| The purpose of this project was to examine the needs of low-income families with children ages four through six with regard to literacy and parent involvement in order to increase the children's early learning experiences with literature. The goal was to teach, encourage and motivate parents to assist their children in acquiring reading readiness skills. This descriptive qualitative study involved 10 pre-kindergarten, 10 kindergarten, 10 first grade at-risk students ages 4-6, and their parents. Ninety-four percent of the students are on free and reduced lunch and are at-risk. The Family Learning Elementary School is a Title I school located in the inner-city of Miami-Dade County, Florida. This project took place from September 2004 through February 2005. The project was motivated by the "No Child Left Behind" policy where students must read on or above grade level by grade three and parents must be involved in their child's education.Parent-child workshops were convened on a bi-weekly basis with the assistance of community outreach programs, teachers, parents, the researcher and the community involvement specialist assigned to the Family Learning Elementary School. The program involved the introduction of concepts, skills, strategies and activities that focused on phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. The information shared with the parents enabled them to easily incorporate reading and learning experiences into the home and integrate a variety of modalities to meet each child's needs. The data was collected through surveys, evaluations, student attendance, Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) Reading Assessments, and observations.The main focus of the project "The Role of Parental Involvement in Preparing Children Ages 4-6 To Enter School, Leaving No Child Behind" was to identify how early education, parent involvement, and establishing a home environment to support learning influences a direct relationship between home and school in order to increase a student's early childhood aptitude and achievement in reading. The data revealed that all of the children made gains. Students whose parents attended the parent-child workshops, parent conferences and followed up with an educational home environment made greater gains as opposed to the children whose parents did not fully participate in all of the project's activities. The fact that all of the students attended school ninety-three percent or more days was a crucial component especially for students whose parents had minimal participation. This indicates that with collaboration between parents and teachers children can learn one way or another. Parent involvement is an additional benefit to the students' education.This project built an educational foundation and a positive, interactive relationship between parents, teachers, and the at-risk early childhood children so they can become successful students. Through this project, children and parents learned together and parents assisted in developing their children's reading skills. Children were able to realize their full potential with the support of their parents, teachers, and the community. |
