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Citation:

Rodriguez-Brown, F. V., Fen Li, R., & Albom, J. B. (1999). Hispanic parents' awareness and use of literacy-rich environments at home and in the community. Education and Urban Society, 32(1), 41-58.

Annotation:
The purpose of this study is to examine the degree to which a school-community partnership intervention for parents in a new immigrant Hispanic community provides knowledge about specific ways to enhance childrenÕs literacy learning. Program developers believed the intervention would lead to parentsÕ increased use of literacy at home. The paper also describes changes in literacy use behaviors. Although the study found that homes were not lacking in basic literacy materials, after participating in the intervention, parents provided a more varied list of materials, including increased use of glue, washable markers, and pencils. In addition, more parents obtained and used a library card, used writing for daily activities (e.g., grocery lists), read books to their children, encouraged their children to write, and wrote so that their children imitated writing behaviors. Mothers participating in the program had a better understanding of their roles in the education process and realized that reading and writing at home helped their children learn in school. Data for this study were drawn from 60 Spanish-speaking immigrant mothers and 123 children of families that participated in both components of the program for 2 school years. Data come from pre-program interviews (for demographics and baseline data regarding literacy materials at home) and intra-program questionnaires before and after workshops (for data on literacy use on specific topics). Authors contend that it was not possible to do pre- and post-comparative analysis on the literacy measures because of attrition. Thus, the data are descriptive. The study may be used when considering interventions to promote pre- and early academic literacy development. One limitation of this study is the sampling strategy. Data are not controlled by matching respondents and thus rely only on raw responses. In addition, the sample is not representative and there is no control group. Finally, data are based on self-report, calling into question their reliability.