Closing the Gap: Use of the Instructional At-Home Plan (IAHP)® by African American Parents and the Impact on Literacy Achievement among their Kindergarten Children

The purpose of this ex post facto study was to investigate the use of the Instructional At- Home Plan (IAHP)® by African American parents and its impact on kindergarten literacy achievement among their children. The study used DIBELS data from students who attended a Chicago Public School with a population that averaged 98.6% black and 96.75% low-income status. Parents of students who attended classes for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years utilized the Instructional At-Home Plan. The achievement of their children was analyzed and compared to those students who attended kindergarten for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years: students whose parents did not utilize the IAHP. The overall findings reveal statistically significant improvements at the middle and end of the year when the IAHP was used. The percent of students categorized as green, a score at grade level and above, at the end of the year rose by more than 50%. The percent of students categorized as yellow, a score below grade level and requiring strategic intervention, dropped by almost two-thirds. The percent of students categorized as red, a score below grade level and requiring intensive intervention, dropped by more than 50%. The study suggests that African American parents are willing and able to become successfully involved in their children’s education through the use of a specific parent involvement tool, the Instructional At-Home Plan. It is expected that future studies will confirm even more strongly IAHP’s ability to integrate early childhood knowledge with parent involvement as a means to reduce achievement gaps