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We evaluated the effects of TutorBright tutoring on the reading and mathematics skills of children in family foster care, examined several potential moderators of the impact of tutoring, an...

Parental involvement in children’s learning has been found to influence academic success. However, very few tools exist for measuring parental involvement, particularly ones that target adolescents’ self-report. The present study assessed the factor structure, reliability and convergent validity of a new scale to assess adolescents’ perceptions of their mothers’ and fathers’ educational involvement: the Parental Support for Learning Scale: Adolescent Short Form (PSLS-AS). The PSLS-AS, as well as a questionnaire measuring the risk of high school drop-out, was administered to a sample of 825 youth (aged 13–14 years). Exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure representing parental involvement: Controlling Involvement and Autonomy Supportive Involvement. Adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ involvement correlated with a risk of high school drop-out. Implications and future directions for further validation of the PSLS-AS are discussed. more...

Background Because children in out-of-home care lag behind their peers in educational achievement, there have been increased efforts to improve their academic success. Previous research has found that 25 weeks of the Teach Your Children Well (TYCW) tutoring program enhances the academic skills of children in care. Objective This randomized control trial aimed to assess how much TCYW tutoring is enough to accelerate learning. Participants and Setting: In this study, we compared a shorter version of the TCYW method (15 weeks) with a longer version (25 weeks) in a sample of 72 children in care. Method 36 children were randomly assigned to the 15-week group and 36 to the 25-week group. The reading and math tutoring was conducted on a one-on-one basis by paid adult tutors in the children's placement homes. Results With but one exception, ANCOVAs via multiple hierarchical regression revealed no significant differences between the 15 and 25-week tutoring groups on the Woodcock-Johnson (WJ) III reading and math subtests. After we had collapsed across experimental conditions, paired t-tests revealed significant pre-test/post-test improvements on WJ-III Letter-Word Identification, Reading Fluency, Broad Reading composite, Calculation, Math Fluency, Applied Problems, and Broad Math composite. An attribute-treatment interaction analysis, conducted to assess potential moderating variables of the effectiveness of tutoring, revealed that children with higher executive functioning benefited more from the 15-week group. Conclusions Findings suggest that a shorter version of the TYCW program is as effective as a longer version in improving math and reading skills for children in care. more...