PARENTS AS TUTORS‐IT WORKS!

Abstract

To determine what effects regular daily parental tutoring would have on pupil achievement in reading/language arts and math, pupil attitudes toward reading, pupil self concept and motivation, and parent attitudes toward the school, two classroom teachers, one teaching first grade and the other second grade, developed and implemented a program whereby the parents of children in the classes tutored their own children in reading/language arts and math skills at home for 20‐30 minutes per day on a regular basis during 20 weeks of the school year. Twenty‐five pupils at each grade level were matched with controls as to age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, and achievement in reading/language arts and math. At first grade level parental tutoring appeared to result in a significant increase in pupil achievement in reading/language arts and math, and parent attitudes toward the school. In second grade there were no significant differences between the treatment and comparison groups on the posttest measures; however, both groups made highly significant gains over their own pretest scores.