The Relationship Between Home Environment and Reading Achievement

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if research previously conducted was a replica to the data collected on the amount of family literacy present in the homes of high achieving and low achieving readers. Forty third grade and forty fourth grade students from a rural district in western New York constituted the subjects of this study. The students were divided into two groups - high and low achieving readers based on their recent total reading score on the Stanford .Achievement Test. An anonymous survey was sent home to the parents of these students to collect information about their family literacy environment. Comparisons were then made to determine the relationship between Home Environment and Reading Achievement. Results revealed that the relationship between the students' home literacy environment and reading achievement was moderately strong, the fourth graders relationship being stronger. Analysis of the surveys demonstrated that an interesting pattern exists between the third and fourth graders' surveys. Of the twenty two survey questions, ten items showed that both groups' amount of literacy present in the home was less for the lower achieving students and greater for the higher achieving students.