Parents' Effects on Academic Grouping for Reading: Three Case Studies

This paper examines parents' effects on children's academic group placement. It suggests that parental involvement might affect children's reading achievement through its effect on a child's academic grouping. Naturalistic case studies of three Hispanic first graders at risk for reading failure are presented. In two cases, parents facilitated the children's reading achievement in one, or both, of two ways: through home teaching of the school reading curriculum and behavioral cuing for appropriate classroom behaviors. Observations and interviews suggested that parents' actions increased children's reading skill acquisition or motivation, which, in turn, resulted in higher group placement for the children. In the case of the third child, there were no comparable actions by the parents, and the child was placed and kept in a very low reading group. The paper concludes with a consideration of the theoretical and practical implications for the study of home effects on school achievement and the academic achievement of children at risk for failure.