The study had twofold purposes. The first one is to establish the underlying structure of family literacy practices at the different grade levels kindergarten, first, third, fifth, and eighth, for children who were followed in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K). The second purpose is to investigate the relationship between family literacy practices and reading achievement. The children for the ECLS-K study were a nationally representative sample of students enrolled in both public and private school kindergarten programs from diverse socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds across the United States. Variables related to family literacy practices were obtained through the use of exploratory factor analysis. After controlling for race, gender, and socioeconomic status, relationships of family literacy factors, ability, and reading achievement were analyzed using multiple regression. Factor analyses found 59 underlying components for 171 variables across data spanning nine years of the students' academic careers. Not including ability, which was highly significant in all seven rounds, 11 were found to be significantly related to students reading performance. Commonalties of descriptions in significant factors include parents' perception of literacy importance and ability, number of texts in home, and parent involvement and interaction. The majority of findings showed that family literacy factors were not related either positively or negatively with students' academic performance in reading. While the results of this study did not find significant factors relating to the broad definition of family literacy practices, it did find significant relationships in the planned active role of families and children's reading achievement. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]