Parental Involvement

Nature of parental involvement as a factor in promoting reading skills among sixth graders.

Introduction

An increasing number of students with reading deficits have been surfacing at the secondary school level where the teachers find themselves ill equipped to address the basic-skills-building needs of these students. An equally increasing number of research studies have identified parental involvement as a key factor in promoting reading skills among all students. Most parents however are not sure about how to go about helping their children develop adequate reading skills and are looking for guidance in the area.

The purpose of this study is to find out the extent to which parents of sixth graders are involved in promoting reading skills among their children at home.

Rationale

Reading is upheld as the springboard to success in all other academic areas. There has been a lingering tendency to place sole responsibility for teaching reading skills on the primary grade teachers and take it for granted that the child will surely learn all that he needs to become literate before he reaches secondary school. Research has shown that increasing number of students with reading difficulties fail to make it through high school where content area instruction is emphasized.

With the all-encompassing pressure to improve schools, school leaders have been taking note of research results that propound parental involvement as a major factor in augmenting reading skills of their children. Despite the taken-for-granted premise that parents can help to improve the reading skills of their children, some parents have been seen to pull back more, especially after the sixth grade level.

This stepping back stemmed more from misplaced beliefs that the students did not welcome parents' intervention, that early intervention is