Literacy Research Summary School-wide literacy program is established to help improve student achievement and enhance the rates of graduation at the school. Based on the survey on the school’s literacy program and infrastructure, the greatest area of need in the school’s literacy program is a comprehensive, coordinated framework for the involvement of various stakeholders in promoting student achievement. There is lack of collaboration between different stakeholders toward strengthening student literacy. Lewis-Spector & Jay (2011) states that shared leadership among stakeholders within and outside the school environment is critical towards strengthening student literacy. The school needs to create a framework with which teachers, administrators, parents, and community volunteers will actively engage in the literacy program. This paper provides an analysis of different studies conducted on this area of literacy need and measures that can be undertaken by the school to address it.

Review of Studies

The involvement of different stakeholders within and outside the school setting toward improving student literacy has been the subject of numerous studies that seek to promote student achievement. Cobb (2005) conducted a study that examined the establishment of literacy teams as part of a shared leadership approach toward strengthening student literacy and achievement. The research suggests that schools should create literacy teams that comprise of the principal, teachers, and others stakeholders like parents to help in enhancing student literacy and achievement. The researcher states that the principal should act as the leader of the literacy team and an instructional leader who provides teachers with necessary support. Literacy teams should be developed as systems of shared leadership in which teachers and school administrators share responsibilities for student learning. These teams have proven effective in enhancing student learning and literacy through facilitating the creation of a learning environment where teaching and learning...

This study was conducted based on the idea that parents act as the first and most important teachers for their children. While many parents want their children to succeed in school, they become uncertain on how to continue being active and engaged in their children’s learning as they progress in school. Through this study, Mansuetti (2009) states that all parents can enhance their children’s literacy skills regardless of their own levels of literacy. To achieve this, parents should be trained by family literacy practitioners to assist in their children’s literacy development.
Hampden-Thompson, Guzman & Lippman (2013) conducted a cross-national evaluation of parental involvement and student literacy. The study sought to establish the impact of parental involvement in school-wide literacy programs on strengthening student literacy and enhancing their performance in school. The study found that there is a strong link between parental involvement and student literacy. In this case, parental involvement is associated with positive impacts and outcomes on student literacy and achievement. Through an analysis conducted across 21 countries, students’ literacy increases when parents are actively engaged in the school’s literacy development program. However, such improvement is only evident when there is increased social and cultural communication between parents and students. Therefore, a school-wide literacy program needs to incorporate social and cultural communication between parents and students in order to be effective in strengthening student literacy and achievement.

In a study that examined the role of parental involvement in children’s literacy development, Thomas (2016) supported the view that parental involvement has positive links to student literacy development. Parental engagement in literacy practices through the…