A sample of 565 sixth grade, middle-school students in two urban settings in the Southwestern United States completed the My Education (ME) scale and the Degrees of Reading Power. Responses to the 55 items in the ME Scale were factor analyzed by the principal components solution. Five rotated factors contributed 47% to the cumulative proportion of common variance. The first factor, labeled “Values Learned From Parents,” contained item responses which were the best predictors of reading power with a correlation of .41. Reading power and ability among 565 sixth graders was motivated highest by perceived values learned at home.
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