Parents As Reading Partners

Parents As Reading Partners

Parents As Reading Partners (PARP) is a collaborative effort among parents, staff, and community to build a reading partnership between the home and the school.

PARP programs encourage parents to read with their children for at least 15 minutes per day.

Learning to read is the single most important activity in a child’s education. Studies show that children who read at home are better prepared to succeed in formal education.

PARP History | PARP Programs | PARP Award | PARP Resource Book

For additional information about Parents As Reading Partners, the award, or the PARP conferences, please contact your Region Director, Region PARP chairman, or e-mail PARP@nyspta.org

PARP Awards

The goal of the Parents As Reading Partners Award is to encourage activities at home in cooperation with schools/libraries by giving state-wide recognition to outstanding PARP programs and by sharing outstanding program ideas with other PTAs, schools and libraries.

Every PTA, school or individual public library that runs a PARP program may apply for the PARP Award and may submit an application to their Region PTA. Applications may be secured from the Region Director or the NYS PTA Office.

Each regional winner’s application is submitted to the state PARP Awards Committee, which selects the New York State PTA Outstanding PARP Program annually. Regional winners each receive a certificate and are honored by the Region PTA in some way. The State award, a special plaque, is presented at the next New York State PTA Convention (held in November each year).

The selection committee reviewing the applications is particularly interested in programs that emphasize parent involvement in reading.

Region winners are invited to exhibit their programs at a PARP conference. The program of the State winner is entered into the PARP Resource Book for permanent retention in the State Office.

PARP award application

PARP History
In 1987 the New York State PTA assumed the helm of the Parents As Reading Partners (PARP) program begun by the late State Senator James Donovan, Chairman of the State Senate Education Committee. PARP is a program designed to foster the love of reading in children by asking parents to set aside fifteen minutes daily to read with their children.

The primary objective of the program is to encourage reading at home. Children turn to their parents as role models and are more likely to follow the example of a reading parent. Reading at home further provides a supplement to the excellent reading programs currently used in our nation’s schools. PARP asks parents to encourage their children to read, impressing upon them the fact that reading can be fun as well as informative. In addition, the daily communication shared through PARP will serve to strengthen the family.

PARP is a reading program where parents and teachers work in a joint effort to encourage children to become better readers. The program can be run at little or no cost. In many cases volunteers from local businesses will donate funds for printing materials and awards/prizes for the children. The voluntary approach and the subsequent success that the PARP program has achieved are proof that it is truly a worthwhile project.

PARP is a successful volunteer effort that fortifies our children’s reading habits. It is important because it has helped to cement the necessary bond between the home and the school to foster the education process. Together, this effort will make our children more successful and their education more fruitful.

New York Sate PTA sponsors district PARP awards annually, from which a statewide winning PARP program is selected.

PARP Programs
PARP programs vary in length-- as little as two weeks or as long as six weeks or more. The time frame is entirely up to the PTA’s executive board and people in charge of the program.

A Parents As Reading Partners Resource Book and supplements are available from the New York State PTA office in Albany. Each supplement is an award-winning program that has been sponsored by a school in New York with great success. It can be a guide for PTAs that wish to start a program or are looking for new ideas.

PARP programs can be run at little or no cost and may be simple or elaborate. They are always a success at involving parents in the essential task of helping children become life-long readers.

PARP Resource Book
All State winners of the PARP Award have their programs entered into the PARP Resource Book and Supplements. Copies of this book and the supplements are available from the NYS PTA office to units that wish to start a program or are looking for new ideas. These books may be purchased at PARP conferences or from the State Office.