Date of Award

2011

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Advisor(s)

Tanya L. Eckert

Keywords

fluency, home-based learning activities, parent involvement, performance feedback, school-home notes, writing

Subject Categories

Psychology

Abstract

Parent involvement in education has been identified as influential in children's learning and associated with positive outcomes on students' academic and behavioral competency (Christenson, 2004; Doherty & Peskay, 1992; Henderson, 2007). Studies have suggested that parents and teachers prefer programs that utilize school-home feedback notes and provide parents with strategies for implementing educational activities at home (Gettinger & Guetschow, 1998). The current study examined the effects of combining school-home performance feedback with home-based writing activities on students' writing fluency in comparison to students who participated in a performance feedback intervention. A total of 101 third-grade students were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (a) performance feedback (n = 52); or (b) school-home performance feedback with home-based writing (n = 49). Writing fluency growth, as measured by the number of correct writing sequences, was compared between conditions using multi-level linear modeling. Results indicated that all students demonstrated statistically significant gains in their writing fluency across time and across instructional placement criteria, with no statistically significant differences observed between conditions. School placement and initial level of writing fluency were identified as statistically significant predictors of change in students' writing fluency growth. Implications and future research directions for parent involvement interventions writing fluency are discussed.

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Open Access

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