Family Literacy and Reading Comprehension

This chapter synthesizes contemporary scholarship addressing family literacy initiatives and their evolving role in children’s reading comprehension development and school-based literacy learning. As family literacy initiatives continue to expand across formal and informal settings, it is critical to examine how these initiatives are designed, implemented, and experienced through an explicit equity lens. In the research we reviewed, we attended to program structures, content foci, and delivery formats in order to discern patterns of effectiveness across modalities. Further, we paid particular attention to how family literacy initiatives recognized, elevated, and incorporated families’ literacy practices. Across studies, findings consistently underscored the importance of bidirectional school-family partnerships. When schools and families intentionally collaborate to connect children’s cultural knowledge and literacy practices across contexts, children’s reading comprehension development is strengthened.