A recent article on Education.com, “Family Involvement: A Key Ingredient in Children’s Reading Success,” by Laura J. Colker, Ed.D., provides a concise summary of research showing the long-term impacts of parent engagement of children’s academic success.

The importance of parent involvement has become widely accepted; what this article highlights, though, is worth repeating. While we often think of the achievement gap as being driven by economics and culture, this gap can be closed- in any family– by increasing certain home based practices. And, what academic area is most sensitive to these activities? Reading. “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for success in reading is reading aloud to children.” In addition, the availability of books in the home is a key indicator of future achievement in reading comprehension.

What does this mean for Raising A Reader MA? Our dual intervention is directly aligned with Colker’s research. First, our red book bags filled with books rotate through families’ homes, providing them with ongoing access to high quality reading materials. We work to build connections between families and their local libraries, encouraging sustainable practice even once the bags are no longer coming home.

Second, we complement the concrete access to books with opportunities for parent engagement. We value parents as their children’s first teachers. The way they talk and read with their children has a profound effect on how they develop language in the first five years, and beyond. Raising A Reader MA offers workshops to parents giving them concrete strategies for infusing these interactions with high quality language. These are ways that parents can bring education and learning into their home. Our Dialogic Reading DVD complements these in-person educational experiences.

The workshops themselves give parents and other caregivers new opportunities to engage with their child’s early education program, whether this is a public pre-school, Head Start, or family child care provider. Many parents, particularly recent immigrants, have little prior experience with communicating with teachers and educational institutions; Raising A Reader MA workshops provide a valuable bridge between home and school. The red bags create another physical connection between the home environment and child’s more formal early education experience.

While family engagement is vital throughout a child’s education, Colker writes that “the earlier this involvement begins, the more profound the results and the longer lasting the effects.” Raising A Reader MA works with parents during their children’s earliest years, setting the stage for a lifetime of academic success.

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