilized an individual growth model (Bryk & Raudenbush, 2002), the purpose of which was to assess the nature of progress in children's reading performance between kindergarten and 3rd grade and second, to determine the extent to which parental involvement predicts both the initial reading ability as well as the rate of progress. Children's cognitive development in reading was used as the dependent variable and parental involvement as the primary independent variable with gender and race/ethnicity as control variables.The study used four points in time (waves of data): fall kindergarten (1998), spring kindergarten (1999), spring first grade (2000), and spring third grade (2002). The data analysis was performed on 9,032 participants (White, Black and Hispanic) 87 of them had 4 waves of data, and 13 had 3 waves of data collected during a period of 7 semesters. The measurement of early literacy and reading skills was based on an adaptive item response theory (IRT)-scaled reading assessment, which included questions designed to measure basic skills, vocabulary, and comprehension. Results indicated:(1) parental involvement was higher when children had a low initial reading performance (2) parental involvement was statistically not significant in predicting the rate of growth in reading achievement (3) female children were predicted to have higher initial status in reading performance but their rate of growth was only slightly higher than that of their counterparts (4) Hispanic children were predicted to have a statistically significant lower initial status in reading than other students, but their rate of growth was not significant. Black children were predicted to have a statistically significant low initial status and their rate of growth was statistically significant and slower than the rate of growth of the others. The study recommended that parental involvem

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