Citation/Abstract

The Parents as Teachers Program in Missouri and the resulting difference in academic effects for fifth- and sixth-grade students

Due to No Child Left Behind legislation, state education officials are increasing programs and funding for early childhood interventions. Missouri's Parents as Teachers Program (PAT) is one such program that works to increase students' academic achievement in school and on standardized tests. This study explored one Missouri school district's academic achievement for current fifth- and sixth-grade students on the kindergarten entry screening, the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning Third Edition (DIAL-3), and the Missouri Assessment Program's (MAP) third and fourth grade Communication Arts test. The research employed a causal-comparative research design that matched 89 PAT participants with 89 non-PAT participants on three designated characteristics. Two-tailed t tests with a 0.05 alpha level were utilized in the analysis of this study. The results of this study found that PAT participants did score higher on all of the assessments, but the score difference between PAT participants and the non-PAT participants was not significant.