C.A.R.PHomework Workshop: A Bridge Between Leonardtown Elementary and the Community

Leonardtown Elementary:Alexia, Julia, Ben, Connie and Philip

Justification of our Project

• S.I.P: SMCPS Master Goal #6: Increased communication, collaboration, and partnerships with all stakeholders.

• Observed at the school: – some parents don’t sign their child’s planners

every evening – some children may lack homework support at

home.– At Back-To-School night, some parents expressed

surprise at some resources that we use in the classroom.

Concern and Population• Concern: Not all parents are fully

included in their child’s education, homework time, and school culture.

• Population: as a pilot program, we are planning on directly targeting our own classroom parents. If this works, this evening will hopefully be put into place for the entire school

Our Strategy:• Homework Workshop!– Each of our classrooms, depending on

our mentor teacher’s willingness to participate, would host a Homework Workshop.

–We would invite parents to come to the classroom in the evening.

–We would have a packet of homework strategies and external sources available.

Our Research• Harris, A. and J. Goodall (2008).

"Do parents know they matter? engaging all parents in learning." Educational Research 50(3): 277-289.– "Schools need to make the shift to

encouraging parental engagement in learning in the home through providing levels of guidance and support which enable such engagement to take place.“

Our Research• Hein, D. L., & Wimer, S. L. (2007).

Improving homework completion and motivation of middle school students through behavior modification, graphing, and parent communication. Online Submission. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/– Parents really seemed to appreciate the feedback

provided. Parents claimed that there would be things that they would change about the intervention, but they would keep the constant communication.

Our Research• Tam, V. C., & Chan, R. M. (2009).

Parental involvement in primary children's homework in Hong Kong. School Community Journal, 19(2), 81-100.– Children in the primary grades typically

experience more academic success with quality parental involvement.

Research Questions• To what extent does homework night

develop the relationship between parents and the school?

• To what extent does homework night increase parents' awareness and knowledge of student homework?

• To what extent does homework night change the parents' views of their role in student homework?

Data collection planPre/Post TestScale Questions

Pre/Post Test Comment Section

To what extent does homework night develop the relationship betweenparents and the school?

How would you rate your relationship with the school?

Parent Comments

To what extent does homework night increase parents' awareness andknowledge of student homework?

To what extent do you feel that you are informed about your child’s homework for the evening?To what extent do you feel informed about what your child is doing in school?How confident are you in knowing where to locate your child’s homework?

Parent Comments

To what extent does homework night change the parents' views of theirrole in student homework?

Please indicate on the scale what you feel your role should be in your child’s homework time.

Parent Comments

Pre/Post Tests*Please see handout

Detailed Description of Strategy

• Each of our classrooms, depending on our mentor teacher’s willingness to participate, would host an individual Homework Workshop.

• We would invite parents to come to the classroom in the evening.

• We would have a packet of homework strategies and external sources available.

Detailed Description of Strategy

• During the Homework Workshop, we would discuss:– Planners–Where students keep their homework–What kind of homework we assign– Strategies that we use for specific

subjects in the classroom.– How to get extra work or resources at

home.

Results

Quantitative Data: Pre-TestsQuestion Pre-Test MeanParent's confidence of being able to find their child's homework 3.5208333

Parent's sense of being informed about what their child does in school 3.2229167

Parent's sense of being informed about their child's homework 3.47291667

Parent's feeling about the relevancy of homework to schoolwork 3.41363636

How Equipped does the parent feel to help their child with their homework 3.4175

How does the parent rate their relationship with the school 3.4785714

How involved does the parent feel that their role should be in their child's homework time. 3.2714286

N: 25 (5 third graders,20 fifth graders)

Quantitative Data: Pre-Post Test Analysis

One additional question that was added onto the Post-test was asking about the effectiveness of the evening. The mean of the rating on this question was a 3.83 out of 4, demonstrating that our evening was effective.

Question Pre-Test Mean Post-Test Mean T-Test ValueParent's confidence of being able to find their child's homework 3.5 3.9 0.097306Parent's sense of being informed about what their child does in school 2.866667 3.6333333 0.10944Parent's sense of being informed about their child's homework 3.2 3.766667 0.011688*Parent's feeling about the relevancy of homework to schoolwork 3.35 4 0.157226How Equipped does the parent feel to help their child with their homework 3.266667 3.7 0.25201How does the parent rate their relationship with the school 3.5 3.766667 0.211325How involved does the parent feel that their role should be in their child's homework time. 2.666667 3 0.091752

Response Rate

53% Did Not Return 47% Returned

Comment

79.2% Did not have Comments

20.8% Had Comments

Qualitative Data

Comments• All of the comments were related to

homework• 3 out of 5 parents wanted resources

to help with homework• 1 parent felt they should not

intervene with homework• 1 parent wants more homework sent

home

Response after the Evening

• Parent Response– E-mail

• Went home and discussed the evening with their child• The child echoed many of the same things and

strategies that we had discussed in the evening.• Found the evening “insightful”

– Follow-up• Remembered the discussion • Found an article to support their side.• Sent the article in with their child for the teacher

the next day.

Possible Reasons for Low Attendance

• Rainy night• Homework is clearly outlined in a daily agenda so parents

may have felt they did not need additional information.• Time of day due to parent work schedule, other children at

home, and so on.• Parents who have the less developed relationships with the

school may be less compelled to come to an event at the school.

• Those who need support with their students' homework or feel thatthey should have a low role in homework are less likely to have found or seen the questionnaire because it was located with the homework.

• The letter sent home was signed only by interns, not teachers oradministration.