The Effects of Single-Parent Households on

the Literacy Achievement of Third-Grade

African-American Students

Stephanie Bryant
703.22
Professor O’Conor-Petrusso
 Table Of Contents
 Introduction 3
◦ Statement of the Problem 4
◦ Review of the Literature 5
◦ Statement of the Hypothesis 7

 Methods 8
◦ Participants 8
◦ Instruments 8
◦ Procedure 9
◦ Experimental Design 10

 Threats to Validity 11
 Data Analysis 12
 Discussion 16
 Implications 17
 References 18
 Introduction
 There is a vast increase in the number
of single-parent households.

 This change can be accredited to the

many factors.

 Single-parent households are

especially prevalent in the African-
American community.
 Statement of the Problem
 Children from single-parent
households are faced with extra
burdens that children from two-parent
households do not have to face. In an
effort to alleviate these stresses,
adjustments need to be made.
 Review Of Related Literature
 Single-Parent
Households Do Affect
Student Achievement
◦ Pros: Parents who are
involved in their
student’s academic
career help to increase
the student’s academic
achievement.
 Epstein & Dauber (1991) ;
Zellman & Waterman (1998);
Hawes & Plourde (2000);
Senechal & LeFevre (2002,
March-April) ; Ricciuth (2004,
March/April) ; England, Luckner,
Whaley, Egeland (2004); Amato
(2005); Driessen, Smit, &
Sleegers (2005, August); Jeynes
(2005, Summer) ; Houtenville &
Conway (2008).
 Single-Parent Households
Do Not Affect Student
Achievement
◦ Cons: Single-parent
households do not play a
role in student’s academic
achievement, but other
factors such as student’s
motivational level play a
role in student’s academic
achievement.
 Iverson, Brownlee, & Walberg (1981);
Dominia (2005, July); Debell (2008);
Sojourner & Kushner (1997).
Current Educational Strategies
 There are some strategies being implemented in schools to
help single-parent households increase the academic
achievement of their children. These include:
◦ Training parents on how to conduct reading instruction at home
(Faires, Nichols, & Ricklman, 2000).

◦ Having teachers implement strategies such as

 maintaining a positive relationship with parents.

 having active parents spread the word to other parents to alleviate the
educational barrier that African-American parents when dealing with
their child’s teacher (Neuman, Hagedorn, Celano, & Daly, 1995 ; Trotman,
2001) .

◦ Having schools implement strategies that

 exhibit themes of empowerment, outreach, and indigenous resources
(Abdul-Adil & Farmer Jr., 2006) .
 Statement Of Hypothesis
 HR1
◦ Implementing the shared reading strategy
with nine African-American third-grade
students from non-intact (single)
parent/guardian households over a six week
period will help students at P.S. X increase
their reading and writing achievement on the
practice New York State English Language
Arts Examination.
 Methods
 Participants  Instruments
◦ Twenty-two third-grade ◦ Demographic
students
Survey
 Sixteen African-
American ◦ Literacy Surveys
 nine African-  Student and Parent
American students
from non-intact
households
◦ Two New York State
 Six Latino American
English Language
◦ Working Class Families
◦ Public School in Brooklyn,
Arts Practice
NY Exams
 Methods Cont’d
 Procedure
◦ In early February, consent forms were sent home to parents.
◦ In mid February, students were given a Literacy survey of their
attitude towards Reading and Writing.
 Students were also given a pre-test using practice New York State
English Language Arts exams to assess the needs of each student.
◦ From late February- early April, students were exposed to the
Shared Reading strategy twice a week (Tuesdays and Fridays)
for six weeks.
 Students from single-parents households were posed with
comprehension questions by the action-researcher to aid in their
understanding of the text.
◦ In late April, students were post-tested using a different practice
New York State English Language Arts exam to see the effects
of being exposed to the Shared Reading strategy had on their
post-test scores.
 Experimental Design
 Pre-Experimental Design
◦ One-Group Pretest-Posttest Design
◦ Symbolic Design: OXO
 The study involves one group of students
who will be pretested (O), exposed to a
treatment (X), and post tested (O).
 Threats to Validity
 Internal Threats
◦ History
◦ Testing/Pretest
Sensitization
◦ Instrumentation
◦ Morality
◦ Differential Selection of
Subjects
 External Threats
◦ Ecological Validity
◦ Generalizable Conditions
◦ Pretest Treatment
◦ Selection Treatment Interaction
◦ Specificity of Variables
◦ Treatment Diffusion
◦ Experimenter Effects
◦ Reactive Agreements /
Participants Effects
◦ Hawthorne Effect
◦ Novelty Effect
Classroom Parental Structure
 Demographic
Survey Question # 4 Parental Structure of Classroom X

◦ Parental Situation:
 (1) Intact: Two- Two
Parents/ Parents/Gu
Guardians ardians Single
Parent/Guar
Household Household
dian
44%
 (2) Non-Intact: Household
One 56%
Parent/Guardian
Household
 Data Analysis
Parents Reading with Students Every Night Relationship Between Parents Reading Every Night
and Students' Self-Assessment of Reading
4.5 Comprehension
4

Comprehension
5

Assessment of
Student Self-
3.5 4
Number of Students

3 3 Students Self-
Single-Parent/Guardian 2 Assessmentof
2.5 Household 1 Comprehension

2 Two-parent/Guardian Household 0 Linear (Students Self-

0 2 4 6 Assessmentof
1.5 Comprehension)
Frequency of Parents Reading
1 Every Night

0.5 With a correlational coefficient of 0.81rxy

there appears to be a strong, positive
0
correlation between parents reading to
1 2 3 4 their children every night and the student's
Answer Selection self assessment of their reading
comprehension.
Data Analysis Cont’d
Correlation Between Reading an Hour Every Night
and Mid-Year Reading Scores

Reading an Hour Every

4
3

Night
Series1
2
Linear (Series1)
1
0
-1 0 1 2 3 4

Mid-Year Reading Scores

 With a correlational coefficient of 0.52rxy,

there appears to no correlation between
students reading for an hour every night and
their mid-year Reading Scores.
 Pre-test/Post-test Results

 The results of the pre-test depicted a classroom average of 55% for students from single-parent
households and 57% for students from two-parent households.
◦ The range of scores is 50%-75% for both household structures.
 The post-test depicted a classroom average of 80% for single-parent households and 75% for
two-parent households.
◦ The range of scores is 50%-100% for both household structures.
 This represents an increase of 25% for students from single-parent households and 17% for
students from two parent households after being exposed to the instructional strategy.
 Discussion
 After being exposed to the instructional
strategy, all students had an increase on their
post-test.
◦ This finding adheres to the available research that
parental involvement does affect student achievement.
 Students from single-parents households had a slight
advantage over those from two-parent households.
 Comprehension questions posed mirrored classroom
reading strategies (Faires, Nichols, & Ricklman, 2000).

 Regardless of the household structure, all

students benefit from additional reading they
were exposed to.
 Implications
 Theresults of this study suggest the
need for the following implications :
◦ a need for studies at the elementary level.
◦ a need for a larger sample size.
◦ more longitudinal studies
 References
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 References Cont’d
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