thesis presentation

Improving Student Test Grades, HomeworkParticipation, Lab Grades and Attendance Levels By Implementing a Program of Electronic Parental Notification Letters

Richard Lieb

SEYS 778 – Professor Brian Murfin

“The more the family members engage in their children’s education, the more likely the student will navigate school successfully. (Sheldon, 2007)”

Review of Literature – Poor Homework Performance and High Absences lead to Poor Academic Performance.

Studies (Couts,2004) have shown that an increasing number of secondary students complete no homework assignments at all.

Students average 4-5 hours of homework per week and 28 hours of television viewing (Walberg, Paschal & Weinstein, 1985)

Review of Literature

Numerous studies (Epstein & Sheldon, 2002; Epstein & Sheldon, 2004 Roby, 2004; Sheldon, 2007 ) have consistently shown that students who do not attend school regularly have poorer academic performance than students who do regularly attend.

High school absenteeism is a very strong predictor of dropping out (Epstein & Sheldon, 2002).

Review of Literature – Solution is Parental Involvement

Research (Sheldon, 2007) has shown that students who have parents that provide high expectations for their children and participate in their children’s education have better overall performance and lower absence rates.

Burkett and Helm (1989) showed a significant reduction in absences when automated phone calls were placed to immediately inform parents of student absences.

Review of Literature

Sheldon and Epstein (2002; 2004; Sheldon, 2007) concluded that a comprehensive program of parental involvement, including contact parental contact, significantly improved attendance levels and academic performance.

Question One

How does a program of parental notification through the electronic means of e-mail and text messaging effect student performance in Homework, Lab Grades and Test Grades and Reduce Absences?

Question Two

Will the program be well received by the parents?

Hypothesis

Homework, Lab Grades, Test Grades and Attendance levels will all improve after parents receive a series of parental notification e-mails, text messages. The program will be well received by parents.

Methods – Pretest Period

1) First three weeks of term, students’ homework participation, lab grades, test grades and absences were recorded with no intervention.

2) Email addresses and text messaging numbers were collected from parents by means of sending home a letter and phone calls.

Methods – Test Period

3) Students were informed that their parents would be receiving weekly notification of their performance.

4) Parental Notifications were sent out weekly for four weeks.

Methods

Notifications took on three different forms:

-Email

-Text Message

-Regular Mail (For parents who could not be contacted.)

Email

Sample email included Brief explanation of

the project. Students’ Homework

scores, Lab Grade, Test Score and Number of Absences.

Additional Information such as Open School Night Dates, etc.

March 22, 2009 To the parent or guardian of As part of a graduate school research project, I will be sending

you weekly progress reports for the next month of how__ is doing in Living Environment class. The reports will include number of absences, number of homework assignments completed, lab grades and test grades. Below is the progress report for 3/1609-3/20/09.

 Number of Homework Assignments Completed: 1/2Lab #6: 100Test Grade: N/ANumber of Absences Recorded: 0 I look forward to greeting you this week during Open School .

Open School will take place Thursday March 26th from 6:00 P.M. - 8:30 P.M and Friday March 27th from 12:00 P.M. – 2:30 P.M.

  If you have any questions concerning these scores, please feel

free to e-mail liebstudy@yahoo.com. Thank you, Richard LiebLiving Environment FDR 

Text Message

Text Message Included:

Date of Report Students’

Homework scores, Lab Grade, Test Score and Number of Absences.

Contact E-mail

Report

3-15 – 3/22

HW – 2/4

Test – 84

Lab – 100

Absences – 1

Questions? Liebstudy@yahoo.com

Limited to 150 Characters

Letter

Sample letter included Brief explanation of

the project. Students’ Homework

scores, Lab Grade, Test Score and Number of Absences.

Additional Information such as Open School Night Dates, etc.

Request for Electronic Contact Information

Space for parent signature

March 22, 2009To the parent or guardian ofAs part of a graduate school research project, I will be sending you weekly

progress reports for the next month of how _____ is doing in Living Environment. The reports will include number of absences, number of homework assignments completed, lab grades and test grades. Below is the progress report for 3/16/09-3/20/09

Number of Homework Assignments Completed: 0/2Lab Grades: 85Test Grade: N/ANumber of Absences Recorded: 0If you have any questions concerning these scores, please feel free to e-

mail liebstudy@yahoo.com.I would like to send these reports to you by either e-mail or text message.

Please fill in the information below to receive these reports electronically.

E-mail address____________________________ORCell Phone_______________________ Cell Phone

Carrier________________I look forward to greeting you this week during Open School. Open School

will take place Thursday March 26th from 6:00 P.M. - 8:30 P.M and Friday March 27th from 12:00 P.M. – 2:30 P.M.

Please sign this form and have ____ return it to Mr. Lieb.Thank you,Richard LiebLiving Environment FDRParent Signature: _________________________Comments:

Total of each Communication Type

Breakdown of Communication Types

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Types of Communication

Nu

mb

er o

f S

tud

ents

Totals 66 20 46

Email Text Letters

Parental Survey

Final Week of the Study, a short three question survey was e-mailed to all parents receiving e-mail.

Sample

Sample consisted of one Living Environment B Class. N = 33

Students were Fluent English Speakers, though not all of their parents were.

Class makeup: 18 Freshman 15 Sophomores

Analysis

Student Averages were calculated for Homework, Test Scores, Lab Scores and Number of Absences for the Pretest and Test periods and compared for significance using a One Way ANOVA.

Comparison of MeansComparison of Means Between Pretest and Test

Periods(Absences represented as a percentage of days missed)

0

20

40

60

80

100

Pretest

Test

Pretest 79.24 49.55 44.78 10.82

Test 83.11 43.82 35.98 14.39

Labs Test Homework Absences

One Way ANOVA Tests

Alpha = .05

One Way ANOVA Tests

Alpha = .05

Results by Communication TypeComparison of Means By Communication Type

*Absences represent percent of days student absent

020406080

100120

Labs

Tes

t

Hom

ewor

k

Abs

ence

s

Labs

Tes

t

Hom

ewor

k

Abs

ence

s

Labs

Tes

t

Hom

ewor

k

Abs

ence

s

Email Letters Texts

Pretest

Test

All differences tested for significance using One Way ANOVA with Alpha = .05 and found to NOT be Significant.

Results of Parental Survey

Out of eighteen e-mails surveys sent, nine were returned. Return Rate = 50%

Results showed parents have a positive attitude towards program.

Survey Results – Very Positive!

Survey Question One

I would rate my opinion of the parental notification program as:

Favorable

Strongly Favorable

Survey Question Two

I would rate my attitude towards participating in a program like this in the future as:

Undecided

Favorable

Strongly Favorable

Survey Question Three

I would rate my attitude towards consistent parental involvement with my child's schoolwork as:

Favorable

Strongly Favorable

Limitations

Short Study PeriodUnderestimated the amount of time

needed to collect parent dataTest period only four weeks

Small Sample Size• No Control Group Available

• Other Classes were ELL students or Different Skill Level

Limitations

Differing Material Material at the beginning of the term is

basically review During the test period students were

exposed to new material such as homeostasis unit.

General Nature of the Semester Students generally start out attending

more and turning in homework and this decreases as semester progresses.

Limitations

Students who most needed intervention received letters.School may have incorrect addressLetters may be intercepted by

student. Text Messaging Limited Number of

Characters and did not allow for parental reply.

Reason to be Positive

Parental survey showed parents have a positive attitude towards this type of study.

Anecdotal Success with a few studentsDue to notification, parent realized

that the student was not completing homework because he failed to purchase workbook.

Reason to be Positive

Parent made me aware of difficulties in the students life including a long commute and overload of extra curricular activities. We made arrangements for student to make up missed work.

Two Parents notified me that they were made aware of absences they didn’t know about.

Future Study

Speak to principal about making e-mail address collection standard practice school wide as this enhanced communication between me and the parents.

Implement program over the long term making better use of technology.