The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of parental participation in school on the assistance parents could give their children outside of the classroom. A Parent Involvement Program was developed in the Mesa, Arizona Title I schools to help raise the consistently low reading readiness scores of the kindergarteners in these schools. A random proportional stratified sample was selected from 14 kindergarten classrooms in five of these schools: 40 students whose parents did not participate in the program and 40 students whose parents did participate. Parents received instruction twice a week in working effectively with their children, making reading games, and teaching in the kindergarten classroom one day a week. The Murphy-Durrell Reading Readiness Analysis Test on letter names was administered as a pre- and post-test (the Murphy-Durrell Reading Readiness Analysis Test on phonemes was also administered as a post-test). Results showed that all children who were taught by the parents mastered the beginning skill of letter recognition, regardless of whether their own parents attended the Parent Involvement Program. However, in the more difficult task of learning phonemes, the children whose own parents attended the program learned more letter sounds than children whose own parents did not attend. (CS)