Substantial systematic differences exist in children's home learning
experiences. The few existing parenting programs that have shown promise
often are not widely accessible, either due to the demands they place on
parents' time and effort or cost.
This study evaluates the
effects of READY4K!, a text messaging program for parents of preschoolers
designed to help them support their children's literacy development. The program
targets the behavioral barriers to good parenting by breaking down the
complexity of parenting into small steps that are easy-to-achieve and providing
continuous support for an entire school year.
The authors find that READY4K! positively affected the extent to
which parents engaged in home literacy activities with their children by 0.22
to 0.34 standard deviations, as well as parental involvement at school by 0.13
to 0.19 standard deviations. Increases in parental activity at home and
school translated into student learning gains in some areas of early literacy,
ranging from approximately 0.21 to 0.34 standard deviations. The
widespread use, low cost, and ease of scalability of text messaging make
texting an attractive approach to supporting parenting practices.
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