In his well-researched New York Times op/ed (April 27, 2013), “No Rich Child Left Behind,” Stanford University Professor Sean Reardon makes a compelling case for investing in parenting education as part of the solution to the socioeconomic achievement gap that so negatively impacts children’s lives. I couldn’t agree more! We have talked far too little about the importance of including parents as active participants in our shared efforts to ensure all children arrive at school ready to learn.
There is no doubt that the issues most commonly discussed in the education reform debate – improving teacher quality and quality early education environments – are critical to the future success of our nation’s children. However, the there is ample evidence to suggest that a family’s active participation in a child’s education can be twice as predictive of academic learning as family socioeconomic status. We know that the earlier in a child’s educational process parent involvement begins, the more powerful the effects, and the most effective forms of parent involvement are those which engage parents in working directly with their children on learning activities at home – like shared reading.
This is where we come in…Raising A Reader MA is an early literacy program with a focus on parent engagement, serving 10,000 children and their families across our state. In addition to our signature red book bags of high quality children’s books, we provide easily accessible, multi-lingual parent education that raises parental awareness of the crucial role they play in supporting their children’s future success, starting from birth. Through partnerships with centers of early and adult education, faith based and other community programs, we teach simple strategies that help parents, many of whom were raised in low-literacy households, develop, practice, and maintain the habit of sharing books with their young children. Workshops are presented by our bi-lingual staff or experienced parent leaders in familiar community settings. The workshops are affirming, allowing parents to believe they CAN have a positive influence on their child’s academic achievement….long before school begins.
We know that actively engaging parents early on in their child’s learning will ensure that children enter school, ready to learn…we’ve seen it! RAR MA families are 26% more likely to read three (3) or more times per week and their children enter school with demonstrated improvements in vocabulary, grammar, phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and memory for language.
I join Professor Reardon in his call to action – let’s invest in parents so they can better invest in their children.
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Donna DiFillippo is the Executive Director of Raising A Reader MA. She has been with the organization since it was founded by the GreenLight Fund in 2006. You can reach Donna at donna @ raisinga readerma.org or by calling the office at 617.292.BOOK (2665).