Over the past two decades, U.S. states have widely adopted early literacy policies. These policies have shown short-term success in enhancing K-3 literacy skills. However, the reasons behind their widespread adoption and the factors driving their success are poorly understood. This three-paper dissertation focuses on Michigan's Read by Grade Three…

Bridging home literacy practices and school has been a key theme for many New Literacy Studies researchers, yet there is no clear consensus on the impact of multiple or new literacies in K-12 classrooms. American classrooms remain book-centric. Multiple literacies represent a fundamental paradigm shift in the ways we understand and enact literacy…

The purpose of this study was to understand the reasons, as perceived by elementary school teachers at the target Title I school, for low student achievement in reading. The conceptual framework that guided this study was the ecological theory that postulates that students' academic achievement is influenced by several subsystems that affect human…

This article is framed by the notion of "educación" and how it influenced the narratives of resistance of 12 seasoned bilingual teachers (Solórzano &Yosso, 2002). Using an oral narrative approach, we share participants' descriptions of the connections between their "educación" within their families and communities and how…

Research Findings: This study investigated the long-term interrelations among children's language competencies, their home literacy environment (HLE), and 3 aspects of socioemotional development from ages 3 to 8, controlling for characteristics of the child and family. For this sample of 547 typically developing German children, parents and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how home reading practices can impact what teachers assume to be the optimum practice in preparing students for school may not be supported by the local culture. In Kuwait, I have heard teachers repeatedly complain that students do not read at home or seem to value reading. Kuwaiti adults relate…

This research study investigated the at-home literacy behaviors and experiences of young children before and during their kindergarten year. Research has shown that the frequency and quality of at-home literacy experiences can either hinder or hamper children as their formal schooling begins (Fletcher, Cross, Tanney, Schneider, & Finch, 2008;…

The rapid increase in the number of Hispanic students in U.S. schools demands that school personnel meet the needs of Hispanic students and their families. This study examined teachers' and Hispanic parents' perceptions of Hispanic students' literacy practices and the home literacy practices of Hispanic families. Interviews,…

This article examines the relationships among the literacy practices engaged in by first-grade children and parents at home and the ways in which these practices are communicated, shaped, and fostered by teachers and administrators in two different sociocultural environments in urban Mexico. The differences observed between the home literacy…

Two teachers challenge the rich versus poor metaphor which designates the school culture as superior to the home culture as they examine teachers' perceptions of how family literacy is represented in the elementary language arts curriculum.