ABSTRACT

The study examined the interrelations among various Title I school initiatives to involve parents, different types of parent involvement, and student reading achievement. A direct relation was detected between Title I students’ reading achievements and their parents’ level of home-based learning involvement. No relation was found between students’ achievements and parents’ school-based involvement activities, such as volunteering in classrooms or serving on governance committees. Also, no relation was found between students’ achievements and Title I schools’ initiatives to involve parents. It was discovered, however, that parents were more likely to report higher levels of home-based involvement when schools developed comprehensive programs centered on offering learning materials for families to take home, and fostering school-family relationships by openly

communicating with parents and by engaging them in school-parent learning compacts and other agreements. Therefore, the results of this study showed that Title I schools can influence students’ reading achievements indirectly by encouraging parents to become more effective home educators. To create parent programs that promote student achievement, Title I schools must implement a comprehensive set of procedures that involve parents at home.