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…

Research Findings: This study illustrated whether and how ecological environments are associated with language-minority students' (N = 12,500) math and reading development from kindergarten to the eighth grade. Results identified the robust effects of preschool type, kindergarten length, classroom activities, parent-child reading, parent…

The purpose of this study was to determine how the primary school students spent their time with the parents and how their families spent their time with children and try to give the study group the value of giving importance to family unity through various activities. The study was carried out as an action research. The participants of the…

We examined the bidirectional relations between home literacy environment, reading interest, and children's emergent literacy and reading skills in a sample of 172 English-speaking Canadian children (M[subscript age] = 75.87 months) followed from Grade 1 to Grade 3. Results of cross-lagged analysis revealed that the reading comprehension…

The present longitudinal study examined the cross-lagged relations between parental causal attributions of children's math success to children's ability, parental help, children's math performance and task persistence. A total of 735 children, their mothers, fathers and teachers were assessed twice--at the end of the second and the third grades.…

Policy research highlights educational disparity between Blacks and Whites, thereby, emphasizing the need to determine malleable ecological factors that support the positive development and learning of Black children during the early schooling years. The purpose of this study was to examine whether change in home environment and neighborhood were…

Using data from a national multiethnic, longitudinal study of children, this study examined the process of how parents' educational attainment is related to children's achievement through the beliefs and behaviors of parents and how this influence varies by race/ethnicity. Measures of socioeconomic status, parental expectations for educational…

In this article, the author, a graduate student in special education, relates how she got her daughter with special needs to do homework. Her daughter's temper tantrums, when asked to do her homework, ruined the whole evening for their family. The author describes her daughter's homework intervention program which she developed and implemented.…

Two articles comprise this publication. In "Beyond the Story-Book Ending: Literature for Young Children About Parental Estrangement and Loss," Megan Matt analyzes over 30 books for young children on the topics of abandonment, estrangement, divorce, and foster care. She observes that this loss might appear as an event within the story or…

This study investigated the perceptions of African American adult family members, their children, and teachers regarding how family members viewed their roles in assisting their elementary-aged children to become better readers. The study compared each of the subgroups' perceptions respectively regarding: (a) the child's reading level; (b) family…

Tests the effects (in a large field study) of family communication environment and parental mediation of television content on third, sixth, and ninth graders' (1) perceptions of the realism of television content and its similarity to real life; and (2) their identification with television characters. Finds that the parent directly mediates…

A student teacher who was concerned about a third grader's difficulties with her assignments, apparent low self-esteem, and anger observed the child in school for a 6-week period on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for 2 hours each day. For 2 weeks, the child was also observed at a recreational center on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for an…