PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS:

NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND

PROPOSED PROGRAM AND EVALUATION

A DISSERTATION

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY

OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

SPALDING UNIVERSITY

BY

NICHOLE TURNBOW HEIDELBACH

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE

OF

DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY

UMI Number: 3297164

32971642008

Copyright 2008 byHeidelbach, Nichole Turnbow

UMI MicroformCopyright

All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

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by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN RURAL SCHOOLS:

NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND

PROPOSED PROGRAM AND EVALUATION

A DISSERTATION

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY

OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY

SPALDING UNIVERSITY

BY

NICHOLE TURNBOW HEIDELBACH

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE

OF

DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY MARCH 17, 2008 APPROVED: _______________________________________________ John James, Ph.D. _______________________________________________ Dede Wohlfarth, Psy.D. _______________________________________________ Jerry Hay, Ed. D.

Copyright Nichole Turnbow Heidelbach 2008

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my chairperson, Dr. John James. Without his

very patient guidance, from idea development through final revisions, I would not have been

able to complete this project. I am also very grateful to my committee members, Dr. Dede

Wohlfarth and Dr. Jerry Hay. The encouragement and support obtained from my committee has

been integral to the successful completion of this dissertation.

In addition to the committee, I wish to express my thanks to the principal of the school

who agreed to assist in my data collection efforts, as well as my family for their unending

support in completing this project.

iii

ABSTRACT

Research has shown that parent involvement has a significant impact on a child’s

academic performance, as well as benefits for parents and schools. This project is an

initial effort to establish an outline for a parent involvement program to be implemented

with the goal of increasing understanding of parent involvement activities in order to

increase parent involvement. Information was obtained from a sample school, then used

to develop the proposed program to be implemented. A method for evaluating the

program is also included. The program proposed in this document combines information

gathered as part of the literature review and information provided by the respondents in

an effort to create a cohesive program that meets the needs of the students, school, and

parents. The first proposed commitment is to make the program formal and written so all

entities are aware of the policies and goals. The components of the program include

addressing communication needs between the school and parents, looking at school

sponsored events in an effort to increase their relevance and availability, including

parents in school decision making so they feel their input is appreciated, increasing parent

volunteer opportunities and expanding these beyond the “traditional” ideas of parent

involvement, creating a parent resource center, and teaching parents different ways they

can be involved in the home.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................ iii

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... iv

LIST OF TABLES............................................................................................................. vi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1

Statement of Problem...............................................................................................1 Statement of Purpose................................................................................................7 Organization of Dissertation ....................................................................................9 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ..........................................................................11

Introduction ............................................................................................................11 Overview of Parent Involvement Research Trends................................................14 Relating Theory to Practice....................................................................................16 Defining Parent Involvement .................................................................................18 Student and Parent Factors.....................................................................................37 Teacher, School, and Community Factors .............................................................51 Effects of Involvement ...........................................................................................57 Importance of Collaboration ..................................................................................61 Program Examples .................................................................................................63 CHAPTER III: METHOD .................................................................................................68

Subjects ..................................................................................................................68 Survey Method .......................................................................................................69 Method ...................................................................................................................69 CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF NEEDS ASSESSMENT................73

Demographic Information of Target School ..........................................................73 Information Related to Parent Involvement Activities of Target School...............74 Information Related to Factors Influencing Involvement in Target School ..........78 Discussion ..............................................................................................................80

v

CHAPTER V: DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM TO BE IMPLEMENTED ........82

Communication..........................................................................................84 School Sponsored Events...........................................................................85 Parent Participation in School Decision Making .......................................87 Parent Volunteer Opportunities .................................................................87 Parent Resource Centers ............................................................................88 Parent Involvement in the Home ...............................................................89 Program Implementation ...........................................................................90 CHAPTER VI: PROGRAM EVALUATION .......................................................98 CHAPTER VII: SUMMARY, LIMITATIONS, FUTURE DIRECTIONS........103 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................107 APPENDIXES .....................................................................................................112 Appendix A: Parent Letter and Form.......................................................112 Appendix B: School Letter and Form......................................................116 Appendix C: Open House Advertisement ...............................................121 Appendix D: Homework Information Bulletin .......................................122 Appendix E: Student Letter and Form ....................................................126 Appendix F: Ethics Committee Letter .....................................................128 BIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................129

vi

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Respondents Current and Desired Level of Participation in Parent Involvement Activities......................................................................................74 2. Estimation of Current Level of Parent Involvement....................................................77 3. Factors Facilitating Parent Involvement ......................................................................78 4. Factors Inhibiting Parent Involvement.........................................................................79

1

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

Statement of Problem

Parent involvement has been shown to be a critical component of a child’s

academic success. In addition to the positive effects on children, clear benefits have been

found for parents and schools, as well. Henderson and Berla (1994) noted benefits for

students include higher grades and test scores, better attendance and more completed

homework. Fewer placements in special education, more positive attitude and behavior,

higher graduation rates, and greater enrollment in post secondary education have also

been correlated with increased parent participation in education. Related to parents,

Henderson and Berla found parents had increased confidence in the school, as well as

greater confidence in themselves as parents, and in their ability to help their children

learn at home. In addition to direct benefits to the student, they also found involved

parents had a greater likelihood of enrolling in continuing education to advance their own

schooling. Benefits for the teachers and school were noted as teachers having higher

opinions of involved parents, and higher expectations of the children of involved parents.

Finally, among the reported benefits for school and communities are: improved teacher

morale, higher ratings of teachers by parents, more support from families, higher student

achievement, and better reputations in the community. Other research has indicated when

teachers see increasing parent involvement as a priority, the parents of children in these

classes tend to respond by feeling they should play more of a role by helping their

2

children at home, learning and understanding more about the processes and lessons in the

classroom, and tending toward a more positive feeling about teachers’ skills in

communicating and working with the parents (Epstein, 1986).

A number of factors influence parent involvement. Among these are parenting

style, race and socioeconomic status (SES) (Zellman & Waterman, 1998). Regardless of

these factors, however, one message is abundantly clear: parent involvement is critical in

the development of children. The impact is not only on academic achievement, but also

the child’s attitude toward education, as well as school and community involvement. The

child’s perception of their personal value and importance to the parents is also increased,

often creating a more positive attitude within the child and a better parent-child

relationship.

With an understanding of the potential benefits of the outcomes of parent

involvement, consideration of what level of parent involvement actually exists is

important. Griffith (1998) reported that 95% of the parents of public school children

believe schools should encourage parents to become more active participants in their

children’s education. However, the degree to which this is actualized becomes

questionable when one considers the alarming level of complaints by teachers and

administrators about how uninvolved parents actually are.

One caveat is that there tends to be disparity between what parents and teachers or

school communities perceive as parent involvement. That is, is parent involvement

simply being involved in an annual bake sale; or is it something more complex, such as

being regularly and actively involved in site-based decision making processes? Another

relevant question may be whether or not the parent even has to interact with the school to

3

believe they are being an involved parent. Is it enough to listen to your child read at

home? These examples begin to provide an idea of how difficult it can be to measure

parent involvement because there are such disparate perceptions of what it means for

parents to be involved. It often seems that there are more questions than answers when

attempting to look at the level of parent involvement engaged in by the “average parent.”

In an attempt to clarify the ambiguity of this concept, The National Parent

Teacher Association (NPTA) on their website (2008) asserts that “parent involvement is

the participation of parents in every facet of the education and development of children

from birth to adulthood. Parent Involvement takes many forms including parents as first

educators, as decision makers about children’s education, health, and well being, as well

as advocates for children’s success. It is recognized that parents are the primary influence

in their children's lives.”

Although this definition may present itself as clear and direct, its downfall is in

the fact that it fails to specify any specific measurable behaviors which leaves it open for

significant misunderstanding at the least and misinterpretation at the most. In support of

the vagueness of the NPTA’s definition, current research seems to demonstrate the idea

that there exists no simple formula for defining what is subsumed in the concept of parent

involvement. In fact, there is something to be said for involvement as “simple” as taking

the time to be concerned about homework assignments and listening to the child read at

home (Waggoner & Griffith, 1998).

At least a portion of the ambiguity in defining parent involvement is attributable

to the differing perceptions of parent involvement across the stakeholders. That is,

parents, teachers, and administrators seem to have qualitatively different ideas about what

4

parent involvement includes. When asked to describe parent involvement, Waggoner and

Griffith (1998) found that most often “the teachers’ examples were bounded by school

walls” (p. 66). That is, teachers tend to agree with what society traditionally thinks of as

parent involvement. This conception includes activities such as parents helping teachers

in the classroom, joining a school’s Parent-Teacher Organization, and working with

individual children in the classroom with remedial needs. From this point of view, parent

involvement functions to maintain a level of inequality between the school and the

family. That is, schools tend to focus on families with greater academic, financial, and

social resources to fill the traditional mold of involved parents. This has the tendency to

further alienate parents who may be predisposed to feeling less competent in their

parenting skills. In general, schools tend to widen the gap by appearing as authority

figures. This process indirectly, and often inadvertently, alienates the group of parents

who may feel less efficacious or who have fewer resources because they often feel

intimidated by the appearance of authority.

In the same study by Waggoner and Griffith (1998), the parents’ perception of

their involvement materialized in areas not necessarily bound by the school walls. That

is, parents believed themselves to be involved for engaging in activities such as “helping

with homework, teaching arithmetic, getting the child safely to school, and organizing the

morning line-up” (p. 66). The contradiction of the perception of parents and teachers

leads to an inherent problem in the attempt to accurately assess the level of parent

involvement. Specifically, the problem is that teachers will tend to become frustrated

because they perceive a lack of involvement by parents while the parents are becoming

frustrated as a result of feeling that their efforts are not valued by the school, which will

5

likely lead to further parental disengagement with the school. This discrepancy can lead

to a substantial conflict of interest with the ultimate cost to the child.

Turning away from the question of what parent involvement is, research has

found a number of barriers to the participation in traditional types of involvement which

requires interaction with the teacher or the school system. These can be broken into two

categories: environmental context/school climate and personal characteristics (Seefeldt,

Denton, Galper & Younoszai, 1998). Perhaps the most obvious deterrent in the former

class of variables is the perception of an unwelcoming school climate. Other discouraging

factors noted in their report include layers of bureaucracy; and rules, procedures and

policies that are foreign to parents. It is often the case, too, that teachers and/or

administrators devalue the potential contribution of the parents; and these beliefs are

often indirectly communicated to parents, which further decreases their motivation to be

involved. Conversely, some parents may perceive this message and react by becoming

overly active in their child’s education; and unfortunately, this activity may lead to a

teacher’s perception that the parent is “overinvolved,” which is often interpreted by

school staff as intrusiveness.

Personal characteristics are delineated by Seefeldt et al. (1998) into the following

subcategories: status variables, such as race and ethnicity; and internal cognitive and

affective variables. Regarding the status variables, families may not see a role for

themselves in the school setting. For example, Hispanics often tend to have very strong

family ties, and strict beliefs about the authority of schools, therefore feeling they have

nothing to offer (Seefeldt et al., 1998). In general “parents’ attitudes of deference toward

the school and the belief that their children’s education is best left to teachers-which are

6

components of role construction-could be influenced by their race or ethnicity” (Seefeldt

et al., 1998, p. 341). When looking at socioeconomic status as a variable in parent

involvement, Hickman, Greenwood, and Miller (1995) found that families with lower

SES tended to demonstrate lower levels of parent involvement in supportive roles such as

transporting children to and from school, and “learner” roles, such as contacting

professionals regarding any problems the family or children may be facing. Even when

research is not focused on whether or not parents are involved, but what types of

involvement they participate in there tend to be differences related to parental personal

factors. Specifically, Kerbow and Bernhardt (1993) found substantial differences across

racial/ethnic groups regarding whether parent involvement occurred at home or in the

school. Their research indicated Asian American parents tend to focus energy on

education outside of school, while African American families tend to focus more on

school-site activities.

Moving to Seefeldt et al.’s second subcategory of personal characteristics, the

internal cognitive and affective variables may be more salient predictors of parent

involvement. Problems such as depression are often equated with unresponsive and less

supportive parenting. This lack of responsiveness may have little to do with the potential

desire of the parent to be involved; however, the affective disorder and related behaviors

are the actual problem with acting on the desire to be more involved. Just as a parent’s

predisposition and/or experience of depression may affect his/her level of parent

involvement, anxiety and personal fears may also play a role in minimal or non-existent

parent involvement, even when the parent expresses an understanding of the importance

or desire to be involved. That is, Karther and Lowden (1997) found that parents with

7

unsuccessful school careers may experience anxiety or have their own failure memories

sparked if they go to the school, which may leave them at least feeling intimidated or

inadequate as participants in their child’s education. In summary, research has

demonstrated a number of complications involved in studying parent involvement as a

result of the ambiguity of the definition. School and parental personal factors are other

areas of influence that affect a parent’s decision on whether or not to become more

actively involved with the school and their child’s education.

The issues in defining and measuring parent involvement are among those being

faced by many schools in all types of areas, from rural to inner-city. These concepts are

important, not only to the formation of parent involvement programs, but also to the

successful evolvement of the programs.

Statement of Purpose

The purpose of the present study is to begin a process that will allow a school in a

rural Alabama city to gain a clearer understanding of the perceived roles of parent

involvement. Specifically, the goal is to begin by getting perceptions from administrators

regarding their concepts of parent involvement. An additional goal is to examine, from

the perspectives of administrators, potential factors that facilitate and discourage parent

involvement. It is also important to clarify the role of the school in parent involvement,

and the perceived effectiveness of the attempts already being made by the school to

increase parent involvement.

This evaluation sought to answer the following questions regarding the school and

parent involvement, as an attempt to establish a guideline for future research and

evaluation:

8

1. What is the perception by administrators of the role the school is intended

to play in the overall issue of parent involvement?

2. What is the perception by administrators of the role the school is intended

to play in specifically addressing parent involvement issues?

3. What factors affect whether or not parents will become involved in their

child’s education, from the perspective of administrators?

4. What are potential factors to consider in conducting a future program

evaluation?

The information gleaned from these questions served to build a basis that will

allow future comparison and contrast of the views of teachers, parents, students, and

administrators regarding the concepts that define parent involvement. The provision of

this information to the school has the potential to allow administrators and coordinators

of the program to provide interventions that fit the needs of the parents, as well as the

schools.

To this end, this dissertation will survey and summarize the research related to

parent involvement in a student’s education in order to derive commonalities among

successful programs. Specific areas will be covered in an attempt to design a conceptual

program to be implemented by the target school, but that could be modified and put to

use by other schools in order to increase parent involvement. In addition, this program

will then utilize information gathered from a specific school, in order to demonstrate how

the conceptual program can be “mapped onto” a real school situation. This will constitute

a “case study.”

9

This presents a history of parent involvement literature, an attempt at defining

parent involvement, various factors that effect involvement from the school and family

points of view, effects of parent involvement, and effective programs. By means of

surveying and integrating these areas and the common problems faced by schools in

obtaining parent support, and providing options that may contribute to a successful

program, a program to be based on the case study in this dissertation will be developed.

The main goal of this project is to use the information obtained from the needs

assessment of one target school to develop a program that could be implemented by that

school, as well as develop a method by which the program can be evaluated.

Organization of Dissertation

This dissertation is the result of the preliminary needs assessments and a proposal

of a program and evaluation that responds to these needs, as well as literature related to

parent involvement research. The literature review can be found in Chapter II. This

section includes discussion on the following topics: an introduction to related research;

trends in parent involvement research; information relating theories of parent

involvement to implementation; definition of parent involvement, as well as different

types of involvement; differing perceptions of involvement; factors relating to students,

schools, and parents that affect involvement; and effects of involvement on the student

and family. This section also includes a discussion using examples of different programs

that have been implemented across the country.

Chapter III includes the information about methodology: from whom and how

data was collected. Chapter IV includes the results of and discussion about the needs

assessment. This information involves that related to parent involvement activities,

10

estimation of current involvement levels, and information related to factors that influence

parent involvement. Chapter V presents the proposed program that incorporates several

examples of areas that need to be addressed or modified. This section includes specific

examples of activities that would be incorporated. In Chapter VI an effort will be made to

also address methods by which the parent involvement program can be evaluated, and

further modified to fit the needs of the school. Finally, Chapter VII will address the

limitations of this project, as well as future research options.

11

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

Introduction

Parent involvement in children’s educations has become a popular topic among

educators and more recently among researchers. Although the concept is becoming

“trendier,” the increasing awareness of the role these behaviors play in a child’s

development is not a new concept. Connors and Epstein (1995) reported research on the

topic as early as the 20th century. Of course, as political and social cultures have shifted,

views of parent involvement have been modified. The information cited by Connors and

Epstein indicated that in the early 1900’s the theoretical perspective regarding family and

school interaction supported the idea the two entities were entirely separate influences.

That is, the role of teachers and the role of parents were completely separate, and

reflected the longstanding belief that organizations are most effective when they have

their own unique mission and set of responsibilities. There was a historical shift in the

1940s toward a point where parents were more likely to have meaningful and constant

contact or involvement with their child’s teachers. The 1950s saw a shift toward schools

being the authority on education, therefore discouraging parent intrusion, which

downplays the importance of parents in education. Through this there was a shift of trust

in the increased ability of the school to educate children due to the fact that training and

education standards were increased for teachers. Also the curriculum content shifted and

12

became more focused. The tide has flowed back to the point where parent involvement

has become more accepted, and by most is believed to be necessary for effective

education. However, some educators are ambivalent about this, and even when invited,

parent participation is low in many schools (Comer & Haynes, 1991).

“Several factors are fueling this more recent approach to parent involvement,

including (a) changing views of the role of school; (b) changing family demographics; (c)

a growing appreciation of ‘contextualism’ and ‘ecological settings’; (d) a de-emphasis on

deficits and the concomitant focus on competency building; and (e) a sincere desire to

develop multi-setting, collaborative partnerships to promote the healthy development of

children.” (Smith et al., 1997, p. 340). Connors and Epstein (1995) expanded this general

overview of the changing significance of parent involvement by describing part of the

historical flow of control using Bronfenbrenner’s framework that accounts for multiple

entities with increasingly flexible boundaries. Specifically this paradigm indicates that a

child’s development is “nested” within microsystems, which “refers to relations in the

immediate setting in which the child is actually present” (p. 441), and macrosystems,

which “refers to a patterns of cultural and societal beliefs that influence behavior within

the family” (p. 441).

Although Bronfenbrenner’s model moved in the direction of understanding child

development within the context of increasingly complex and dynamic realities, Epstein

(1987) moves this conceptualization forward with the addition of the idea that there are

overlapping influences rather than two separate spheres of influence as indicated in

Bronfenbrenner’s model using micro and macrosystems. Smith et al. (1997) summarize

this concept well by saying that acknowledgement of individual, family, and community

13

level information, as well as the interconnections between levels is important. This

approach “provides a conceptual framework that acknowledges that families and schools

are embedded in communities . . .[therefore] emphasiz[ing] the multi-directionality of

family, school, and community relationships” (p. 340). That is, Epstein proposes that

with this social organizational perspective, circles can overlap or be separated. Within

this model, the circles may have one of two points of focus: external and internal. The

external structures are conceptualized as spheres of influence, which include: 1) time as

it effects development, age, and grade levels, as well as the historic change on the

environment more generally; 2) behavior, as it accounts for “background characteristics,

philosophies, and practices of each environment” (p. 442). The internal structures are

conceptualized as the interpersonal exchanges and interactions of the members in the

various environments. An example of this type of interaction is the relationships and

influence patterns that occur between home and school in practices conducted jointly.

There are two levels described by Connors and Epstein (1995), which are: 1)

communications between the institutions of schools and families (as when school invite

all families to events or send the same communications to all families); and 2)

communications between and among individuals (as when a parent and teacher meet in

conference to discuss or assist the progress of a specific child). The whole of this

conception recognizes that entities that serve to motivate, socialize, and educate are

interwoven in every individuals life. In addition it accounts for accumulated skills as a

basis for observing and evaluating connections that effect an individual’s learning and

development. Connor’s ideas accentuate Bronfenbrenner’s by acknowledging that not

only “structural” ideas are at play, but also that more conceptual ideas such as

14

communication patterns and development over time are influential. That is, not only

“concrete environmental” issues need to be considered, but also ideas that may be less

obvious.

Overview of Parent Involvement Research Trends.

Research on parent involvement can be very broadly classified into two areas:

literature that addresses traditional forms of parent involvement and literature that

addresses issues of ideology and inequality in schooling. The former tends to emphasize

conformity between families and schools, improvement of student achievement,

traditional forms of parent involvement in education, and school reform programs, while

the latter focuses more on parent involvement and inequality, alternative definitions of

parent involvement in education, and social construction of mothering and schooling

(Waggoner & Griffith, 1998). Over the decades there have been successful strategies to

involve parents, but as communities evolve and develop, the diversity of families and

societal changes have added burden to the schools because the “old strategies” do not fit

the newer, changing family structures (Karther & Lowden, 1997).

The results of the Metropolitan Life/Louis Harris Survey of the American Teacher

indicated 54% of 1000 teachers saw parent involvement as a significant problem, hoping

for more involvement from parents (Pryor, 1995). Generally, parent involvement tends to

fall to a participation rate of 50% or less once a student has reached 16 years of age

compared to an involvement rate of 73% when children are aged 8 to 11. Mapp (1997)

similarly finds that although there is agreement among researchers that parent

involvement is important in education, family involvement in U.S. schools is maintained

at a minimal rate.

15

The logical question when faced with the information that parent involvement

wanes as children develop is “Why does parent involvement drop?” As a way to answer

that question, Pryor (1995) used telephone interview surveys to find out what parents

think and feel. This format enabled researchers to get responses to standard questions, as

well as, eliciting considerable spontaneous information. The strongest reasons

involvement declines is because as children mature, parents are less likely to understand

the course material, as well as the fact that teachers are less likely to request involvement

or assistance in the student’s education. This finding was particularly strong among

Anglos, African-Americans, and Hispanics.

The focus now will turn from potential reasons participation wanes over time to

considering different types of studies that may be accomplished to evaluate different

aspects of parent involvement. Griffith (1998) described three general classifications of

studies. Investigation of populations that are typically considered at risk to fall behind in

their education is the first, and to some the most obvious, since this population has been

found to frequently have a below average level of involvement. In general, this body of

research tends to pinpoint parents with certain characteristics, such as English as a second

language (or other language minority), low income, less education, unmarried, and

parents with emotional and/or adjustment problems (Epstein, 1991).

Griffith’s second classification of research includes descriptive studies, the goal

of which is to summarize the variety of ways parents are involved. Griffith discusses

Berger’s (1987) personality based typology of involvement. Briefly, Berger believes

parents may avoid school for a variety of reasons including experiencing competing life

demands, having the feeling they are personally inadequate, or having a child with below

16

average achievement. Conversely, he views overinvolved parents as having a tendency to

dominate and sees them as people who enjoy power.

The final research category is outcome studies, which are conducted in an attempt

to demonstrate positive effects of parent involvement on learning, such as greater student

motivation, better behavior, higher grades, increase in longer term achievement,

relatively positive teacher perceptions, and an increase in respectful treatment of parents.

This area of the research is a significant area; and will therefore be considered as a

separate area in a following section.

Relating Theory to Practice

The degrees of separation with which schools encourage or discourage parent

involvement have evolved from a view of parents and schools being entirely separate

entities to a more collaborative approach. This presents a need for development of

theories of approaches that schools can use to resist or encourage effective school-family

partnerships. Swap (1993) has described the following four theories of communication.

The first is the protective model. This is a businesslike view that requires parents to

delegate to the school the responsibility for educating their children although parents

should hold school personnel accountable for the results. That is, the model reflects the

idea that schools will be most effective when parents and educators have distinct and

separate roles. For example, families may be involved, but the activities should not

encourage regular or serious parent-teacher communications or broad involvement of the

family. An example of these types of activities would be parent involvement in specific

fundraising events. The second model is the school to home transmission model. This

model recognizes the continuity of school and home life, but only from the school to

17

home perspective. That is communication is unidirectional. This assumes families ascribe

to school values, goals, and beliefs. Although these two models do represent some degree

of parent involvement, the role is limited and well defined, lacking a deeply informed or

involved relationship with daily activities and curriculum. Additionally, neither theory

accounts for family history or cultural knowledge. The next two models address some of

these limitations.

The third model is the curriculum enrichment model. This model seeks to

emphasize and optimize opportunities for parents and teachers to learn about and from

each other. This allows a transmission of ideas, cultural knowledge, and skills through

active collaboration of parents and teachers in a child’s learning. Even though the parents

have a stronger role than in the previous two theories, the exchanges between family and

school are relatively limited, and it does not represent a larger context of involvement.

The fourth model is the partnership model. In this communication approach, relationships

are long-term, committed, and mutually respective. Parents have significant involvement

in many areas of education and daily activities. They also share planning and decision-

making responsibilities. School staff and families working within the partnership model

are actively engaged in defining and constructing a framework for parent involvement, as

well as defining a series of roles for parents that are adapted to the school’s mission.

The idea of parent involvement is one that has been given considerable coverage;

however, there have been shifting perceptions of the need for this activity, as well as the

reasons for this over the decades. That is, trends have flowed from having parents

significantly involved to leaving education to the professionals. Additional factors that

also affect the concept and perceived need of parent involvement include the

18

understanding of the role of the school, constantly evolving definitions of family, and an

increased desire to develop collaborations that encourage healthy relationships between

student and school, as well as family and community. Though perspectives have shifted

with history, and even within schools and certain cultures, it remains important to realize

that any of these issues could be at play in any home school relationship. In an effort to

better understand roles, it is important to make an effort to define parent involvement,

which will be undertaken in the next section of this paper.

Defining Parent Involvement

Defining parent involvement proves to be an arduous task because the concept is

very subjective and dependent upon the context of who is providing the definition and for

what reason. With that warning, this section will seek to summarize the literature

regarding the characteristics of parent involvement, the triad of parent involvement, the

income differences in parent involvement expectations, and the roles in parent

involvement.

Anderson and Minke (2007) conducted a study aimed at understanding parents’

decision making when becoming involved with their child’s education. They emphasize

the importance of a multidimensional approach to measuring involvement because

different levels of involvement were reported across types. For example, they reported

considerably more involvement at home than at school, with the former being

significantly above the midpoint and the latter being at or below the midpoint. This is

significant because while schools may view parents as uninvolved since what they see is

typically within the school, parents actually see themselves as being quite involved since

they are engaged in more activities with their child within the home.

19

Characteristics of Parent Involvement

Gareau and Sawatzky (1995) utilized a qualitative approach involving in-depth

semi-structured interviews since this approach was congruent with the topic. While

providing an opportunity to obtain detailed data, it also allowed the researchers to gain a

better understanding of personal beliefs and other’s perspectives. A sense of “common

ground experiences” was also possible since data was obtained from only one school,

incorporating the principal, a counselor, a teacher, and two parents. Gareau and Sawatzky

(1995) set out to answer at least two questions with their study. One was “Why is parent-

school collaboration so important?” The answer to this question is discussed in detail in

the “Effects” section of this document. At this point, however, the answer to “What are

the characteristics of collaboration?” will be discussed. Through open-ended interviews,

these authors found the following to be significant characteristics.

The first characteristic was communication. That is, parents wanted to feel heard

and informed. In his discussion with researchers, the principal said that communication

should occur openly and honestly, while being open to hearing different points of view.

For parents and teachers, communication was seen mainly “in an individual, child-related

sense” (p.468).

The second set of characteristics included trust, openness, and honesty. All

participants mentioned trust, although everyone had different connotations for what this

concept meant to them. Parents wanted to know that teachers are willing and able to look

after and educate their children’s needs and uniqueness. One of the two parents added

that it meant keeping her informed, and keeping the school’s activities in line with their

Christian mission. (This school was a private, parochial school.) Educators highlighted

20

the importance of parents and educators having a basic belief in each other’s good

intentions. All acknowledged that trust, and therefore respect, is developed over time.

The third characteristic dealt with attitudes. That is parents and educators desired

a positive, supportive, and caring attitude. The belief seemed to be that parents and

educators must be supportive toward one another, and that this support is based on an

environment of caring and giving positive recognition for what each has to offer.

Personal connections were the fourth characteristic discussed. Parents wanted to

know that the school personnel “really cares” for the child, which may be evidenced by

contacting parents to tell them about positive events, as well as negative and making

face-to-face contact when possible. The school counselor emphasized the importance of

caring for the parents as well as the students. The educators saw it as their responsibility

for initiating this type of relationship

Being equals was another desirable characteristic of collaboration. All

interviewees believed being perceived as equals is of utmost importance in establishing a

team mentality. One suggestion for accomplishing this was by role sharing. That is,

perhaps having teachers relinquish some “professionalism” to realize that parents and

students have a lot to teach them as well.

Another prominent characteristic from the parents’ point of view involved power,

conflict, and roles. Parents were concerned about how school personnel perceived them,

and felt particularly vulnerable. The view is that this feeling of vulnerability is a

unilateral feeling. Parents stated they often felt powerless when interacting with school,

especially administration.

21

The belief that school-wide commitment is essential to the idea of collaboration

was the last characteristic presented. The belief is that the collaborative atmosphere must

start at school with personnel working together, and allowing that to naturally extend to

home relationships. The consensus from parents and school staff was that the school

atmosphere is noticeable by parents and influences their comfort level in interacting with

the personnel.

One potential problem is that implementing such a collaborative structure in a

traditionally hierarchical system can be difficult. School personnel are sensitive to the

potential loss of a degree of their professionalism, and many equate professional with

expert, which makes collaborative relationships even more difficult. Waggoner and

Griffith (1998) discuss the potential inequality of the relationship in the following way. It

is their argument that “the concept of parent involvement in education is structured

ideologically” (p. 66). The authors draw on Dorothy Smith’s methodology (1990, 1993,

1998 as cited in Waggoner & Griffith, 1998) and

“refer to parent involvement in education as an ideological social practice that

organizes and coordinates the social relations of education. As an ideological

practice, the concept of parent involvement . . . organizes our knowledge of

families and schools through various educational and media-driven discourses

that are articulated to local settings as normative understanding of how families

participate in education. The term parent involvement in education organizes the

family-school relationship by framing the educational work of parents

normatively, masking the actual activities of mothers, fathers, and other

caregivers at home and at school and reshaping the process to maintain the

22

unequal relations of power/knowledge between families and schooling” (p. 66-

67).

This issue is particularly relevant to this study because this author’s view is that the

unequal relationship is not what is most beneficial to the child’s outcome. With the

skewed relationship, parents may be less likely to be involved, and in return, the literature

review has indicated this is a detriment to the child’s overall functioning and

achievement.

Parent Involvement Triad.

Because parents seem often to be left to their own devices to devise ways to

support their child’s education, a fair amount of research has focused on the thoughts and

behaviors that may serve to provide at least a partial definition of what parent

involvement is. This section will serve to highlight some of the more common ideas.

Pryor (1995) notes that the most basic level of parent involvement is based on a triad

involving the parent, teacher, and student. Others may enter into this mix, which would,

of course, change the dynamic of the relationship, but the basic triad is deemed a

necessary core.

In an ideal setting, it would seem that families and schools would agree to assume

mutual responsibility for a child’s learning. That is there should be “partnerships . . .

forged between homes, schools, and communities, requiring an unprecedented level of

contact and communication between parents and educators” (Baker & Soden, 1983, p. 1).

It is difficult to agree about what constitutes “effective parent involvement.” There is

confusion related to what types of activities, goals, and desired outcomes are expected of

various parent involvement programs. The same authors indicated that cumulative

23

knowledge shows several types of parent involvement to be helpful including provision

of a stimulating literacy and material environment, high expectations and moderate levels

of parental support and supervision, appropriate monitoring of television viewing and

homework supervision, participation in joint learning activities at home, and an emphasis

on effort over ability. Unfortunately, it has also been found that teachers may wait for

parents to make the initiating step to be involved, though this is often not the case

(Walther-Thomas, Korinek, McLaughlin & Williams, 2000 as cited in Darch, Miao, &

Shippen, 2004).

With this foundation in mind, the ideas of Connors and Epstein (1995) can be

explored. These authors have used this basic triad to delineate the involvement of parents

in three areas. The first area involves literacy-related parenting practices. In this area,

work by Topping (1985) is cited by Connors and Epstein. Topping has identified specific

factors that link parent involvement and children’s reading behaviors. Since parents are

often asked to provide a rich and stimulating environment in which a child’s oral and

reading skills can develop, the following practices are offered by Topping. First, they

suggested creating or allowing more time for children to practice reading in the home,

while attempting to make reading more enjoyable and valued. Next, Topping notes

children should be provided with praise and feedback when reading goals are

accomplished. Finally, the parents should model reading and writing behaviors so the

child can relate to and imitate the desired behaviors. Epstein notes that it is important for

educators to assist and promote this type of guidance within families.

The second area is homework-related parenting practices. In this area, teachers

expect that parents will monitor student homework. The problem with this is that teachers

24

often do not provide the guidance or information necessary for the parents to understand

the purpose of the homework or how best to help their child (Epstein & Dauber, 1991). In

a study comparing non-Anglo parenting practices, Clark (1993) found consistent

differences between high achieving and other students’ parental practices regarding

homework. Most notable among these were that parents of higher achieving students took

time to check homework for neatness, demonstrate how to use the dictionary and

references, were knowledgeable about how to help with homework, read or studied in the

home, and expected children to get postsecondary education. Pryor (1995) also had

similar findings that indicated the more successful students of those who are considered

at risk for falling behind academically have parents who monitor homework fairly often,

discuss what goes on at school, including programs and plans; and often provide more

education-enriching resources and opportunities at home. Again, the authors note the

importance of collaboration with the teacher to avoid the potential view of some families

that homework help by parents would be infringing on the teacher’s job as homework is

seen as an extension of unfinished class work.

The third delineation is parental influence on college and career plans.

Specifically, Connors and Epstein believe that parent level of education and

encouragement of postsecondary education play a critical role in whether students

continue into college. Schools have implemented a variety of strategies to attempt to

encourage and supplement the parents’ knowledge of postsecondary education. Among

these efforts are involving parents in college tours, engaging parents and children in

career planning instead of just the student, and encouraging parents to simply provide

25

themselves as a source of information to their student since most students tend to turn to

the school or friends for guidance.

As can be seen from these observations, the parent involvement triad is integral in

a child’s education. Involvement from parents, teachers, and students is ideal in keeping

communication open, and therefore making parents and schools more able to facilitate an

overall education for the student. With the importance of this triad noted, the discussion

will now turn toward a discussion of the differences in parent collaboration and parent

involvement.

Collaboration versus Involvement.

Gareau and Sawatzky (1995) distinguish between the concepts of collaboration

and involvement with the acknowledgement that collaboration was, at the time of their

research, a relatively new concept to this body of literature. Their concept of

collaboration “extended” the definition of involvement by acknowledging increased

parental involvement in decision-making processes. That is, “collaboration is generally

seen as a broader and more inclusive term than parent involvement because the latter

term focuses mainly on the parents’ role, whereas the former term focuses on the

relationship between the home and the school and how parents and educators work

together toward common goals” (p. 463). Hord (1986) also discusses the idea of

collaboration, but in terms of distinguishing it from cooperation. He notes that

collaboration is a concept where the entities involved agree to interact in the sharing of

responsibility and authority for their work toward basic decision-making, while

cooperation is simply an agreement to work together.

26

These concepts are relevant to the current project because the distinction between

involvement and collaboration impacts the degree to which parents are to be involved. If

greater participation is to be encouraged, the need is for parents to understand more fully

the needs of the student, teacher, and school.

Parent Involvement Roles.

Parent involvement encompasses school, home activities, as well as governing

and advocacy roles (Smith, et al., 1997). “Previous research has brought into view the

various activities that encompass parent/mother involvement – for example, ensuring the

child reaches school on time and properly dressed, supervising homework, asking ‘What

did you do in school today?’ From the other side of the school fence, parent/mother

involvement may include, but is a much broader term than, school volunteering. Parent

involvement encompasses time, interest, energy – in other words, the work of being

involved in children’s education” (Waggoner and Griffith, 1998, p. 69). Given this

statement, the specific roles parents can play are broad, but vague. In an effort to more

clearly define roles, Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1995) gleaned three broad

mechanisms for conceptualizing parent involvement: modeling, reinforcement, and direct

instruction.

The first of these, modeling, is intended to demonstrate the importance of school

related activities to the student. Reinforcement is the positive expression of attention and

interest by the caregiver. Finally, direct instruction is conceptualized as the “hands-on”

involvement of checking answers and helping the student understand concepts.

Hord (1986) also sought to find roles that may be engaged in by parents. In so

doing, three other roles that were endorsed at a relatively high rate by the parents in his

27

study. The first of these roles is acting as advocate, which was generally viewed as

meeting with school board or other officials to ask for changes in rules or practices. The

second general function was working on school staff as a paid aide or assistant. The final

function was classified as being a decision maker by participating in advisory boards

and/or school committees. Stallworth and Williams (1983) designed a study that gathered

similar information. The focus in this study was to attempt to understand the varying

aspects of parent involvement in education from the perspectives of educational policy

makers and administrators. These results would then be compared with surveys from

teacher educators, parents, principals and teachers. Ultimately, information was

synthesized into recommendations for developing guidelines and strategies in training

elementary school teachers for involving parents in their children’s education at home

and at school. The working definition of parent involvement for Hord’s project was “all

activities which allow parents and/or other citizens to participate and become partners in

the educational process, at home or in school, including information exchange, decision

sharing, services for schools, home tutoring/teaching, advocacy and other collaborative

efforts to enhance children’s learning and success” (p. 4). Similar to Hord’s work

discussed above, Stallworth and Williams organized the information into various roles

that can be played by parents. Among these roles were the home-tutor, where parents are

expected to be involved in both school and non-school learning activities in the home;

audience member, which typically requires presence with no active participation; and

school program supporter, which is similar to the audience member, but requires more

active participation. Examples of this type of participation include working as a

classroom volunteer or chaperoning a trip. Other roles included that of co-learner where

28

they can receive training, knowledge or skills about aspects of education along with other

school staff or children; and the advocate role where parents serve as activists or

spokespersons on issues regarding school policies, or community concerns.

Larsen and Haupt (1997) acknowledged that parent involvement takes on many

forms including, informal learning in the home, fostering educational readiness, helping

with homework, volunteering at school, taking interest in child’s performance. Less

“direct” involvement may also include serving on planning committees, serving as a

representative for policy making, or serving as a member of auxiliary organizations. They

also note in their work the importance of recognizing and appreciating diversity. Their

proposition is that parents believe they are doing the best for their children, although

beliefs about what that is vary across cultures. Efforts should be made to recognize and

appreciate the profound impact of ancestral worldviews, culturally defined childrearing

practices, level of acculturation of family and particular family stresses. This may be

accomplished through encouraging continuing contributions to the classroom, providing

ways for parents to be directly involved with children in ways other than the mundane

tasks often thought of as parent involvement. For example, when asked to describe parent

involvement in education, school walls bound most teacher examples. That is, the

definition tended to be the tasks more traditionally thought of as parent involvement, such

as assisting teachers in class, joining PTA, and working with children for remediation.

With this stance parent involvement encourages and perpetuates a parent-school

relationship that is inequitable in the relationship of knowledge and power. Furthering

this idea, the desires and skills of the parents should be kept in mind when deciding how

parents may most productively be involved. For example, parents could be involved in

29

project fieldwork, such as facilitation questions/ideas/discussion as children gather

information about the specific topic (Larsen & Haupt, 1997).

Stallworth and Williams (1983) made similar conclusions. Their research

indicated parents are interested in participating in these roles, but felt they needed to be

accommodated with certain provisions such as teachers providing ideas about helping

with school assignments. Parents also agreed with the idea that teachers should feel

working with parents is an integral part of their job, as well as the idea that teachers

should be included in curriculum and instruction decisions in schools. From the

administrative point of view, parents acknowledged believing principals should provide

teachers with suggestions for working with parents.

In the comparison report, school board presidents were reported to have

responded at approximately the same levels of agreement with these concepts. The main

divergence with the school board presidents is that they reported believing parents should

take the initiative for getting involved. Parents and school board presidents also

responded roughly equally in their negative responses toward having parents involved in

administrative decisions, such as decisions about curriculum and instructions, selection of

teaching materials, determining the “appropriate” amount of homework, and classroom

discipline polices; as well as having parents involved in the performance evaluation of

either teachers or principals. The two groups did agree, however, that parent involvement

would be most useful in certain situations, such as placement of a child in special

education classes, evaluating the child’s progress in school, participation in disciplinary

decisions regarding their own child, and involvement of parents in more community

oriented decisions related to planning for school desegregation. An additional group,

30

superintendents, was also compared and significant disagreement occurred among the

three groups (parents, school board presidents, and superintendents) regarding the

importance of having parents in the role of decision maker. Superintendents and school

board presidents gave it a much lower rating than state education officials.

In another study, the interest of school leadership in considering caregiver input

varies depending on the content of the area in question. For example, parent input is

considered to a moderate to great extent in determining allocation of funds, developing

curriculum or overall instructional program, designing special programs, selecting library

books and materials, setting discipline policies and procedures, deciding health related

policies, in monitoring and evaluating teachers, and in developing parent involvement

activities (Carpenter, 1996-97).

Stallworth and Williams (1983) assessed what the schools offered most frequently

in parent involvement activities. Among the most offered options were parents attending

school activities, attending parent-teacher conferences, assisting their children with

school assignments at home, getting parents to chaperone for school activities, and

getting parents to assist with such social activities as pot-luck dinners and coffees.

Unfortunately, however, very few written policies encouraging different aspects of parent

involvement were found to be in effect and enforced. Placement decisions regarding

one’s own child, decisions regarding the inclusion in compensatory education programs,

and ensuring parents are informed of behavioral or academic violations were areas where

there were certain state mandates. District level policies only addressed encouragement of

parent involvement through teacher conferences. The bottom line is that policies

regarding broader types of involvement were found to be very rare.

31

Parent Income Issues in Relation to Parental Roles Assumed.

Chavkin and Williams (1989) found similar roles to those discussed in the

previous section that were proposed by Stallworth and Williams, but took it a step further

than just defining them. The authors derived their information from a self-report survey

utilizing 100 closed response questions. The form was distributed to a total of 978 parents

at open houses sponsored by the Parent Teacher Association. They used the information

to compare low and high-income families to determine differences between the preferred

roles between the groups. The role of home tutor was the highest rated (92%) in interest

among low-income families. Participation as an audience member was endorsed by 90%

of these parents, as well. Co learner was also highly endorsed at 89% of the parents.

Eighty-eight percent of the low-income parents also expressed an interest in participating

as a school-program supporter.

Chavkin and Williams (1989) developed some general thoughts about parent

involvement from their questionnaire data that was intended to get a general sense

regarding parents’ ideas about their involvement, their interest in school decisions and

their role in involvement, types of activities in which they were involved, suggestions for

improving or reasons for lack of involvement, and demographic information. In their

study more than 97% of low-income parents were supportive of the idea of parent

involvement as evidenced by agreeing with these concepts: acknowledging that they

wanted to spend time helping their child get a better education, thinking that teachers

should provide ideas about helping children with homework, wanting teachers to send

more information home about classroom learning activities, helping make sure that their

children do their homework, and cooperating with their children’s teachers. More

32

specifically, they found that low-income families ranked the following activities as ones

in which they felt they could successfully participate: going to open house or special

programs at school, going to parent-teacher conferences about your child’s progress,

helping children with homework, visiting the school to see what is happening, and

helping children learn with materials at home as the preferred activities. They tended be

less open to participating in decisions to hire and fire teachers, presenting ideas to the

school board, planning the school budget, working as part-time staff, and helping in the

school.

There were areas, however, where income level affected parents’ responses.

Specifically, 47% of low-income parents endorsed the idea that they had little to do with

their child’s success in school while 44% of high-income parents believed they did

impact their children’s education. Similarly, just over 50% of low-income parents

believed working parents, in general, do not have time to be involved while about 12% of

high-income parents believed this. Parental training or knowledge as it affects parents’

perceptions of being able to be involved in educational decision making was another

point where the two groups differed significantly. About fifty-two percent of low-income

parents believed parental training or knowledge about ways to be involved effects their

decisions, while 17.3% of high-income parents felt this way.

Though this research evidences that there are differences between families

classified as low and high income, it also points to the idea that there are similarities

among their views about parent involvement. In this case, the significance of the

similarities is that parents are interested in being involved. Again, the divergence is in

33

how parents learn about activities, and in what activities they choose or are able to

engage.

Types of Involvement

Given the preceding issues in attempting to define parent involvement, it now

becomes important to try to classify what types of involvement may be considered.

Epstein (1987) used previous research to develop a framework of six major types of

involvement that work together in an effort to assist schools in developing a

comprehensive family school partnership program. A summary of these types of

involvement follows.

Type 1. This type of parenting is seen as a most basic obligation of parents. In this

type schools provide information to families and families must work on their own to

provide housing, health, nutrition, clothing, and safety. The family is also seen as the

entity responsible for teaching the child attitudes and beliefs congruent with or valued by

the family, apart from the school curriculum. Ideally, there is also an allowance for

parents to ask schools for help in providing an appropriate balance within the home and

an expectation that necessary and requested information will be provided to the parent in

a timely manner. In this process schools, educators, and other children in the class are

enriched and enlightened when families are able to share their backgrounds, cultures,

skills or interests. It allows for two-way communication, which ideally serves to benefit

the family and the school.

Type 2. This type involves communication, which is seen as the basic obligation

of the school. In this type of interaction, the school is responsible for providing

information about the school and the student’s progress, achievements, or problems. This

34

process allows students to see the benefit of families and teachers working together so

that the family is informed of the school’s processes and programs. This also allows the

teachers to feel appreciated and validated which is likely to increase the frequency and

quality of communication between teacher and family.

Type 3. This is the parent volunteering within the school. Providing volunteer

opportunities on a varying schedule to allow ample chances for all parents to be involved

can optimize this type of involvement. A volunteer, therefore, can be anyone at any given

time or place that supports the school’s goals and a child’s learning process.

Type 4. This type of parent involvement is described as involvement in learning

activities at home. This type of participation familiarizes families with more information

about the curriculum; instructional methods; class work; and how to support, monitor,

discuss, or help with homework as well as how to help students study for tests. Parents

involved at this level will learn about homework and class activities, as well as encourage

the child to share successes and ongoing progress.

Type 5. This is involvement in decision-making, governance, and advocacy.

Schools can strengthen parent participation in decision making by encouraging

participation in parent groups, ensuring representatives, and by training parents and

students in leadership. Examples of this might be PTA members working together to draft

letters to administrators summarizing parent concerns and offering suggestions for

addressing those concerns.

Type 6. This is collaborations and exchanges with the community. This form of

involvement encourages families to influence whether, how often, and in what ways their

children join community activities in an attempt to broaden learning beyond the home

35

and school. Even when schools help to create better connections, parents are the ones

who must decide whether to obtain community services to support or strengthen the

family.

Ideally, parent involvement in any school would involve components of each of

these types of involvement. Realistically, however, this author believes this is an area that

could be assessed early in developing a parent involvement plan in order to gain a better

understanding of where the school stands in this range when the program is to be

implemented. The types of involvement could be conceptualized as a ladder of steps

which could be worked through, with the ultimate goal being to get involvement at the

level of Type 6.

School versus Parent Perceptions in Parent Involvement

Previous sections of this dissertation have strongly considered the role from the

parents’ point of view, as well as primarily looking at parent and family factors that

impact involvement. The following section will include a look at parent involvement

from the viewpoint of teachers and principals.

Teachers and principals discussed parent involvement in terms of traditional

tasks, and in ways defined by the needs of the school. They often used the term

“assigned” to designate that the school has a one-up authority. One teacher noted being

taken aback because a parent was involved in a role in which she had not been assigned

(Waggoner & Griffith, 1983). Their main input was obtained utilizing interviews with

caregivers of students in four public elementary schools in Louisiana. The research

volunteers were described as being mostly from low-income two-parent families.

Educators described each school as at risk and noted each faced a range of problems

36

associated with poverty-stricken schools. Though their research offered little in terms of

qualitative analysis, their input from parents and teachers was rich with qualitative data

that ultimately pointed to “a disjuncture between the ideological framing of parent

involvement in education and the everyday activities and interests of parents involved in

their children’s education” (p. 75).

In the same study, parents tended to describe parent involvement in a broader

range of contexts. That is, parents see it as an involvement that not only serves the

school’s needs, but also the family interests. This would include participating in

education at home and at school. Parents consider events such as helping with homework,

teaching math, getting child safely to and from school, and organizing morning line-up as

equally important parent involvement activities.

School volunteers also noted that their own roles as parents changed after having

the opportunity to watch other parents and teachers interact with children. Through these

observations, new understandings of adult-child relationships emerged. In this study,

unfortunately, the perception of teachers and principals as experts and the parents being

less able to contribute continued as the definition of parent involvement (Waggoner &

Griffith, 1998).

Though integral to consider the issue of parent involvement from the viewpoint of

school staff, it is unfortunate that this research found that the tendency was still for

parents to be in a lower position of power when it comes to helping facilitate their child’s

education.

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Student and Parent Factors

Parent background and attitude, teacher practices, school and neighborhood

climate are all areas that can impact parent involvement. The effect may be positive or

negative, but the idea that there is a plethora of factors related to the student and parents

is an accepted concept (Smith, et al., 1997). This section will cover several areas

including demographic variables, issues specific to the parent and student, parental

educational expectations, and parents’ reasons for lack of involvement.

Parent Attitude

Smith et al. (1997) studied 30 elementary schools, all of those in the district that

did not serve a specific needs population. The parent sample included 201 parents or

guardians of fourth grade children. They utilized a multi-disciplinary research team,

including faculty from psychology, social work, and education. Their method utilized a

participatory approach, as they felt this important to gaining information that would be

later useful in implementing actions. The researchers sought to explore many facets of

parent involvement, and found support for a model in which background and attitudes of

the parents, teacher practices toward involving parents, and school/community climate

were factors in actively involving parents as collaborators in their child’s schooling, both

at home and at school. “Parent attitude surfaced as a salient factor in parent involvement.

This finding may imply that programs designed to provide parents with information about

the importance of involvement and its impact on achievement may be helpful. They

caution, however, that the extent to which information alone alters parent attitudes and,

subsequently, behavior is an area that needs to be further researched. They also warn that

constant programming aimed at involving parents may be a detriment, because parents

38

may begin to feel that the school views them as an incompetent parent, educator, and

partner.

To get an idea of parents’ perceptions of their own involvement Ramey and

Ramey (1992, as cited in Seefeldt et al., 1998) conducted a study to address specific

questions. Among the questions posed was “How often do you talk with your children

about their school day?” The data indicated 90% of parents responded that they do this

almost every day, while 7% said once or twice a week. The remainder of the respondents

indicated asking about their child’s day less than three times per month. Another question

posed was “How frequently do you participate in planned parent involvement activities in

the school?” Sixty-one percent of parents responded saying they participated in school

activities, volunteered in their child’s school, or kept in touch with their child’s teacher

one to three times per month.

Parental Efficacy and Developmental Status

Before continuing the discussion on specific parent factors that become issues in

the parent-school relationship, it is important to consider the concept of parental self-

efficacy, as this will tend to mediate many of the other factors. Competence in parenting

is best understood within the construct of parental efficacy. Efficacy is the congruence

between a belief in one’s ability and their real performance in relation to carrying out

specific tasks required in a given life process (Swick & Broadway, 1997). Four elements

combine to form the basis for understanding this concept. The first of these elements is

self-image, which can also be thought of as the parent’s sense of self. These authors

report that parents with a positive self-image spend more time with their children and

take more interest in what their children are doing. Locus of control is the second element

39

in understanding self-efficacy, and refers to whether a parent is more driven by internal

or external forces in understanding parenting and seeking guidance. The more internal

control that parents perceive themselves having, the more effective they are, especially in

sharing talents and resources. Parents who tend toward external control are inclined to

leave more child rearing to fate, developmental status, and interpersonal support.

Interpersonal support is the third characteristic discussed when looking to understand

parental efficacy. In this area, parenting is strengthened if the parent has a strong support

system. It tends to be the parents with this strong social support that spend more time in

productive roles with their children. These social resources tend to provide the parent

with extra resources, opportunities for sharing and/or feedback, and links to community.

The final component of self-efficacy is developmental status of the parents. A

parent must constantly monitor his or her own development in order to make it congruent

and facilitative with the needs of the child’s developmental stage. Hoover-Dempsey and

Sandler (1995) asserted that parent involvement is tempered by the extent to which it is

developmentally appropriate and the match between parent and teacher expectations.

Both factors were evidenced in the current study. First, the idea that parents are not

always thinking in developmentally appropriate terms is an issue. If this is the case it may

actually have a negative effect as demonstrated by the statement of a young student: “It

made me frustrated because my Dad uses vocabulary I don’t know yet and he says it too

fast.”

Another factor related to developmental appropriateness, that may have a negative

impact, is when there is a poor match between the parent’s and teacher’s perception or

understanding of a subject. For example, another student noted, “Sometimes my Dad

40

would tell me a different method from the teacher and it would confuse me.” Thinking of

development in a more longitudinal way, it has also been noted that parent enthusiasm

wanes as children age and the parents become concerned their skills may not be

appropriate for helping with homework (Balli, 1998). Balli’s research is relatively limited

in that it focuses largely on student responses, but also beneficial in that it obtained

responses from students and attempted to gain qualitative information about their feelings

related to being helped with their homework by their parents.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children takes a stance on

the issue of development by asserting, “children learn best when their school and home

environments are supportive of each other and when information is shared between

parents and teachers.” (p. 257)

Given that efficacy and developmental appropriateness are issues in parent

involvement, how can parents and teachers strengthen one another’s efficacy?

Communication is the first and possibly strongest key because it can provide a

relationship process for parents to gain support in dealing with various child-rearing

challenges. Another way to develop efficacy is through shared-learning activities.

Through these sorts of activities coordinated between parent and teacher, both sides of

the relationship can grow and learn with the help of informed partners. This is quite

helpful, and can be very intense as parents and teachers negotiate the challenges of child

rearing, teaching, and family school dynamics. Finally, collaborative supervision and

guidance can offer assistance in increasing efficacy. One goal of collaboration is to also

enable the student to develop efficacy with the goal of encouraging the child to function

somewhat autonomously while allowing for social sensitivity. “This goal is best achieved

41

through parent-teacher involvement that emphasizes guidance and supervision as critical

to supporting children in negotiating their growth experiences in productive ways.”

(Swick & Broadway, 1997 p.71)

Demographic Variables

Lareau (1987) in his writings made the point that traditional schools are more

likely to embody social and cultural values and practices of the middle to upper

socioeconomic classes. This SES class standard also tends to correlate with white culture,

which can lead to devaluation or dilution of some social and cultural resources.

Smith et al. (1997) summarized a number of home and family factors that are related to

home school community partnerships. The first group of factors is family structure, SES,

and parent education (Lareau, 1987). Although the immediate assumption may be that the

likelihood of involving single or less educated parents and lower income families in a

child’s activities as low, Amato (1987, as cited in Smith et al., 1997) reported that

mothers, regardless of family type were involved in homework activities. A potentially

significant research finding as related to the current study is one by Hoover-Dempsey,

Bassler, and Brissie (1992) who found that only school based parent involvement was

significantly related to the school’s SES, whereas home based parent involvement was

not affected. Perhaps one reason for the apparent equality in participation across SES

levels is Seefeldt et al’s (1998) work which found parents who perceived the school

climate less positively, like higher income counterparts, tended to have more in school

involvement, apparently to insure their child is being treated well and receiving a quality

education. Parents who believe they can exercise control over their child’s education

report higher school related involvement than those who do not hold this belief.

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Therefore, to promote parent involvement of lower income parents, schools might

consider enhancing parents’ views of themselves as competent partners in their child’s

education (Seefeldt, Denton, Galper, & Younoszai, 1998). In so doing, schools would

employ the concept of self-efficacy to highlight to the parents their strengths and

advantages in assisting in their child’s education.

Dornbusch et al. (1991, as cited in Smith et al., 1997) found that community

resources such as mentoring programs and after school activities are more predictive of

educational outcomes than family structure, especially for African American youth.

Finally, Epstein (1986) found that the perception of teachers and schools by parents also

seemed to play a role in level of involvement. As would seem likely, higher involvement

tended to be seen from parents who held positive perceptions of schools and education, in

general.

Parental variables

Pryor (1995) used open questionnaires and focus groups with the following

issues becoming top areas of concern: having more involvement in curriculum planning

and homework assignments/decisions, desiring increased general involvement, issues

with teachers and personnel, feeling there is an increased need for discipline, hoping for

more communication between schools and parents, welcoming more help from schools,

improving communication from the school, wanting for the school to address concerns

about children’s safety, and a hoping to become more involved in a variety of ways, such

as being a hall monitor, helping improving facilities, supervising events, participating in

policy development. With all of these desires, another concern was consistently voiced, a

fear that even if they make the effort to become involved, their efforts will fail to be

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heard or appreciated. In terms of Pryor’s (1995) research, the use of surveys provided

quantifiable data and communicated to parents the school’s desire to seek the parents’

input. Potential problems with the surveys are the time and expense needed to mail and

process these, as well as the need to repeat the process periodically to maintain contact

and update information. The advantage of the focus groups is that a range of topics can

be generated through the conversation; however, this also lends itself to parents repeating

the ideas they hear from others.

Research has demonstrated that parents who work, are single parents or have less

income or formal education tend to be less involved in school based parent involvement

activities, but many still encourage and support their children at home. Additionally, it

has been found that teachers often report parents as disinterested, when the parents are

likely to say they recognize a need to be involved, and feel they are by helping their

children at home (Hess & Holloway, 1984; Epstein & Dauber, 1991 as cited in Connors

& Epstein, 1995). It is also reported in Connors and Epstein (1995) that along these lines,

parents also report that they try to be involved without specific help from the school, but

it has also been demonstrated that parent involvement increases significantly when

schools provide guidance on how to help at home and at school. Parents may feel

inadequately equipped to guide their children’s home activities, or to know what types of

activities in which to even engage their children. Education from the school could also

highlight for parents how to use everyday activities, such as cooking or shopping, as

educational opportunities.

Seefeldt, Denton, Galper, Younoszai (1998) found that personal characteristics

such as status, especially variables related to race and ethnicity play a role in a parent’s

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comfort in interacting with the school. In addition, the authors noted that internal

cognitive and affective variables, such as depression or anxiety and beliefs about

academic interests, are also predictors of parent involvement, and in many cases these

factors may be more salient than the more external factors. As evidence of this, Seefeldt

et al. (1998) reported that affective states, such as depression and other states that detract

attention from the primary task of parenting, have been related to unresponsive and less

supportive parenting behaviors and lower involvement in school activities. A parent’s

beliefs about academic interests, efforts, and abilities were also found to be related to

children’s performance in school.

Parental desires for involvement

In research that was previously discussed, with the information obtained from

questionnaires and interviews, Pryor (1995) conducted focus groups to get more specific

information on what parents see in an ideal school-family relationship regarding parent

involvement. In these groups, Pryor found that parents wanted more and improved

communication from the school, such as phone calls or notices when kids were doing

well or had only minor problems. They also expressed concerns regarding their child’s

safety, and claimed they were interested in participating in the following types of

activities: hall/campus monitors, improving physical facilities, chaperoning events,

creating policies regarding behavior problems, and sharing special skills. They also

expressed keen interest in an increased call to be involved in school governance, but were

concerned that even if they attended meetings they would not be heard. They also sought

to be welcomed to sit in on classes and have monthly workshops available. Again, this

underscores the issue of the importance of defining involvement and communication

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between parents and schools, as the previous information indicates parents feel they are

helping, but not in a way the school perceives as being involved. Issues that could

encourage involvement have been given much consideration. The next section will focus

on issues that may inhibit parent involvement.

Inhibitory Factors

Gareau and Sawatzky (1995) cite research by Leitch and Tangri (1988) indicating

that teachers’ perception of the most frequent barrier to involvement was the parents’

attitudes toward school. When parents were asked, they also shouldered some

responsibility for their lack of involvement citing the belief that their work

responsibilities resulted in a lack of time to adequately communicate with and work with

teachers, having to deal with their own and family’s health problems, as well as economic

disparity between themselves and teachers. Essentially a lack of planning and knowledge

are barriers to how parents and teachers can use one another effectively.

Mapp (1997) reported cultural, racial, and economic differences between family

and school staff factor into the bridge between desired and actual involvement. Also cited

are difficulties with work schedules, transportation, and child care needs. Additionally,

parents often feel intimidated talking to the “school experts.” This may partially be

because school staff often devalue or delegitimize a parent’s role in education. This,

Mapp believes, is not necessarily intentional. Rather, school staff seems not to be

adequately trained to collaborate with parents, and often invite parents to participate but

give off strong cues that the parent’s presence really is not welcome. In her research,

Mapp (1997) focused on 20 parents from one school, and asked them to describe how

involved they were in their child’s education, as well as why they were involved. Her aim

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was to find out “more about the motivations, incentives, expectations, and apprehensions

influencing these parents’ participation in the school community” (p. 37). Though the

research had relatively few participants, it demonstrated an effort to attain specific,

qualitative information from parents. Two themes were found regarding how this school

interacted with parents, and how this could be helpful to consider when looking at how

schools can develop meaningful relationships with parents. First, staff members from

principal to custodian “join” with families during school activities and programs designed

to welcome families to the school. The joining was viewed as the beginning steps of

developing a trusting relationship. Second, staff members worked hard to “honor”

families. That is, they strove to validate any involvement or contributions by parents;

regardless of the whether the activity occurred at home (reading, homework help) or at

school (donating books, school governance). After an acknowledgement of involvement,

parents talked about the influence of their involvement. They felt a bond had been

developed with school staff, and described how staff worked to create a culture where

families felt welcome. Even more, parents felt they were members of the “school family,”

which seemed to perpetuate involvement.

Communication

Communication, or lack thereof, could certainly be perceived as an inhibitory

factor in parent involvement. It is not covered in the previous section because it has been

found to be such a significant issue in the degree and frequency to which parents choose

to become involved in their child’s education.

Communication is not to be thought of as only the phone calls or notes home to

inform a parent of a student’s poor behavior. It is a much more critical issue; and

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unfortunately, it is often not recognized to be a critical issue in encouraging involvement.

Some of the most common barriers to home-school communication are a teacher’s

perception of traditional home-school boundaries (Powell, 1991), teachers’ negative

perceptions of parents, especially those of different backgrounds (Galinsky 1988), and

problematic parental communication styles (Boutte et al., 1992). These and other

common communication problems will now be presented.

Schools and families may sometimes feel they are in competition in influencing

the child, each is wary of the other. This air of competitiveness instead of a sense of

working together for the benefit of the child would certainly inhibit the involvement of

many parents (Powell, 1991). The author goes on to explain that communication is more

likely to occur when both sides have positive feelings about the other, further

emphasizing the detrimental nature of the sense of competitiveness.

Galinsky (1988) noted that parent-teacher relationships are often tense. He also

found that communication is more difficult when schools held parents in low esteem

because this tended to lead to decreased investment in the child’s education by the parent.

Teachers’ perceptions of parents’ abilities are especially problematic when parents and

teachers don’t come from similar educational or SES backgrounds. Teachers tend to be

most skeptical of poor parents, divorced parents, and working mothers. Typically, these

are the ones in the most need of support. Further, parents who are uncomfortable, for any

reason, in the school tend to have more problematic communication styles. Specific

patterns that undermine teachers’ confidence and ability to develop home-school

relationships have been noted as know-it-all behavior, unresponsive behavior,

antagonistic/negative attitudes, and frequent complaining (Boutte et al., 1992).

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Additional communication problems may come when the parents’ expectations

and the teachers’ way of teaching are from different belief systems. For example,

“instructional practices based on constructivist theories of learning and emphasizing

immersion and exploration may be very different from the kind of instruction parents

equate with school.” (p. 259). Giving frequent and varied communication to help the

parent understand why the class is different from their expectations can smooth this

communication barrier.

With an understanding of the communication barriers that lead to difficulty in

including parents, how then can one begin to discover better ways of developing parent-

school partnerships? Bruneau, Ruttan, and Dunlap (1995) asked 16 teachers various

questions regarding their views about involving and ability to involve parents in the

classroom. Several points were made that at least partially explain the teacher’s point of

view on some of the communication barriers, as well as their thoughts on how to remedy

these circumstances. There was general agreement about the idea of encouraging and

valuing parent involvement. Teachers also reported they used a number of methods to

communicate information about school events. About one-third reported actively

attempting to engage parents as volunteers in the class.

In addition to their reports of what they try to do, teachers acknowledged

frustration because of their lack of time to fully plan and organize parent involvement

activities, as well as the parent’s lack of time to be involved. Many expressed frustration

in working with parents whose backgrounds were different from their own or who

expressed negative attitudes toward the school. Nevertheless, they were often busy

communicating about school events and felt parents provided useful information that

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allowed the teachers to better help the students. This matter raises the need to move

beyond one-way communication, which typifies parent-school communication.

The first step of a partnership or network of teachers might be to examine existing

communication strategies. Greenwood and Hickman (1991) use the following frame to

examine the progression of parent involvement: first, incorporating parents as an

audience, then moving to parents as volunteer, and finally progressing to parents

receiving support as the teacher of the child. Within this construct, teachers can improve

their current activities by sharing ideas and working together, while learning from failed

attempts. Teachers also need to develop an understanding about parents whose

backgrounds are different from others, which may partially be achieved by inquiring and

exploring how they can communicate better with varying groups of parents (Bruneau,

Ruttan, and Dunlap, 1995).

Student Factors

When Pryor distributed an open-ended survey to students to assist in determining

what students find important in the concept of parent involvement, he found that the

students’ most common requests were related specifically to family-school

communication and parent involvement. Specifically, the students reported desiring

better communication with teachers, as well as teachers who really care about students,

partially evidenced by relating well to the student. Students also expressed the wish for

school to be fun, with more challenging work. Additionally, students hoped for help from

parents in areas such as homework, extracurricular activities and sports. Regarding help

with homework, Seefeldt et al. (1998) reported that perceived parent involvement in

homework helps the child do better in school, which has longer-term benefits. This

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reportedly was not deterred or decreased by the shorter-term annoyances involved in

working with parents.

Children also wanted to see their parents acting as advocates. Although students

did hope for parental involvement in a number of areas, Pryor also found one area where

students consistently hoped their parents would allow them to function more

autonomously: students’ social lives.

Students also expressed the belief that their parents could benefit from groups

with topics related to communication with their teen children. One negative finding in

their responses was students felt they were discouraged from speaking up about school

issues because they believed their voices and ideas were ignored in the school. In general,

students wanted help with academics, while having parents maintain a distance from their

social lives.

This section has demonstrated that demographic variables and other issues

specific to the parent and student, such as parental educational expectations, and parents’

reasons for lack of involvement impact a parent’s decision to become involved. Self-

efficacy, as previously discussed in this section is a critical mediator to many of the other

areas of involvement. If parents do not feel useful or competent, they are less likely to

choose to be involved. In an effort to increase self-efficacy, as well as help the parent

develop a positive attitude toward education, which is also a critical factor, it may be

helpful to provide information because it would allow the parents to better understand the

impact of their involvement on their child’s education to be better understood. Certain

demographic variables have also been found to correlate with participation. Among these

are SES, family structure, and parental education. It is also important to be reminded of

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the common factors that inhibit involvement. Frequently cited factors include parents

feeling they are economically or culturally different than the school, miscommunication

about involvement needs and opportunities, and difficulty meeting the time frames or

needs of the school. Just as a number of factors relate to the parent and student that affect

involvement, factors relating to teachers, schools, and communities also affect

involvement. These issues will be addressed in more detail in the following section.

Teacher, School, and Community Factors.

The previous section addressed parent and student factors that tend to influence

parent involvement. Just as those factors exist, factors related to teachers, schools, and

the communities within which schools and family co-exist become an issue in attempting

to evoke greater levels of parent involvement. Beninger and Rodriguez (1989, as cited in

Smith, et al., 1997) found that schools with administrations placing development of

home-school-community partnerships as a priority tend to be the ones that are reported as

the most responsive to the needs of parents. That is, the schools that seek to employ not

only their own resources, but also those in the surrounding community, tend to offer more

flexible scheduling, child care options, and transportation resources. These schools are

also more often perceived as friendly and welcoming to parents. Schools that link

families with other resources give families the opportunities to focus their efforts on

educational endeavors. In other words, “schools can function as a gateway to needed

resources” (p. 343). A number of reasons make schools a logical choice as a base for

community involvement. Not the least among the reasons this works is because schools

have a physical location in most communities, as well as access to relatively stable

funding. Schools also tend to have a professional staff that is accustomed to working with

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varying needs. School based community programs also tend to be efficient in providing

the ability to network with other resources, and the opportunity to reach children,

families, and community members through programs designed to educate children,

strengthen families, and even build communities (Smith, et al., 1997).

Organizational Characteristics

Griffith (1998) stated that one must consider, in addition to more immediate

factors, a broader context of variables affecting parent involvement. Among these he

states that organizational characteristics, such as the school’s climate and its

empowerment of parents play a role in the level of involvement from parents, in general.

Information from work by McGrew and Gilman (1991) helps define these concepts using

two orthogonal dimensions to describe them:

1. School climate is viewed as gaining an understanding of the parents’

comfort in their relationship with the school.

2. Empowerment is viewed as a parents’ perception of their collaboration

with the school and their control of school activities.

These issues are important because parents comfort levels and empowerment

feelings will affect the degree to which they choose to become involved. These are

variables that could easily be overlooked by a school, but could go a great distance in

facilitating increased involvement.

School Climate

Griffith (1998) sought to examine “features of the school’s physical and social

environments. . .” with a goal of gaining a better understanding of the parents’

perceptions of school climate on their level of involvement within the school. To do this,

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he distributed surveys to 122 public elementary schools to be given to students to take

home for completion by the parent. The first stage of analysis sought to determine the

strongest correlates of individual parent involvement. Although effect sizes were

relatively small for this stage of analysis, indications were that parents who tend to

demonstrate higher participation have higher educational expectations of their children;

have children in gifted or talented programs; have children in 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grade; and

have more than one child. Conversely, demographic information correlating with parents

who were less involved was they tended to be African-American, Hispanic, or Asian

American; have children in special education, and have children in 5th and 6th grades.

In addition to these factors, certain aspects related specifically to the social

environment of the school also showed correlations with levels of parent involvement.

Specifically, parents who were more involved tended to perceive the school as

empowering and generally more positive. Also, parents who perceived the school as safer

demonstrated a higher level of parent involvement than parents who viewed it as a

threatening environment. The next stage of analysis sought to discern relative effects of

each area on parent involvement. The parents’ racial identification, educational

expectations, and perceptions of the school as empowering were found to account for the

most variation.

Overall, Griffith’s work (1998) found that at the school level, parent involvement

appeared to be influenced by parent perceptions of the lack of information from the

school and misgivings about the quality of the school’s academic instruction.

Specifically, factors that were found to negatively impact parent involvement were larger

student enrollments, high student turnover, smaller class sizes, and smaller student-

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teacher ratios. In opposition, safety, quality of instruction, and student recognition

programs were features of schools that reported higher parent involvement. Research by

Seefeldt, Denton, Galper,and Younoszai (1998) found other issues that negatively

impacted parents’ perceptions. Among the negative features reported were an

unwelcoming feeling; impersonal relationships; and layers of bureaucracy, rules,

procedures, and policies. They took these factors and extended this to a “chain” leading

to a better understanding of how perceptions are developed. They noted if personnel hold

negative beliefs about parents, then a lack of worth is conveyed in their actions. This

leads to further distancing the parents from the school perpetuating the negative school

climate. They noted, however, it is also possible for this negative perception to spur

parents to become involved in an attempt to ensure their child’s safety, and perhaps to

work toward changing the negativity in the classroom or school.

In a study with similar goals, Smith et al. (1997), also found in their research in

an urban school district that attitudes toward parent involvement were influenced by a

positive school climate, which was related to proactive teachers and removal of practical

barriers to involvement. Such factors included inflexible schedules and childcare needs.

When these two seemingly simple factors are implemented as part of a parent

involvement program, it seemed to indicate that parents will be less likely to report

scheduling conflict, lack of child care, and transportation difficulties.

Pryor (1995) has noted that involvement changes according to size and

complexity of the school and the needs of the child. For example, at the high school level,

a decrease in parent involvement may be seen as a lack of interest by the parent when the

real reason for less involvement may be the tendency of high schools to be larger, more

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departmentalized, and not in close proximity to the neighborhood. Another factor in

parent involvement, especially as children age, may be that parents see themselves as

involved, although not in the ways promoted and measured by school personnel. That is,

Finn (1993) found that in many cases the more successful at risk students have parents

who “monitor their homework more often; discuss school work, programs, and plans with

them more frequently; and provide more extensive education-relevant resources at home”

(p. 74). Again, this presents the issue of having to look further at the needs and

understanding of parents, schools, and students to know the true reasons parents are

perceived to be uninvolved. While schools may perceive a lack of involvement, parents

may see that they are involved in ways they feel are more meaningful than being in the

school.

Sheldon and Epstein (2005) also found certain school characteristics to be

associated with levels of achievement and parent involvement. Among these correlations

were that large schools and high-poverty schools tended to report lower achievement, in

this study in math, than did small, more affluent schools.

Teacher Factors

Information was obtained by Pryor (1995) in open ended questionnaires that

indicated teachers wanted more administrative support to reinforce efforts to contact

parents; more involvement in core areas, not extra-curricular activities; a desire for

parents and students to be taught to be accountable for actions, grades and attitudes; a

desire for divorced parents to figure out who is going to take responsibility for education;

and for non-working parents to be required to participate in seminars and volunteer work.

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Epstein and Dauber (1991) conducted research, in part, to determine what types of

practices by teachers tend to most influence parent involvement. Among their findings

was this one: interactions with parents consistently increase when an effort is made by

teachers to include efforts to involve parents as a regular part of their teaching practice.

Hoover-Dempsey et al. (1992) also found competency as a factor that may impact the

facilitative effect of home-school-community partnerships.

Epstein (1991) noted that teachers tend to doubt the abilities, skills, and/or

interests of less educated parents, therefore, tend not to seek them out and explore what

strengths the parent does have to offer. For any number of reasons, teachers seem to favor

parents who are already involved; and this makes them unable to test their assumptions

about SES disadvantaged parents.

Pryor (1995) in her work found that teachers felt more administrative support was

needed to reinforce their efforts to contact parents. Specifically, they believed a more

available phone, positive forms to send out, and improved leadership would be helpful in

furthering their efforts to involve parents in an organized way. They also wanted more

involvement in academic areas versus extracurricular areas.

In summary, one of the most positive steps a school can take to increase parent

involvement is to employ the resources of the surrounding community. This tends to

allow for more flexible scheduling of activities that meet the needs to the parent and

school. Also because schools generally have a physical base in or near the communities

they serve, increased awareness of the needs to be accommodated is very likely. The

organizational characteristics of the school have also been found to be a factor effecting

parent involvement. Within this area to increase involvement, the school climate must be

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one that seeks to increase the comfort of all parents in their relationship with the school

and its staff. Additionally, the environment needs to include activities that work toward

empowering the parents, thereby increasing the parent’s perception of what they have to

offer their student and the school.

Effects of Involvement

After considering some of the factors that affect a parent’s choice to become

involved, understanding of the reason it is critical for parents to choose to be involved, at

least in some manner needs to be considered. The U.S. Department of Education (1994)

established as a national goal of education that “Every school will promote partnerships

that will increase parental involvement and participation in promoting the social,

emotional, and academic growth of children” (8A on website). For this to be the case, a

significant body of research affirms the idea that parent involvement can make a

significant difference in a child’s education.

It is important here to be reminded of the shifts parent involvement has seen over the

decades to understand the importance of the collaborative relationship. Prior to the 1920s

parents had relinquished educational responsibility to professional teachers. Those who

wanted to see schools remain “pure” worked to prevent contact with any influence

outside the school, including parents. During the 1920s a role for parents began gaining

acceptance, but the role was only for parents to act as helpers and supporters of the

teachers’ lessons. This relationship again shifted in the 1960s when cultural changes,

such as civil rights and federal policy (Title I education, for example) opened the door for

increasing varieties of parent involvement. More recently schools have been forced to

deal with unmet material and emotional needs of children; however, it has been noted

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that most schools are not equipped to deal with such needs thereby further increasing the

necessity of families and communities to become involved in education.

Predictors of Positive Outcomes

Chavkin and Williams (1989) cite research indicating an alterable home

curriculum is twice as predictive of academic learning as is family SES. Redding, in

Educational Practices Series – 2, Parents and Learning, defines the alterable home

environment as “families that provide a stimulating, language-rich, supportive

environment” (p. 5). This also includes the “family’s relationships, practices and patterns

of life” (p. 5). When this is the focus, rather than SES, schools can work with the family

to make positive adjustments in these patterns. They further stated that some parent

involvement programs had effects ten times greater when parents were involved

compared to when they were not. Children also reported higher educational aspirations

and greater perceived competence, and had higher academic achievement when parents

were even minimally involved, in some cases. Additionally, parents who were involved

had higher aspirations for their children and felt more positively about their children’s

teachers and school, which have been found to be predictors of student success, as well as

a perpetuating force in maintaining involvement.

Singh et al. (1995) looked at data from more than 21,000 students from the

National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. The sample represents a nationally

representative data set with regard to education and demographic factors. In their

analysis, the authors found that one of the strongest predictors of positive outcome was

parental aspiration for the student’s achievement. Parents with increased expectations

also tended to exhibit more of the behaviors noted by other authors as leading to higher

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achieving students, such as regular communication with child and school. The authors

posited that it is possible this increased communication “transmits” the expectations to

the child and school, with both entities responding favorably to the awareness of the

parent of their view of the importance of education. Parent-child communication was also

found to have a moderate effect on parental participation in school-related activities. That

is, parents who communicate about school tend to be parents who participate in school

activities, again transmitting their ideas regarding the importance of education. This

analysis did not show that participation in school activities helped or hindered

achievement. This finding is somewhat discrepant with a number of other findings,

however, and the authors noted that this might be, in part, be a function of the

developmental level of 8th grade students.

Effects on Student Achievement

Epstein (1984, as cited in Singh et al., 1995) showed that student achievement is

higher when parents participate in school activities, monitor children’s homework and

otherwise support the work and values of school. However, Epstein noted that the nature

and magnitude of these findings is inconsistent. That is, the effect seems to differ based

on age, with more influence being given to parent involvement in elementary school than

high school. A number of parental factors have also been demonstrated by Epstein (1984,

as cited in Singh, et al., 1995) to positively effect a child’s achievement. Among these are

regular and frequent communication with children and the school regarding the student’s

education, a parental interest in school work, and provision of verbal cues regarding

school work, directions and problem-solving strategies. Home structure, specifically, the

environment related to cognitive development has also been found to impact

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achievement. More specifically, the environment can communicate a hidden academic

curriculum that leads to success. Positive input from parents, such as encouragement of

reading/books as gifts, rewards for improvement on daily assignment and grades have a

positive impact on achievement (Gonzalez & Blanco, 1991, as cited in Singh, et al.,

1995).

Hampton and Mumford (1998) reported that research evidence confirming the

benefits of parent involvement began making its way into the literature at least 30 years

ago, the bottom line appearing to be that parent involvement improves student

achievement. These authors report that Henderson (1981) acknowledged 35 studies

showing that various types of parent involvement led to positive results, including a

measurable gain in student performance.

Benefits of parent involvement are reflected in student gains, increased parent

self-confidence, satisfactions with schools, and overall improvement (Karther & Lowden,

1997). Larsen and Haupt report “programs designed with strong components of parental

involvement produce students who perform better than those who have taken part in

otherwise identical programs with little or no parent involvement” (p. 402). In fact,

teachers believe more home-school collaboration is needed and most parents are

committed to their child’s education and say they want to see them succeed.

Zellman and Waterman (1998) looked at 193 Los-Angeles area 2nd through 5th

graders and their mothers to attempt to confirm the relationship between parent

involvement and child outcomes, as well as looked for evidence of what might underlie

this effect. They found that what parents do appears to matter in understanding at least

two academic outcomes: reading and teacher assessment of learning problems. The

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authors found the higher the level of reported school involvement, the better test scores

tended to be in reading. Families reporting higher levels of involvement also had fewer

teacher reports of learning problems. A child’s need for help, as assessed by IQ, was an

important determinant of level of mother’s homework involvement. As part of the

foundation of their work, Hart and Risely (1995, as cited in Zellman and Waterman)

looked at parent talking and parent-infant interaction and found that parents who were

more involved with their children and talked to them more between the ages of 10 and 36

months had children who had higher intellectual development at 9-10 years of age.

Importance of Collaboration

Gareau and Sawatzky’s (1995) question regarding the characteristics of

collaboration has been discussed in the definition section of this document. Another

question the researchers wanted to answer was “Why Is School Collaboration

Important?” In part, they found the answer to be that children live in two different

worlds, thus it is important to ease the transition between home and school in order to

optimize a student’s development and achievement. One parent described parent-school

collaboration as an ongoing process noting that children are not distinct in each setting.

Rather they take experiences from school to home and vice versa; thus parents and school

should work together in an effort to understand the conditions and situations in the “other

world.” Another general conclusion by Gareau and Sawatzky (1995) is that this

generation of parents has more education and higher expectations of schools, and their

children within the school setting. Therefore, an understanding of involvement or

collaboration needs to shift to a position where parents are brought in as full members.

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Collaboration may also be conceptualized in a broader framework, encompassing

the community as an entity around the family and school. The relevance of community

factors cannot be overlooked in this discussion of issues that may affect parent

involvement. One community related issue is that negative experiences with the school

may impact home-school-community partnerships. For example, schools that have

appeared closed or uncaring to the needs of the community are likely to have parents who

are generally less involved with their children. This may be a direct consequence of some

action, or lack thereof, by the school; or it may carry over from a parents’ own experience

as a student in that school. One benefit of community involvement is that such

partnerships may demonstrate sensitivity to the issues specific to the community the

school serves. Community involvement also encourages recognition of resources

available to the community that could benefit families and children. For example, this

could work by the school linking families to child care, medical care, academic

assistance, and other resources in order to free time for the family to be more involved in

the educational process (Smith et al., 1997)

There has been an effort to differentiate parenting style from parenting practices

and behaviors. There are also proposed models that link these constructs to child

outcomes, e.g. academic achievement and prosocial behaviors. “Parenting-style

researchers have argued that parenting style moderates the impact of a specific parenting

practice such as parent school involvement by affecting the nature of the parent-child

interaction and by influencing the degree to which a child is open to a parent’s influence”

(Zellman & Waterman, 1998, p. 373).

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Parenting style and behavior is important because it will likely impact the degree to

which parents are willing to collaborate with the school regarding their child’s education.

If there has been an infringement perceived by the parent, either in their own education or

one by their child’s school, it would benefit the student for the school and/or teacher to

understand this in order to try to bridge any problems to draw the parent into a position

where they feel more comfortable being involved.

Program Examples

To this point, many issues have been considered, including an attempt to define

parent involvement, as well as specific factors that may encourage or inhibit parent

involvement. Now the discussion will turn to programs that have been implemented in

different areas where the goal has been to better define and/or increase parent

involvement. The programs to be discussed are Project FAST (Families are Students and

Teachers), Parents as Teachers, and Family Resource and Youth Service Centers.

Project FAST (Families are Students and Teachers)

This is a program that was started in East Cleveland, Ohio. It was devised to

include a looping schedule, which is to allow students to stay with the same teacher for

more than one academic year. This arrangement resulted in a number of positive

outcomes. George, Spreul, and Moorefield (1987, as cited in Burke, 1997) found in a

three year study that about 70% of teachers preferred looping, as it allowed them to use

more positive approaches to structuring and managing their classes. They also found that

students demonstrated higher achievement scores on standardized tests than students in

traditional placements. Improved student achievement was not the only advantage.

Teachers felt an increased sense of ownership for student outcomes, as well as “a higher

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sense of efficacy as a result of their increased decision-making autonomy for students.”

The consistency also allowed parents to feel more comfortable and respected by the

teacher, as well as the parents having more confidence in their children’s teachers and

administrators.

Parents as Teachers

The Parents as Teachers program seeks to bring families, schools, and

communities together to form three-way partnerships. The program is based on “two

simple truths – that babies are born learners and that parents play a critical role from the

beginning in determining what their child will become” (Winter & McDonald, p. 121,

1997). It seeks to enhance development and achievement by reaching families early,

sometimes before the birth of the child.

The basic assumptions of the program are that children are born to learn and do

that from the people they love most; and parents are experts on their own children

because they are with the child day in and day out. Other assumptions include the idea

that multiple family structures promote healthy development, that cultural differences are

to be valued, and that all families have strengths, with all parents striving to be good

parents (Winter & McDonald, 1997).

The program is multi-faceted in its attempts to capture the relationships it seeks.

Among the facets are personal visits by certified parent educators who can advise parents

of appropriate developmental issues, as well as model ways to take advantage of daily

non-traditional learning activities. It also incorporates group meetings where parents can

“share, compare, commiserate, and congratulate” (p. 125). Frequent and ongoing

monitoring by parents and educators is encouraged in an effort to realize and address

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potential problems as early as possible. Finally, the community partnerships enter with

referral to community services that are beyond the scope of the actual program.

Family Resource and Youth Service Centers

The Kentucky School System was found to be unconstitutional in 1989 by the

Kentucky Supreme Court. With this decision came the sole burden on the General

Assembly to create a new schooling system. With this task, the governor and the General

Assembly formed the Task Force on Education Reform to make recommendations

regarding the restructuring of the educational establishment. It was at this point that the

realization came about that the school system alone cannot provide sufficient resources

without assistance from ancillary services; and so were born the FRYSCs (Doktor &

Poertner, 1996). Doktor and Poertner (1996) quote the State of Kentucky as follows:

The school-based Kentucky Family Resource and Youth Services Centers are

efforts designed to promote the flow of resources and support to families in ways

to strengthen the functioning and enhance the growth and development of the

individual members and the family unit. This method of focusing on families and

on relationship-building is an effective way to enhance children’s ability to learn

and grow.

Within this broad definition each Family Resource Center or Youth

Services Center will be a unique blend of components and approaches. Each

community will weave its own tapestry of services, depending on location; the

availability of services; needs of the children, youth, and families involved;

available funding; and the vision of the people shaping the program” (p. 295).

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The Family Resource Centers (FRCs) were mandated to be established in or near

elementary schools where at least 20% of the students are eligible for free school meals.

These resource centers are designed to maximize the available resources in at least the

following areas: child-care; families in training, a parenting program for new or expectant

parents; parent and child education, support and training for day-care providers; and

health services/referrals to health services. The guidelines mandated for these centers

include the following: “referrals to health and social services; employment counseling,

training, and placement; summer and part-time job development; drug and alcohol abuse

counseling; and family crisis and mental health counseling” (Doktor & Poertner, 1996, p.

296).

These programs demonstrate several ways in which efforts can be made to

increase parent involvement, depending on the needs of the school, community, and

families served. After a brief summary in the next session, attention will turn to the

specific nature of the research conducted in this project.

Summary and Discussion

Parent Involvement is a vague concept covering activities from bake sales to

school based management, and the details of this definition are highly dependent on who

is answering the question of what is in the realm of parent involvement. Teachers and

administrators still tend to view parent involvement as activities that meet the needs of

the school; therefore the activities usually occur within the bounds of the school.

Conversely, parents tend to have a much broader view of the concept of involvement.

Parents tend to see activities such as helping with homework and providing extra

enrichment activities as examples of integral parent involvement activities. These

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differences between the definitions of parent involvement, depending on who is

responding to how to define it, can leave both sides confused and frustrated when the

other does not feel it is fulfilling its responsibilities. Parent involvement is a much more

complex issue than being directly involved in activities within the school, in this author’s

view. Attempting to define parent involvement as only activities that meet the need of the

school is very one-sided and does not account for all of the needs of a student in

obtaining an adequate, well-rounded education. Behaviors as “simple” as ensuring that

the child is out of bed and physically ready in time to be at school is a most basic parent

involvement activity, but one that does not meet the narrow definition prescribed by the

schools. Similarly, activities that can be carried out in the home from direct help with

homework to demonstrating an interest in the student’s education by inquiring about

learning activities, homework and upcoming tests are perceived by this writer to be

parent involvement activities that are at least equal to volunteering within the confines of

the school walls during the educational day. This is not to be misunderstood that this

narrowly defined need is not also important, but some parents simply are not able to or

comfortable participating in these activities for reasons discussed in this section, such as

schedules or transportation problems; and this author believes preparing and encouraging

a child, through home activities, to take advantage of the school-based learning

environment is a parent involvement activity of the utmost importance.

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CHAPTER III: METHOD

Subjects

Since this is a case study of one school, an effort was made to gain information

from school administrators and teachers. However, the researcher was only able to obtain

information from the principal and assistant principal of the school. In addition in the

effort to broaden the responses to be obtained from teachers as well as administrators, an

effort was also made to generalize the information by obtaining it from multiple schools.

Information was mailed, and follow-up phone calls made to all elementary schools in the

county where the research was conducted; however, despite these efforts, only one school

followed up by actually completing the survey information. As evidenced by the limited

information, this school’s involvement was also minimal. During phone conversations

with the principal of the school, this author requested access, either by interview or by

leaving surveys, to administrators, teachers, and parents. As was requested in the phone

conversation with the principal, the author delivered survey information to the principal

with a letter reminding of the preference to have information from various sources. After

several weeks, the author was contacted, and informed the information was ready, and at

that time, the author found only two surveys had been completed.

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Survey Method

Those who were available for data gathering were asked to complete surveys that

sought information in the following sections: Demographic Information, Parent

Involvement Activities, and Factors that Influence Involvement. The instrument has not

been validated, and was derived based on factors discovered in the literature review that

tend to impact parent involvement. (See Appendix B for the survey form.)

Method

Davey (1991) points out that case study research allows one to involve a more in-

depth approach with a systematic way of collecting data, analyzing information, and

reporting results. This is in contrast to “using large samples and following a rigid

protocol to examine a limited number of variables” (p. 1). He notes that the result from

this type of research is an increased understanding of the construct being examined, as

well as the issues that may be important to address more extensively in the future. “Thus,

case studies are especially well suited toward generating, rather than testing, hypotheses”

(p. 2). Of the six types of case studies noted in Davey’s writing, the current research

most matches his classification of exploratory case studies which he describes as

“condensed case studies, undertaken before implementing a large-scale investigation;

[and when] considerable uncertainty exists about program operations, goals, and results”

(p. 2). He notes this type of study assists in delineating questions, clarifying and selecting

measurement constructs, and developing measures. Among the drawbacks to this type of

research are that exploratory studies may more readily cause the researcher to disclose

findings inappropriately as conclusions, as the findings may seem logical and complete.

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Inadequate or inaccurate representation of diversity, and therefore decreased

generalizability are also drawbacks related to case study research.

Participants

The information to be discussed in this case study was obtained from a school

within a rural area of southern Alabama. Information obtained in the 2000 Census

indicated a city population of slightly more than 21,000 people, while the number of

county residents is just over 43,000. From 1990-2000, the average annual growth rate

was 5.2%. The per capita income in 1999 was $20,493, while the median family income

was $45,510.

Regarding the specific school in this study, attempts were made to inquire of

teachers their thoughts about parent involvement, though the interviewer was not

afforded this opportunity. The information obtained was from the principal and assistant

principal.

Procedures

The interview included questions that were both qualitative and quantitative in

nature. The quantitative information assesses:

1. the size of the school;

2. the number of parent involvement hours in the school, and

3. the degree to which parent involvement may have increased as the result

of activities or information provided by the school.

The qualitative data seeks to:

1. develop a concept of what parent involvement is from the viewpoint of the

administrators,

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2. determine the factors that facilitate parent involvement from the viewpoint of

the administrators, and

3. determine the factors that inhibit parent involvement from the viewpoint of

the administrators.

Data Analysis

The quantitative and qualitative information will be summarized in an effort to

propose ideas for implementing and improving a parent involvement plan. The responses

of the two individuals will be compared and contrasted in an effort to gain a better picture

of their perception of parent involvement. This will assist in developing the parent

involvement plan.

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CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Demographic Information of Target School

The people providing information for this study were the principal and assistant

principal, both of whom have been at this school for one year. Elementary schools in this

area of Alabama incorporate Kindergarten through 6th grade students. On this school’s

website, their mission is noted as follows:

The mission of [this school] is to work with parents and the community to provide

students with a safe, comfortable learning environment, comprised of various

instructional techniques and a diversified curriculum. This will enable each child to reach

his or her maximum potential and to become a responsible citizen and lifelong learner.

There are approximately 450 students currently enrolled in the school. The ethnic

disbursement follows:

Caucasian 69.8% African-American 25.5% Hispanic 2.91% Asian 1.12% American Indian/Alaskan Native .67%

One hundred ninety-eight students (44%) qualify for free lunch, while 27 students

(6%) qualify for reduced lunch. According to the county school system’s website, a

student qualifies for free lunch “based on approved application or direct certification

under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).” The income level to determine a

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student’s eligibility for this is dependent on the income of the family relative to the

number of people in the household (Federal Register, 2006.) Detailed information

regarding family income and the highest level of primary caregiver education was not

available to those providing information.

Information Related to Parent Involvement Activities of Target School

Table 1: Respondents Estimation of Current and Desired Level of Participation in Parent Involvement Activities

Respondent 1 Respondent 2

Activity C1 D C D

Support tasks (gather resources, set up centers, arrange field trips, record tapes for learning centers, etc.) 12 2 1 2

Listen to children read in the classroom 2 3 2 4

Attendance at parent-teacher conferences 3 4 3 4 Coach in specific facts in the classroom (spelling, math, etc.) 1 2 1 4

Coach in specific facts in the home (spelling, math, etc.) 2 4 4 4

Caretaker helping their own child with homework in the home 2 4 4 4

Caretaker helping other students with homework in the classroom 1 2 1 2

Caretaker disciplining behavior problems in the home 3 4 3 4 Caretaker participating in extra-curricular activities on evenings and weekends (museums, community events, etc.)

2 3 3 4

Practice vocabulary with non-English speaking students in the classroom 1 2 1 2

Attendance at school events (concerts, plays, seminars, etc.) 2 4 2 4

Help organizing/supervising students before and after school (as they come off the bus, in the cafeteria, etc.) 1 1 1 1 1 C: Current Estimation of Involvement; D: Desired Level of Involvement 2 1: no time; 2: not much time; 3: some time; 4: a lot of time A list of parent involvement activities (See Table 1) was presented to the

respondents with the request for them to rate the current amount of time devoted to each

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activity, as well as the amount of time the administrators would desire be spent on each

activity. The rating scale was: 4=a lot of time; 2=not much time; 3=some time; and 1=no

time. Each activity will be considered individually.

The principal and assistant principal were in complete agreement on seven of the

12 items. Of these seven items, there were four on which they did not place much

emphasis in terms of having much time devoted to these activities. The first of these

activities on which there was agreement, but not much desire, was the degree to which

there is a need for “Support tasks (gather resources, set up centers, arrange field trips,

record tapes for learning centers, etc.).” Both respondents indicated there is currently no

time given to this activity, and did not feel this was a priority as indicated by their desire

to have only slightly more time (2) devoted to these types of activities.

The next activity on which they desired little emphasis was “Caretaker helping

other students [not necessarily in their child’s classroom] with homework in the

classroom.” Respondents noted no time devoted to this, and reported feeling not much

time is needed in this area. Both rated the desired activity level at 2, or not much time.

Both respondents gave the same ratings to the activity of caregivers helping with

“practice [of] vocabulary with non-English speaking students in the classroom.” Both

individuals indicated parents do not give time to “help[ing] organize/supervise students

before and after school (as they come off the bus, in cafeteria, etc.)”

Among the activities of which there is more desire for time is “Attendance at

parent teacher conferences,” where both reported there is currently some time devoted to

this, with a desire for a lot of time to be given to this activity. Two other activities in

which there is a desire for the amount of time to be increased to a lot were “Caretaker

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disciplining behavior problems in the home” and “Attendance at school events (concerts,

plays, seminars, etc.)” Regarding the former, both felt there is currently some time given

to discipline, while they feel there is not much time devoted to school events.

Another area of desire for increased participation was for caregivers to “Listen to

children read in the classroom.” Both agreed there is currently not much time devoted to

this, but both desired an increase. One person desired an increase to some time, while the

other wished for a lot of time to be devoted to this.

Respondents reported parents do not “Coach in specific facts in the classroom.”

One desired a slight increase, only to not much time; while the other administrator

wished there was a lot of time devoted to this. Similar coaching, but this time in the

home, was another area where there was disagreement. One respondent reported

currently a lot of time is devoted to this, and wished to maintain that; while the other

respondent perceived minimal time is given to this, but also desires a lot of participation

in this area. The same ratings were given for helping students with homework in the

home.

Finally, both respondents desired an increase in “Caretaker participating in

extracurricular activities on evenings and weekends (museums, community events, etc.)”

One reported current participation at not much time, while the other reported there is

some time devoted to this. Respectively, one reported an increase to some time and the

other an increase to a lot of time.

When asked what activities they felt were important that were not included in this

list, the only activity added was having parents be involved in “organizing fun events.”

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This is felt to be important because “Parents need to be aware and participate in their

child’s life.”

Table 2: Estimation of Current Level of Parent Involvement Percentage of Parents Involved School Grade

1 Grade

2 Grade

3 Grade

4 Grade

5 High (90% or more) Relatively High (70-89%)

Moderate (40-69%) Relatively Low (20-39%)

Low (0-19%)

Regarding an attempt to more specifically quantify the amount of time given to

parent involvement, respondents were asked to approximate the percentage of parents

who volunteer (See Table 2). The principal estimated it is about 10 hours per month,

while the assistant principal did not have an estimate. Both agreed that grades one

through three have a moderate level (40-69%) of participation, while the involvement

declines to relatively low (20-39%) in grades four and five.

Generally, both respondents agreed they do not feel the current level of parent

involvement is satisfactory. One indicated, “I would like for them [parents] to be more

involved so they can know better how to help their child.” The other reported, “I think I

should search for more ways for parents to volunteer so they can feel like an integral part

of the school.” In a related issue, it was reported that parents are not permitted to observe

their children in the classrooms without notice; however, they can join their children for

lunch without prior notice.

Neither reported that the school has a written policy on parent involvement.

Additionally, the principal reported she does not feel she has implemented any efforts to

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improve parent involvement. The assistant principal reported she has implemented

“parent workshops and surveys on what workshops they would attend.”

Information Related to Factors Influencing Involvement in Target School

Table 3: Factors Facilitating Parent Involvement Potential Facilitating Factors Respondent 1 Respondent 2 Frequent contact with parents initiated by teachers/staff

Providing child care for other children in the family Providing transportation for parents Providing some incentive for participation Providing flexible hours for in school involvement Working with parents to encourage home involvement (providing suggestions/guidance)

Respondents were given a list of potential factors (See Table 3) that may impact

parent involvement and asked to indicate the ones they feel facilitate involvement. One

respondent indicated “Frequent contact with parents initiated by teacher/staff” as the only

acknowledged facilitating factor. The other respondent indicated this, as well as,

“Providing some incentive for participation,” “Providing flexible hours for in school

involvement,” and “Working with parents to encourage home involvement (providing

suggestions/guidance.)” The school currently neither helps parents with transportation

nor provides incentives for involvement.

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Table 4: Factors Inhibiting Parent Involvement Potential Inhibiting Factors Respondent 1 Respondent 2 Parents feeling uncomfortable/unwelcome in school Stressful work schedule Too many other family/work obligations Inadequate transportation Being unaware of participation/involvement opportunities

In a similar list, respondents were asked to indicate factors they feel inhibit parent

involvement (See Table 4). Both felt there were multiple issues, sharing the belief that

“Parents feeling uncomfortable/unwelcome in school” and “Too many other family/work

obligations” were factors that may decrease involvement. The assistant principal felt that

“stressful work schedules of parents” contribute to the lack of involvement; while the

principal reported feeling “Inadequate transportation” and “Being unaware of

participation/involvement opportunities” were issues that may inhibit involvement. She

added she feels there is an effort to rectify the latter problem by sending “newsletters,

[communicating in] conferences, [making] phone calls, and [sending] notes” to parents.

When asked about additional factors not included in the list, she reported she feels there

is a “lack of interest from parents.”

When asked if they felt efforts to involve parents are successful, the respondents

disagreed in their responses. One reported she feels their efforts are successful “because

we do have parents attend assemblies.” The other reported lack of success due to “busy

schedules, lack of interest.”

Though there were only two respondents, much of the information shared by both

was consistent. For example, both felt that participation declines as children age, which is

consistent with literature previously discussed in this paper. Both were also in agreement

of a few of the factors that facilitate and inhibit involvement. The former being

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agreement that there is frequent contact initiated by teachers; while the latter agreement

was on the inhibiting factors that parents feel uncomfortable or unwelcome in the school

and having too many work or family obligations.

Though there were similarities in their responses, there was also disagreement,

particularly among the encouraging and inhibitory factors. For example, one respondent

felt there was only one factor that facilitated involvement, which was the frequent contact

with parents. The other respondent, however, endorsed three other factors that can

facilitate involvement. Though the numbers of items endorsed for inhibitory factors were

similar, both respondents shared only two responses.

Discussion

This project was developed with the objective of gaining information about the

perceptions of the definitions and needs of parent involvement within the school in an

effort to develop a plan to help the school implement and evaluate a more effective plan.

The information, though minimal, obtained from the administrators seems to indicate an

acknowledgement that there is room for improvement in the area of getting parents more

involved. To this end, there are several areas of strengths and weaknesses that will now

be addressed.

The primary strength of this study is that it is an effort at a beginning step to

address the definition and evaluation of parent involvement, as it applies to a specific

program need. Though there is considerable research in the area of parent involvement,

little is current, and there is even less that addresses the application and evaluation of

specific programs.

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A major limitation of this study is that it was conducted with information from

only two interviewees, both of whom were in administrative positions. As previously

discussed, efforts to engage teachers and parents in the information gathering process

were unsuccessful. This obviously limits the generalizability of the information,

especially given that research has shown that parents, teachers, and administrators often

have very different views of what describes a parent involvement activity. In addition,

this also warrants great caution if trying to utilize the information to establish a plan to

increase involvement beyond the school involved in this study.

Regarding the specific survey instrument used, this author found no established

example of a questionnaire addressing the specific needs of this study; therefore the

instrument presented here is a document created for this project in light of findings

established in the literature review, and formatted in a way to attempt to reach the ends

needed for this study. For example, as discussed in the literature review, there is evidence

that different entities in a child’s life conceptualize parent involvement activities in very

different ways, so the survey instrument utilized examples defined by parents, teachers,

and administrators.

Given these limitations, other strategies could be used to improve the research.

Ideal research would involve more input from a variety of sources, as well as seeking the

input in different formats. For example, survey information may be initially obtained, but

followed-up with interviews or focus groups to seek more specific information or

information not considered by the researcher.

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CHAPTER V: DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM TO BE IMPLEMENTED

The program proposed in this document is one that takes into account the

information gathered as part of the literature review (found in chapter II of this

document) and information provided by the respondents, in an effort to maximize the

potential benefit for the student, which would be the ultimate goal for any parent

involvement program. The first assumption is, ideally, that the distinction between

childcare and education be minimized or eliminated. That is to say, recognition that

learning started long before the child entered the school system, and occurs in all settings,

whether formally or informally (Zigler, Finn-Stevenson, & Stern, 1997)

Before a program can actually be implemented in the target school, the plan needs

to be a formally documented, written plan that outlines the goals of the program. This is

one area of weakness for this school, as there is not a formal, written plan. This makes it

more difficult for different entities to communicate about their efforts since each side

(administrators, parents, and teachers) may have different perceptions of goals and how

to implement strategies to meet these goals. Once a plan is conceptualized and written,

several involved parties, such as a selection of parents, teachers and administrators, and

possibly students, should review it in an effort to become aware of any discrepancies with

the majority population the school serves. For example, in the case of this school where a

considerable percentage of students qualify for free or reduced lunch, the possible income

limitations and related factors, such as possible dual income families or lack of

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transportation, need to be considered in terms of planning school programs and meetings.

In addition to trying to clarify problems, a written plan would also allow clearer

communication of needs and expectations of all parties. For example, one key

administrator felt parent involvement was satisfactory, while another did not. This

demonstrates, even with the limited information available, that there is lack of clarity

about the specific activities and goals of parent involvement. If this is the case among two

administrators, it stands to reason that the more people there is involved in defining

parent involvement, the more likely it is that there will be different needs and priorities

assessed by different entities. This divergence would be expected, and only highlights the

need to get information from as many individuals as possible. After all if two individuals

in a similar role have such diverse ideas, it would be expected that individuals in different

roles (i.e., parents, administrators, teachers, and students) would have different thoughts

about the specific activities involved.

Darch, Miao, and Shippen (2004) outline features they determined to be involved

in an effective parent involvement program. The first feature is that the program be

proactive. That is, that teachers make contact with parents prior to problems occurring in

an effort to establish positive, goal-oriented communication.

The second proposed feature is what Darch et al (2004) label the 180-Day plan.

This aspect acknowledges that the program should “adjust to the phases of the school

year, just like instructional and management programs” (p. 27). Their proposal is that this

is done in four phases: 1) development of materials for parent involvement that convey

philosophy and rules; 2) recruitment of parents to be involved, including linking parents

with specific activities; 3) development of strategies to maintain and grow parent

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involvement; and 4) assisting parents in make a transitional plan to the summer and the

next school year.

The third feature of their program outline is clearly explained goals. Their belief

is that if parents are kept informed of instruction and behavior management strategies,

especially anything “novel,” so that parents understand academic objectives.

Finally, the fourth feature of their program is attempting to accommodate diverse

families. Possible areas that can be addressed with diverse families when trying to engage

them include assessing family interests, collaborating with diverse families, assessing the

school’s and/or teacher’s attitudes about diversity, and family factors (e.g., religious

preferences, family’s perception of teacher, family’s understanding of discipline.)

Communication

Communication is a central issue to be considered when implementing a program.

Any correspondence sent home to parents should account for possible language

differences, as well as be in a tone that is not likely to be considered condescending to the

parents. This author proposes that all communication, whether written or verbal, should

attempt to invite a partnership, rather than be presented in a tone that implies significant

power differences in the relationship. This type of communication pattern would follow

the guidelines of those discussed by Swap (1993) in his curriculum enrichment model,

previously discussed. Its goal is to emphasize and optimize opportunities for parents and

teachers to learn about and from each other. The hope is for long-term, committed, and

mutually respectful relationships where parents have significant involvement in many

areas of education and daily activities, as well as decision-making responsibilities. It is

also important that the communication not only informs parents of school activities, but

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also seeks input from parents in an effort to maintain two-way communication that

facilitates periodic changes in the parent involvement plan. The two-way communication

invitation allows the school to maintain an understanding of changing priorities or

problems parents are facing in terms of trying to be involved in their children’s lives.

With the school being considered in this study, two-way communication seems to be

lacking, acknowledging the only noted effort of trying to seek information has been about

what types of workshops parents might be interested in. One problem noted was that

administrators feel there is a lack of interest by parents, and communication is one way

interest may be able to be increased, primarily by keeping parents more informed of the

different types of opportunities available to them, both at home and at school.

In an effort to determine the extent to which the goals are being met, this type of

communication needs to be evaluated on an ongoing basis by submitting brief

questionnaires to parents to determine their perception of any type of communication. It

would be best if these were presented to a third party, perhaps an administrator or teacher

not directly involved in the communication. It would also be beneficial if the evaluation

could be coded with an identifier other than the parents or students name. There may also

be qualitative evidence available in terms of the frequency or speed with which the

communiqués are responded. Another option would be to offer online surveys that would

provide anonymity, but allow school staff to be kept apprised of parents’ perceptions of

the types and effectiveness of communication.

School Sponsored Events

Generally, school sponsored events are a relatively common occurrence; however,

the degree to which parents participate depends on several factors to include the type,

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location, and the time of the activity. For example, in the National Center For Education

Statistics 1998 report on Parent Involvement in Children’s Education: Efforts by Public

Elementary Schools, it was noted that events involving interaction with teachers are

preferable to exhibits or demonstrations of students’ work. Their statistics also indicated

that open houses or back to school night types of events had relatively good participation.

For the school addressed with this program proposal, this is an area that would

need to be addressed based on the needs and preferences of the parents. Perhaps a

questionnaire or contact by the teacher early in the school year could elicit information

from parents about the types of activities in which they would like to be, or could be,

involved. Every effort would need to be made to attempt to offer activities at different

times of day in order to elicit the most participation throughout the year. For example, a

parent who might be able to attend a breakfast or lunchtime with their student may not be

available as easily for evening events.

It was noted by one administrator that there is a feeling that one inhibiting factor

is that parents do not feel comfortable or welcome in the school, as well as the fact that

parents are not permitted to observe their child’s classroom without notice. If open

admission (after appropriately checking in with office staff) is not an option, then this

author feels one option to bridge this gap would be to offer certain times on a weekly or

monthly basis where parents can observe their children in the classroom. This could

empower parents by making them more aware of the activities in which their children are

participating, as well as how their child is responding and behaving in the classroom

environment.

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Parent Participation in School Decision Making

In Parent Involvement in Children’s Education: Efforts by Public Elementary

Schools (Carey, Lewis, & Farris, 1998) report, it noted that schools tend not to consider

parental input to a great degree when making policy or education decisions for the

school. If parents are invited and encouraged to participate in school governance or

policy making, even if in limited areas, it could foster a stronger bond and more

involvement from the parents, in the opinion of this author. One possible way it is

believed this would increase involvement is that parents may feel their opinions and

interests are being respected by the school administration, leading the parent to feel more

investment in the issues. This may also serve to improve one of the problems noted by

administrators, that being that parents do not feel comfortable or welcome in the school.

Again, if parents if some investment in the planning of the activities that will take place,

even if not directly involved in implementation, then parents may feel more at ease with

their child’s education, and the role of the school, teachers, and administrators in that

education. The seeking of parent input may also alert the schools administration and

faculty to other areas that need to be addressed due to the differences in expectations on

the side of the parents versus the school.

Parent Volunteer Opportunities

Parent volunteer opportunities have the potential to offer chances for every parent

to be involved. These types of opportunities could be offered within the walls of the

school, as well as many chances to participate outside of the physical boundaries of the

school. Opportunities for increased involvement within the school noted by

administrators would be seeing more involvement by having parents come into the

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classroom to listen to students read, help with coaching specific tasks in the classroom by

acting in a teaching assistant/tutor type role, and attend extra-curricular school events,

such as plays and concerts. Opportunities outside the classroom would include fund

raising, attending community sponsored events or workshops that could facilitate the

parents understanding of developmental needs, or obtain assistance in how to better help

their children through the educational process. Specific areas addressed by administrators

included caregivers coaching in specific academic tasks in the home, exerting more effort

in discipline of behavior problems, and participating in extra-curricular activities. Both

the in-school and out-of-school opportunities bring back to light the importance of

communication. First, to inform parents of the importance of these activities; and second,

to insure that parents are aware of the options that are available to them.

Parent Resource Centers

Especially in the context of the latter goals discussed in the last section, parent

resource centers would also be an asset to achieving the desired end. The school being

considered in this proposal does not have anything of this nature available. It is important

to understand that the initial incarnation of the parent resource center can be very simple,

with the goal of becoming larger and more involved as parents become aware of its

existence and role. The first advantage is that these types of resources are an invitation to

the parents to come inside the school, that it is not just a place for them to leave their

children for a few hours. Again, this facilitates the idea of parents being comfortable

within the walls of the school, not that they are there because there is a problem with their

child. There would be both formal and informal activities at the Parent Resource Center.

For example, the center would start with a concept of simplicity of offering a library of

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resources parents could access any time during the day. Ideally, there would be someone

staffing the center who is knowledgeable about child development and the expectations

of the school. Of course, this could very easily be a parent who wishes to be involved.

Though the parent volunteer may not start with a wealth of knowledge in these areas, this

means he or she could serve as a model to other parents that it is acceptable to

acknowledge there are areas in which parents need to learn more and grow as a parent

facilitating their child’s education. As the center grows and is able to offer more formal

outreach, the centers would provide a hub to obtain information about what parents want

to learn and seek resources to offer classes or workshops for parents. It would also be

used as a central source to help link parents with community and social services that may

be beneficial to the family. This goal addresses the holistic nature of the issues involved

in education. That is, that family well-being and stability is as important as the parent

having the specific knowledge needed to help their child.

Parent Involvement in the Home

Resource centers would also be a source of information, to be sent to parents

about how parents can best help their children in the home environment. This would also

mean working directly with teachers to provide information to parents about the

curriculum being addressed in the classroom. Pryor and Church (1995) propose several

options for increasing this type of involvement. Among these are offering encouragement

for parents to give gifts of books and magazine subscriptions, and working with

community businesses to sponsor these resources for families who cannot provide them

for themselves. It is this author’s opinion that encouragement should be given to parents

not only to provide these materials, but become involved with the children as they engage

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in reading activities. Another of Pryor and Church’s suggestions that requires nothing

more than the parents’ attention and interest is to encourage their children to talk with the

parents about what they learned in school on any given day. If this is an area where

parents do not feel comfortable, it is another opportunity for the resource center to be

involved, either by modeling for the parents in family meetings, or providing less

interactive information such as newsletters or brochures, about different ways to

communicate with children, encouraging parents to be involved.

Any one of these components used individually would be a good catalyst for

sparking parents’ interest and increasing information, helping parents feel more

competent in being more involved in their child’s education. It is the hope of this author

that this school would seek to implement each of these strategies as a comprehensive start

to a structured, cohesive parent involvement plan. The outcomes of increased parental

participation are many, but the most notable are improved academic function and

awareness of the importance of education.

Given this information, an effort will now be made to use this template to define

more specific strategies that will be implemented by the school. First, crucial

characteristics that the program must have, as indicated by the literature review above,

will be discussed. Then the structure and process of the program will be described. This

will be followed by a description of the evaluation plan by which the effectiveness of the

program will be assessed.

Program Implementation

In an effort to exemplify implementation of a parent involvement program, the

above principles will be presented with examples of materials that would be used to

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implement the program in the target school. The first step for this school to implement a

structured program is to have a designated committee to gain information and coordinate

implementation of the program. A large portion of the task of this committee is to get

commitment from teachers and administrators to support a program to increase

involvement. Other key steps noted by Fager and Brewster (1999) include researching

parent involvement; designating someone to coordinate the program; assessing the needs

of the school; determining the scope of the program; considering parent strengths, as well

as student and parent diversity; writing a clear policy; and securing necessary funding for

partnerships. In an effort to assess the needs of the school for the current program plan,

one necessary step is to gain more information to specifically define parent involvement

from the perspective of parents, teachers, and administrators, as research has shown that

each entity has its own perception and understanding of what constitutes parent

involvement. Appendix A is an example of a memorandum and survey that could be sent

to parents early in the year. Appendix B is an example of a survey that could be given to

administrators and teachers, perhaps at the end of the school year so changes in the plan

could be discussed, evaluated, and planned for during the administrative time teachers

and staff have at the end of the school year. This survey also allows evaluation from year

to year in that it provides information regarding increases or decreases in involvement in

the context of the plan offered. As discussed in the communication section above, the

survey to the parents is worded as neutrally as possible in an effort to avoid the

appearance of making judgments about their involvement, or lack thereof. In the case of

this school, there is a minimal population of individuals who do not speak English as

their predominant language, so it would not be necessary to provide other translations to

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gain the most accurate, representative information possible. Though, in a more diverse

community, this would be an important consideration. Also as noted above, the goal of

the survey is to begin establishment of the idea that parent involvement is an invitation to

a partnership for the benefit of the child, not the benefit of the school.

Of course, communication would be an ongoing process as it is necessary in

coordinating other types of involvement. One way to maintain this ongoing

communication is to provide a periodic newsletter. Possible areas to be included in the

newsletter would be how the school is trying to improve discipline, student

accomplishments, new services or programs offered by the school or in the community,

upcoming school events, information about each grade level’s curriculum, and

information about after-school child care and/or tutoring programs. (U.S. Department of

Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 1996) To increase

distribution of the newsletter, it could be offered on the school’s website, which is

currently functioning. If parents do not have access to a computer in the home, they could

receive the newsletter in a paper format or utilize the resources of the public library to

obtain the information.

Phone calls are another means of maintaining communication, though somewhat

more difficult in many cases, as coordination of teacher and parent schedules may be

difficult. It is often the case that even minimal contact can be beneficial because it

establishes a personal relationship between the teacher and caregiver. The topics of the

phone calls would be many, including updating parents on current classroom activities,

both social and academic; or informing the parents of a child’s good behavior or

progress. The 1996 report from the U. S. Department of Education also expresses the

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need for support from the school for this to be a successful component of the program.

For example, teachers need to be provided with the administrative support to gain

information to contact parents, as well as needing to be provided with the time necessary

to make the phone calls. If the teacher is open to contact from the parents by phone, this

could also be made clear in both written and verbal contact with the parents. That is, the

contact information such as phone numbers and times the teacher is available should be

provided in writing so the parent is not responsible for documenting this information

during a phone call from the teacher. However, during the initial phone call from the

teacher, they would need to be sure to address this contact policy.

The next area to consider is school sponsored events, as this continues to be the

most common perception of what parent involvement is. The number of options available

in this area is nearly limitless. What will be discussed here are examples of strategies that

could be implemented. As noted above, there are many factors that effect attendance at

these types of events. The first of these is the type of activity offered. It should be

something in which the caregiver can be easily involved, and the expectations should be

made clear in the information provided to him/her. For example, some parents may be

hesitant to attend if they had academic difficulties and fear they will be asked to

participate in academic activities, such as reading or tutoring. One option early in the year

is to do an open-house/back to school event. This can serve to inform parents of new

policies, curriculum choices, parent involvement activities, extra-curricular activities or

developmental information about their children as the child progresses. These would be

held in the early fall, soon after school starts. One idea for increasing attendance is to

bridge the child’s efforts with the need for communication, and have the child create an

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invitation to the event. To continue encouragement, there would be a poster project

contest that is collaboration between caregivers and children. Various topics could be

chosen, such as a thought about what reading means to life, what the family did over the

summer or what they hope to accomplish during the year. Parents would need to sign to

poster to demonstrate collaboration, and would need to attend the open house for the

poster to be judged. (General idea from Blendinger & Jones, 1992). In an effort to

involve more parents, a wide range of times could be offered for parents to bring the

poster submission. For example, a block of time in the morning, afternoon, and evening

may need to be offered to accommodate the most schedules. Of course, this type of

activity is intended to establish contact with parents, as well as familiarize caregivers

with the facility. Appendix C is an example of a handout that could be used to inform

parents of the activities. In planning this type of activity, it should also be accounted for

that many parents might not have their own transportation for such an event. Possible

solutions for this would be to provide public transportation, either by the school offering

to cover some or all of the cost for the transportation by providing vouchers. In many

communities, it may also be possible for schools to collaborate with public transportation

systems to offer discounted rates, though in the area of the target school public

transportation is limited. Another option might be to engage the school’s transportation

system, which could also serve the dual purpose of familiarizing caregivers with their

child’s transportation to school. Another variation of the traditional open-house held in

the evening would be to have a day set aside where parents could come into the school

throughout the day and into the evening. This would serve to facilitate increased

participation by allowing parents who work to come when it is convenient for them, as

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well as possibly being able to coordinate transportation with friends, if this is a limitation

for the family.

Other in-school activities would include periodic grade level breakfasts and/or

lunches, followed by a visit to the child’s classroom. To alternate between the two might

provide opportunity for more parents to be involved. The goal of these is to maintain

communication with the teacher, as well as perhaps have the parent involved in a

classroom activity to see what goes on in the child’s classroom, as well as giving the

parent an opportunity to observe their child in the classroom. Hellgate Elementary School

(Fager & Brewster, 1999) has a program of which the focus is to get parents into the

classroom. The guidelines they encourage are to avoid having parents placed directly in

the classroom, to avoid caregivers tending only to their student; as well as encouraging

parents to be involved in a grade one level higher than their student to give them

information about the types of things their student will be exposed to in the next year.

Ideally, a combination of these two would be the goal, as a combination would provide

current information about their child, while giving a perspective that could help the

caregiver encourage the student about their future.

To move beyond what might be perceived as “basic” activities, the school would

develop and present a series of workshops on child development, with a focus on

information for each grade level. Parenting skills, increasing positive social interaction,

encouragement of personal values development, or information about how parents can

help children with academic work would also be topics of workshops. To further

facilitate dissemination of this type of information, the school would develop alternative

ways for the parents to get the information. For example, workbooks or videos would be

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provided for the caregiver to access in their own schedule. Perhaps there could also be

time available for parents to contact school staff regarding questions about the

information, possibly through a telephone connection staffed by different teachers at

different times (Christenson & Hurley, 2002).

In addition to the opportunities within the school, there are many chances for

parents to be involved in their child’s education outside of those physical confines.

Among the most available, relatively simple activities in which a parent can participate in

the home is helping their child with homework. For parents who need assistance in this

area, the school may facilitate by providing information about the specific skills

necessary to complete the assignment. More generally, it can be helpful for the school to

provide a log detailing the assignment, which must be signed by the parent, in an effort to

keep both parties informed about the expectations. Help with how to influence children to

do their homework may also be helpful. A handout at the beginning of the year would be

sent to parents providing information about homework. Among topics to be addressed

would be the purpose of homework, days of the week to expect homework, the

approximate amount of time that would need to be given to homework, how homework is

evaluated, responsibilities for missed or incomplete assignments, and appropriate

involvement of parents (Blendinger & Jones, 1992). In addition to this handout, a sample

homework log would be sent to parents, informing them of the expectation that it would

be returned with the parent’s signature on a daily or weekly basis. See Appendix D for a

sample of this document.

Another strategy to help parents model the importance of education for their

children is for the program to offer adult education classes. This could be in the form of

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GED classes; specific skills to help with finding employment or progressing in their

current job, such as computer skills development, or resume’ production. The specific

topics could be decided by including a question about this in the survey in Appendix A.

Periodically throughout the year, further information could be sent out to remind parents

of these opportunities as well as evaluate the possible addition of classes.

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CHAPTER VI: PROGRAM EVALUATION

A general comment about the evaluation of these types of programs comes from

Doktor and Poertner (1996). They note there is little information about the evaluation of

family resource centers, specifically, but programs of the nature proposed here generally,

which is of course an important point. They note “related issues that are critical but that

have received less attention include universal access in light of high demand…, services

versus results…, and the implementation question” (p. 299). One of this author’s

interpretations of that information is that a true experimental design is difficult, as a

control group would require that some individuals are not privy to the services offered in

the plan. This would be unfair, and difficult to explain.

Another issue they raise is the question of whether the focus is on service, needs,

or results. They define services as “what we (professionals) do for children and parents”

(p. 300). With this definition, there is considerable flexibility in adaptation to fit the

needs of any given area, within the general proposal of the program, which coincides

with Doktor and Poertner’s idea of a need focus. That is to say that if there is an area

addressed that is not a need, then it would offer options for more emphasis in other areas.

One problem they propose with both service and need focus is that it detracts attention

from the results of the program. Ultimately, their belief is that a comprehensive program

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needs to focus on results. “Once we agree on results, we can productively discuss how to

achieve these results” (p. 301).

To that end, the goal of this program is, of course, to increase parent involvement.

However, this is not the end goal. Ultimately, the hope is that through implementing a

specific program to encourage parent involvement the true achievement is in improved

academic performance for the student as well as in improving behavior and parent-child

communication/interactions. In doing all of this, it gives the student more experiences to

develop their own sense of who they are, the value of education, and the knowledge that

their parents are invested in their lives. Because of this, it is necessary to use the multi-

dimensional nature of the effort to design a way to evaluate the effects of the program.

Therefore, several levels of evaluation would be necessary in determining the effect of

this program.

Each area of the program will be addressed at this point, with suggestions for

ways to evaluate the effectiveness of that component of the program. The first, and most

basic area is communication, as without this there would be no way to inform parents of

opportunities or new ideas. As previously noted, communication would be evaluated on

an ongoing basis, and can be accomplished in a variety of ways. First, brief

questionnaires would be given to parents to determine their perception of any type of

communication. (See Appendix A, last page). It would be best if it could be arranged for

these to be submitted by the parent to a third party, perhaps a designated support staff

person or drop box, in an effort to foster the parents feeling of anonymity. It would also

be beneficial if the evaluation could be coded with an identifier other than the parents or

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students name. There may also be qualitative evidence available in terms of the frequency

or speed with which the communiqués are responded.

In the area of parent involvement within the school, which would be activities

such as the open house and classroom activities, the first task would be to measure levels

of parent involvement in numbers of hours volunteered prior to implementing any type of

program. In this case, that could be accomplished by looking at information obtained on

the parent and school forms, as comparing the information from the two forms would

provide a general idea of the amount of time volunteered in specific activities. Even more

simply, it could be possible to draw detailed attendance numbers from past open houses,

school plays, and other similar types of activities. If there are increases in these numbers

following implementation of the program, it is a suggestion that the encouragements of

the program had an impact. To further evaluate this, it may be necessary to do brief,

random interviews with parents who attended the event to learn their reasons for

attending the events. Teachers would also note parents who did not attend and make an

effort to contact those parents to let them know they were missed and inquire about what

prevented them from attending this event. This qualitative information can be compiled

in periodic reviews of the program to determine changes that may need to be made in the

future.

Also in the area of school events, it was noted in the program implementation

section that offering transportation assistance could provide incentives for attendance. To

determine the actual use of this, there would need to be a person responsible for tracking

who was given transportation assistance, then following up to see if those parents

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attended the events. Obviously, if parents are not utilizing this options, it would not be

feasible to continue incurring the cost of this offering.

When attention turns to activities that require more direct participation from the

parent, such as workshops, helping with homework, asking the child about their day, and

participating in community activities, it gets considerably more difficult to determine the

impact of involvement. Immediate ways to determine involvement would be to maintain

attendance records for caregivers who attend workshops and other learning activities. If

the parents are engaged in activities outside the school, an attendance form could still be

maintained, and a copy requested with an explanation that it is in an effort to determine

the impact of the school informing parents of their options. On another level, evaluation

of what parents learn from the workshops or programs would need to be obtained. One

way to accomplish this would be to ask for completion of a pre- and post-test.

It would need to be determined whether or not parents would need to identify themselves

on these forms. The advantage to completing tests anonymously would be that parents

would not need to worry about their performance, or feeling they would be judged as a

result of what they do. The advantage to gaining identifying information would be so

that their child’s performance would be followed over time to begin to get an idea of

whether or not the workshops may be changing what parents are doing with their

children.

In a more general sense, longitudinal information about academic performance

would be followed. Case study information would be interesting, as it would allow a

focus to follow the specific changes made in a given family, such as differences in

parental and child behavior, as well as academic performance of the child. Without the

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case study focus, longitudinal information can also be accrued with the hope of noting

any general trends, such as increases in the number of parent teacher contacts, increase in

the number of hours volunteered, and an increase in the number of hours spent engaged

in educational activities in the home and community. The questionnaires in Appendices

A and B would be among the more concrete measures to evaluate these types of

activities. Specifically, the questions about amounts of time volunteered can be averaged

from year to year to determine any increases in actual involvement. As a means of cross-

referencing information, a questionnaire for children (Appendix E) would also be

utilized. The questionnaire was developed to coincide with the Activities section of the

Parents questionnaire. If this option were employed, the forms to the parent and child

could be coded to know which ones are from the same family. This could accommodate

individual evaluation to assess the consistency of the child and parent reports.

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CHAPTER VII: SUMMARY, LIMITATIONS, FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The intention of this study is to begin evaluation of the perception of what is

included in parent involvement activities in one school with the goal of developing and

implementing strategies to improve parent involvement among the parents of that school.

The proposed program discussed here is a beginning step to start a process that would

allow for an evolving program to meet the changing needs of the school.

The information obtained from administrators indicated agreement that there is a

general need for increased involvement, both within the school, as well as within the

home environment. Specifically, both respondents agreed about desired increases in the

following activities:

• support tasks. • listen to children read in the classroom. • attendance at parent-teacher conferences. • coach in specific facts in the classroom. • caretaker helping other students with homework in the classroom. • caretaker disciplining behavior problems in the home. • caretaker participating in extra-curricular activities on evenings and

weekends. • practice vocabulary with non-English speaking students in the classroom. • attendance at school events.

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The respondents were also in agreement that general levels of participation

decline as children progress through school. Both noted moderate levels of involvement in

the school as a whole, as well as in grades one through three. However, they noted the

level of participation declines in grades four and five.

The only factor that both respondents agreed may facilitate parent involvement

was “Frequent contact with parents initiated by teachers/staff.” One respondent, however,

also felt the following factors may facilitate involvement:

• providing some incentive for participation. • providing flexible hours for in school involvement. • working with parents to encourage home involvement (providing

suggestions/guidance).

When asked about factors that may inhibit parent involvement, there was

agreement on the following two points:

• parents feeling uncomfortable/unwelcome in school.

• too many other family/work obligations.

Other factors endorsed, each by only one respondent, were:

• stressful work schedule.

• inadequate transportation.

• being unaware of participation/involvement opportunities.

The program proposed in this project requires that the school start with

developing a formal, written parent involvement plan, as this was an area that both

respondents indicated as a weakness. Though they reported efforts to increase

involvement, they acknowledged there is no plan that communicates common goals to

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teachers and parents. The plan calls for simple communication in multiple forms to try to

reach the largest population possible. The plan also calls for school based activities to be

offered at different times of the day to accommodate the largest number of parents, as

well as to look at ways to alter traditional activities, such as open houses. As the

respondents noted there is little current involvement of parents in decision making

processes for the school, this is also an area addressed in the proposed program. As tends

to be the case with most areas of involvement, the more a parent feels they are included

in the process, the more likely they will be to engage in activities within the home and

school.

Implementation of a parent resource center is another facet of the proposed

program. This would eventually allow for a set entity to be the point of contact for

parents. Since it would ideally be coordinated by a neutral party, that is not a teacher or

administrator, it would help parents feel more open to coming to seek information about

school activities, as well as their child’s development. Finally, and perhaps most

importantly, opportunities for parents to be involved in their home and in the community

would be communicated with the emphasis on the importance of this type of

involvement.

A primary limitation of this project is that the needs assessment was conducted

using input only from two administrators of one school. In an effort to further and better

define needs, future efforts would need to be focused on obtaining information from a

wider range of those involved in students’ education, such as teachers, parents, and

students.

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Another consideration in this project is that the intention is for this to be a case

study, with an intensive focus on implementing a plan to increase this particular school’s

level of involvement. Therefore, if there were a desire for the school board to implement

a more global plan for the school system, then an effort would need to be made to

broaden the discussions based on this school to seeking information from across the

county. This would allow the school district chose to pursue the option of implementing a

district-wide involvement plan.

Despite the limitations of this specific study, it serves as a starting point in an

effort to better define parent involvement and offers components of a plan that though

tailored to a specific school should easily be altered to fit the needs of other schools. As

discussed throughout this paper, practically defining parent involvement can be a

challenge, and must be the initial phase of implementing plans in schools seeking to do

so. Plans can be made with relative and simplicity to plans that are far more detailed and

labor intensive, depending on funding and needs of a school. This author hopes that

through this research, administrators, teachers, and parents can be moved to increase

levels of parent involvement with the ultimate goal of improving children’s outcomes.

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References

Anderson, K. J. & Minke, K. M. (2007). Parent involvement in education: Toward an understanding of parents' decision making. Journal of Educational Research, 100(5), 311-323. Baker, A. J, & Soden, L. M. (1998). The challenges of parent involvement research. New

York, NY: ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED419030)

Balli, S. (1998). When mom and dad help: Student reflections on parent involvement with homework. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 31(3), 142- 146. Blendinger, J. G. & Jones, L. T. (1992). Putting parent involvement to work. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt. Boutte, G., Keepler, D., Tyler, V, & Terry, B. (1992). Effective techniques for involving difficult parents. Young Children, 47(3), 19-22. Bruneau, B., Ruttan, D., & Dunlap, S.K. (1995). Communication between teachers and parents: Developing partnerships. Reading and Writing Quarterly: Overcoming learning difficulties, 11(3), 257-266. Burke, Daniel. (1997). Looping: Adding time, strengthening relationships. Retrieved

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education: efforts by public elementary schools. (Report No. NCES-98-032). Washington DC: National Center for Education Statistics. (ERIC Document Reproduction No. ED416027)

Chavkin, N. F. & Williams, Jr., D. L. (1989). Low-income parents’ attitudes toward parent involvement. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 16, 17–28. Christenson, Sandra L. & Hurley, Christine M (1997). Parents' and school psychologists' perspectives on parent involvement activities. School Psychology Review,26(1), 111-131. Clark, R. (1993). Family life and school achievement: Why poor Black children succeed and fail. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Comer, J. P. & Haynes, H. M. (1991). Parent involvement in schools: An ecological approach. Elementary School Journal, 91(3), 271-277.

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Doktor, J. E. & Poertner, J. (1996). Kentucky’s family resource centers: A community- based, school-linked services model. Remedial and Special Education, 17(5), 293-302. Epstein, J. L. (1986). Parents’ reactions to teacher practices of parent involvement. The Elementary School Journal, 86, 274-294. Epstein, J. L. (1987). Toward a theory of family-school connections: Teacher practices and parent involvement. In K. Hurrelmann, F. Kaufmann, & F. Losel (Eds.), Social intervention: Potential and constraints (pp. 121-136). New York: deGruyter. Epstein, J. L. & Dauber, S. L. (1991). School programs and teacher practices of parent involvement in inner-city elementary and middle schools. Elementary School Journal, 91(3), 289-305. Fager, J. & Brewster, C. (1999). Parent partners: Using parents to enhance education.

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Galinsky, E. (1988). Parent and teacher caregivers: Sources of tension, sources of support. Young Children, 43(3), 4-12. Gareau, M. & Sawatzky, D. (1995). Parents and schools working together: A qualitative study of parent-school collaboration. The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, Vol. XLI(4), 462-473.

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Greenwood, G. E. & Hickman, C. W. (1991). Research and practice in parent involvement: Implications for teacher education. Elementary School Journal, 91 (3), 279-289. Griffith, J. (1998). The relation of school structure and social environment to parent involvement in elementary schools. The Elementary School Journal, 99(1), 53-80. Hampton, F. M. & Mumford, D. A. (1998). Parent involvement in inner city schools. Urban Edcuation, 33(3), 410-428. Henderson, A. (1981). Parent participation-student achievement: The evidence grows.

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involvement. Retrieved February 19, 2008 from http://www.pta.org/archive_article_details_1141758347140.html

Powell, D. R. (1991). How schools support families: Critical policy tensions. Elementary School Journal, 91, 307-319. Pryor, C. (1995). Youth, parent, and teacher views of parent involvement in schools. Education, 115(3), p. 410 – 420. Pryor, C. & Church, B. (1995). Family-school partnerships for the 21st century. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 11, 297-303. Seefeldt, C., Denton, K., Galper, A., & Younoszai, T. (1998) Former head start parents' characteristics, perceptions of school climate, and involvement in their child’s education. Elementary School Journal, 98(4), 339-350. Sheldon, S. B. & Epstein, J. L. (2005). Involvement counts: Family and community partnerships and mathematics achievement. Journal of Educational Research, 98(4), 196-206. Singh, K., Bickley, P. G., Trivette, P., Keith, T. Z., Keith, P. B., & Anderson, E. (1995). The effects of four components of parental involvement on eighth-grade student achievement: Structural analysis of NELS-88 Data. School Psychology Review, 24(2), 299-317. Smith, E. P., Connell, C. M., Wright, G., Sizer, M., Norman, J. M., Hurley, A., & Walker, S. N. (1997). An ecological model of home, school, and community partnerships: Implications for research and practice. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 8(4), 339-360. Stallworth, J. T. & Willisams, Jr., D. L. (1983). Executive summary of the final report: A survey of school administrators and policy makers. From Parent Involvement in Education Project, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Division of Family, School and Community Studies: Austin, TX.

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friendly schools. Retrieved February 19, 2008, from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/ReachFam/oncom.html

United States Department of Education (1994). National education goals. Retrieved

February 19, 2008 from http://www.ed.gov/legislation/GOALS2000/TheAct/sec102.html

Waggoner, K & Griffith, A. (1998). Parent involvement in education: Ideology and experience. Journal for a Just and Caring Education, 4(1), 65-77. Winter, M. M. & McDonald, Danica (1997). Parents as Teachers: Investing in good beginnings for children. In G. Albee & T. Gullotta (Eds.), Primary Prevention Works (pp 119-145). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. Zellman, G. L. & Waterman, J. M. (1998). Understanding the impact of parent school involvement on children's educational outcomes. Journal of Educational Research. 91(6), 370-81. Ziglar, E. F., Finn-Stevenson, M, & Stern, B. M. (1997). Supporting children and families in the schools: The school of the 21st century. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 67(3), 396-407.

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Appendix A

Parent Letter and Form TO: Parents and Caregivers FROM: Concerned teachers and staff Since you are responsible for taking care of your student, you are being asked to complete the following survey. It is simply to get information about how you see your role in being involved in your child’s education. The information you give us will allow us to help you help your child. Please be honest. You are not being asked to provide your name, so there is no chance you will be connected with your answers. Please seal your survey in the envelope and return it to your child’s teacher, or to the front office staff.

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Parent Form Demographic Information

1. What is your relationship to the student? ______ Mother ______ Grandmother ______ Father ______ Grandfather ______ Other (please state how you are related to the child.) ____________________________________________

2. How long have you taken care of this student? __________years __________months 3. How many adults live in your home? ____________ 4. How many children live in your home? ___________ 5. How much money does your family bring in each month? (please include ALL income and remember we have no way of

knowing who this form belongs to): ____ less than $10,000 ____ $25,001 – 30,000 ____ $10,001 – 15,000 ____ $30,001 – 35,000 ____ $15,001 – 20,000 ____ $35,001 – 40,000 ____ $20,001 – 25,000 ____ more than $40,001

6. Please indicate your family’s ethnicity: ____ Caucasian ____ American Indian ____ African-American ____ Asian-American ____ Latino ____ Other (please say what you consider yourself) _______________

Activities 7. Please list the amount of time you might be able to be involved in these activities each month Time Activity ______ Listen to children read in the classroom ______ Attendance at parent-teacher conferences ______ Coach in specific facts (spelling, math, etc.) ______ Caretaker helping with homework ______ Caretaker disciplining behavior problems ______ Attendance at school events (plays, seminars, etc) ______ Practice vocabulary with non-English speaking students ______ Caretaker participating in extra-curricular activities (museums, community events, etc.) ______ Support tasks (gather resources, set up centers, arrange field trips, record tapes for learning centers, etc.) ______ Help organizing/supervising students before and after school (as they come off the bus, in the cafeteria, etc.) Please list all other activities you do with your child that are related to learning that are not included here, and the amount of time you spend doing each. Examples might be reading to your child, listening to your child read, letting your child help you with grocery shopping, etc. ______ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ______ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ______ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 8. Are you satisfied with your level of involvement in your student’s education? _____ Yes _____ No 9. If you are not happy with the amount of time you spend involved at home and/or at school, do you want to raise or lower your amount of involvement? _____ Raise the amount of time by ____________ hours and/or ____________ minutes _____ Lower the amount of time by ___________ hours and/or _____________ minutes 10. If you would like to increase the amount of time you are involved, what else would you like to do and how much time would you like to spend doing it? ______ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ______ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ______ ____________________________________________________________________________________ 11. What, if anything, could happen to help you do these things? (Please check or add all that apply) ____ Increased invitations to help in the classroom by school workers ____ Help with transportation ____ Help with child care ____ School to offer some reward or benefit for my participation ____ School to provide more information about opportunities in the school ____ School to provide more information about things I can do at home ____ Other things not mentioned here, such as ______________________________________________________

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School Resources 12. How have you learned of opportunities for involvement in the past? _____ Letter from school _____ Meeting with your student’s teacher/s _____ Meeting with your student’s principal or counselor _____ From your Student _____ From another parent _____ Other _________________________________ 13. Have you ever responded to these opportunities with participation? _____ Yes _____ No If yes, what have you done? _____ Financial counseling _____ Child care _____ Family counseling _____ Individual counseling for child _____ Individual counseling for caregiver _____ Transportation _____ Holiday help _____ Support groups _____ Workshops. Which ones? __________________________________________________________________ _____ Other services? __________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 15. What things have you done that are not listed here?___________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 16. Has the school offered any assistance that allowed you to particpate? _____ Financial counseling _____ Child care _____ Family counseling _____ Individual counseling for child _____ Individual counseling for caregiver _____ Transportation _____ Holiday help _____ Support groups _____ Workshops. Which ones? __________________________________________________________________ _____ Other services? __________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ 17. Has your student’s teacher done anything that makes it easier for you to be involved with your student? _____ Yes _____ No 18. If yes, what things has he or she done to encourage or allow this? ________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ________________________________________ ______________________________________________ 19. What things, if any, make it difficult for you to be involved in your student’s education? _____ I feel uncomfortable/unwelcome in school _____ Stressful/busy work schedule _____Too many other family/work obligations _____ Hard to get there _____ I don’t know what I can do _____ I don’t think I know enough to help _____ I have other children I can’t leave _____ Student’s teacher doesn’t think I’m important _____ Other problems ________________________ ____________________________________________ __________________________________________ ____________________________________________ 20. Are you satisfied with the efforts your child’s school has made to let you be involved? _____ Yes _____ No 21. If you were not satisfied, what could have made your experience better? ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________

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PLEASE HELP US HELP YOU

The time you have spent completing this form will be very helpful to us, and we thank you for doing it. In an effort to improve our communication in this new program, please answer the following questions about this form.

What could we have done to make this form easier? _________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

What questions, if any, were difficult for you to answer? _______________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have information about parent involvement you would like for us to know, but we didn’t ask? ____________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

If yes, please tell us now. _______________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________

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Appendix B

School Letter and Form

TO: School Staff FROM: Parent Involvement Policy Review Board You are being asked to complete the following survey. It is simply to get information about how you see your role in being involved in your students’ education, as well as the role you see parents playing. The information you give us will allow us to help you help your students. Please be honest. You are not being asked to provide your name, so there is no chance you will be connected with your answers. Please seal your survey in the envelope and return it to [designated location, such as folder in Parent Resource Center].

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DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION 1. Position/Title of Interviewee

______ Administrative (principal, asst. principal, psychologist) ______ Teacher ______ Teacher’s assistant

2. How long have you held this role? __________ 3. Teachers, what grade do you teach? ___________ 4. Principals, how many students are in your school? ____________ How many teachers? ____________ Assistants? ____________ Student-teacher ratio? ____________ Teachers, how many students are in your class(es)? ____________ 5. Can you provide a demographic break-down of the students in your school/class, i.e. what percentage of students fit each category? Race/Ethnicity: _____ White _____ Latino _____ African American _____ Hawaiian/Pacific Islander _____ American Indian/Alaskan Native _____ Two or more races _____ Asian _____ Other Family Income: _____ Less than $20,000 _____ $60,000 - $69,999 _____ $20,000 - $29,999 _____ $70,000 - $79,999 _____ $30,000 - $39,999 _____ $80,000 - $89,999 _____ $40,000 - $49,999 _____ $90,000 - $99,999 _____ $50,000 - $59,999 _____ $100,000 or more

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PARENT INVOLVEMENT ACTIVITIES

6. Which of the following activities would you estimate currently have the most parent time put to them? Which of the following activities would you desire to see have the most parent time put to them?

4=a lot of time 3=some time 2=not much time 1=no time Current Desired ______ ______ Support tasks (gather resources, set up centers, arrange field trips, record tapes for learning centers, etc.) ______ ______ Listen to children read in the classroom ______ ______ Attendance at parent-teacher conferences ______ ______ Coach in specific facts in the classroom (spelling, math, etc.) ______ ______ Coach in specific facts in the home (spelling, math, etc.) ______ ______ Caretaker helping their own child with homework in the home ______ ______ Caretaker helping other students with homework in the classroom ______ ______ Caretaker disciplining behavior problems in the home ______ ______ Caretaker participating in extra-curricular activities on evenings and weekends (museums, community events, etc.) ______ ______ Practice vocabulary with non-English speaking students in the classroom ______ ______ Attendance at school events (concerts, plays, seminars, etc.) ______ ______ Help organizing/supervising students before and after school (as they come off the bus, in the cafeteria, etc.) 7. What activities are not included on this list in which you would like to see parents involved? a. ____________________________________________________________________________________ b. ____________________________________________________________________________________ c. ____________________________________________________________________________________ d. ____________________________________________________________________________________ 8. What do you feel is important about these activities? a. ____________________________________________________________________________________ b. ____________________________________________________________________________________ c. ____________________________________________________________________________________ d. ____________________________________________________________________________________ 9. How would you currently rate the level of parent involvement in your school?

(percentage of caretakers involved) (Teachers, please use the “school” column to rate the level of parent involvement in your class.)

School Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 High (90% or more) ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ Relatively high (70% -89%) ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ Moderate (40% - 69%) ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ Relatively low (20% - 39%) ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ Low (0 – 19%) ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______

10. Principal: To the best of your knowledge, what is the approximate number of hours volunteered to the school, per month, by caretakers?__________ 11. Teachers: Please estimate the amount of time parents give directly to your classroom. ___________ 12. Do you find this level of involvement to be satisfactory? ______Yes ______No 13. If no, why not? __________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________

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14. If no, would you like to see it increase or decrease? ______Increase ______Decrease 15. Do you have a written policy on parent involvement? ______Yes ______No (Teachers, if the school has a policy, do you have any supplements you use?) If yes, please attach a copy to this survey. 16. If you have noticed more involvement from parents, what activities have served to initiate that involvement? ___________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ 17. Do you feel your parent involvement plan could be adjusted to optimize parent involvement, either in the classroom, in the school, or in the home? In what ways? _________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ 18. Have you implemented any efforts, as a teacher/administrator, to increase parent involvement? ______Yes ______No 19. If yes, what have those been?______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ 20. Are parents permitted to come to school without notice to the teacher or administration to: Observe their child in the classroom or other activities? ______Yes ______No Have lunch with their child? ______Yes ______No

FACTORS INFLUENCING INVOLVEMENT 21. In your experience, what factors facilitate parent involvement? ______ Frequent contact with parents initiated by teacher/staff ______ Providing child care for other children in the family ______ Providing transportation for parents ______ Providing some incentive for participation ______ Providing flexible hours for in school involvement ______ Working with parents to encourage home involvement (providing suggestions/guidance) If you provide transportation for parents, how is this accomplished? ________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ If you provide incentives for participation, what do these include? __________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ 22. Are there other factors you have seen or feel are important? ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ 23. In your experience, what factors inhibit parent involvement? ______ Parents feeling uncomfortable/unwelcome in school ______ Stressful work schedule ______ Too many other family/work obligations ______ Inadequate transportation ______ Being unaware of participation/involvement opportunities If you feel lack of awareness of opportunities is an issue, how do you try to communicate these to parents? ______________________________________________________________

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24. Are there other factors you have seen or feel inhibit parent involvement? ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ 25. Do you feel your efforts to involve parents are successful? ______Yes ______No 26. Why or why not?_________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________

27. Do you feel your parent involvement plan facilitates communication between you and parents? ______Yes ______No 28. How consistently do you feel they enforce or follow-up those objectives? i.e., is parent involvement a priority

given so many other priorities? ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ 29. Do you have any additional thoughts or comments regarding parent involvement that have not been

addressed? ____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________

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Appendix C

Open House Advertisement

What: In addition to our annual Open House, we are also offering a chance for you to help your student out. They have been given poster board for you to work with them on creating a poster about what you expect for the school year.

When: August 28 Time: We are hoping to have everyone involved, so we

will open our doors for you to bring your poster and visit our campus at the following times:

7:30 – 9:30 11:00 – 1:00 5:30 - 7:30 Where: Please check in at the front office to be directed

to your child’s class. How: If getting to the school will be hard for you, please

contact the office at 555-1234 for help with this.

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Appendix D

Homework Information Bulletin

Homework Help As your child’s teacher this year, I wanted to send this to you to help you understand homework. I know this is not a favorite part of most student’s (or parent’s) lives, but it is something that we have to do. Reason: There are a lot of reasons for homework. The main one is to help the students learn the concepts we are discussing in the class. With your input, homework can also help your child think about the information in different ways. Of course, it is also important for students to learn the importance of working individually. So, it is important for you to support and encourage your child if they are having trouble, but please make sure they are the ones completing their work. When: Most of the time, you can expect your child to have the following homework schedule: Monday: spelling and reading Tuesday: math Wednesday: science or social studies Thursday: reading and language skills Friday: no homework – Have a great weekend (Though there is no official homework on Fridays, the weekends are often a good time to find free or low cost activities you can do with your kids) Grades: Most of the time, homework will be graded and the grades recorded as part of the child’s overall grade in each subject. Points for simply completing the homework will also be given. Missed assignments: Any homework missed when the child has an excused absence can be made up within 1 week of returning from school. If there are planned absences, you can also get the assignments up to one week prior to the missed classes. Homework Log: With this information you will find a sample homework log, as well as a form that might help you plan homework time for your child. The homework log needs to be returned to me on Wednesdays and Fridays with your initials.

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Homework Assignment Log Student’s Name ___________________ Week_________ Subject Assignment Date

Due Teacher’s Initials

Parent’s Initials

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Homework Planning Schedule

Use this schedule to outline all of your child’s evening activities, including tv time, social activities, dinner, and family time. Don’t forget to make homework part of the routine.

Monday 3:00 _____________________________________ 4:00 _____________________________________ 5:00 _____________________________________ 6:00 _____________________________________ 7:00 _____________________________________ 8:00 _____________________________________ 9:00 _____________________________________

Tuesday 3:00 _____________________________________ 4:00 _____________________________________ 5:00 _____________________________________ 6:00 _____________________________________ 7:00 _____________________________________ 8:00 _____________________________________ 9:00 _____________________________________

Wednesday 3:00 _____________________________________ 4:00 _____________________________________ 5:00 _____________________________________ 6:00 _____________________________________ 7:00 _____________________________________ 8:00 _____________________________________ 9:00 _____________________________________

Thursday 3:00 _____________________________________ 4:00 _____________________________________ 5:00 _____________________________________ 6:00 _____________________________________ 7:00 _____________________________________ 8:00 _____________________________________ 9:00 _____________________________________

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For Friday through Sunday, make a plan for the weekend. Don’t forget about fun reading or doing art projects with your child. Friday Plan

Saturday Plan

Sunday Plan

It is important for you and your child to sign this and put it some place it can easily be seen on a daily basis to remind you both of the schedule.

________________________________ _____________________________________ Child’s Signature Parent’s Signature

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Appendix E

Student Letter and Form

TO: Students

FROM: Concerned teachers and staff

You are being asked to answer the questions on the next page. We are using it to get information about the kinds of things you and your parents do together. Please tell us the truth. No one will be able to know who completed what pages, so your teachers and parents will not know what your answers are.

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Student Form Demographic Information

1. Do you live with your: ___ parents (mother, father, or both) ___ grandparents (grandmother, grandfather, or both) ___ other family members ___ foster family 2. How long have you been living with the person who is taking care of you now? __________years

__________months 3. How many adults live in your home? ____________ 4. How many children live in your home? ___________

Activities 5. In the last month, has your caregiver done any of the following? Please check any of the things you have done together. ______ Visited your classroom ______ Helped you with homework ______ Punished you for doing something you weren’t supposed to do ______ Attended a school events (plays, seminars, etc) ______ Practiced vocabulary or spelling words with you ______ Taken you to the museum or other community events, such as plays, fairs, festivals ______ Helped your teacher, or other people at school ______ Helped with getting everyone where they need to go at school (bus, cafeteria) ______ Attended parent-teacher conferences ______ Helped you with your homework Please list other things your parents do with you. It might be things like reading to you, listening to you read, letting you help with grocery shopping, or cooking. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Would you like for your parents to do more to help you with your school work, whether it is at home or at school? _____ Yes _____ No 7. If you would like for them to do more, what could they do to help you? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________

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APPENDIX F Ethics Committee Letter

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BIOGRAPHY

Nichole Heidelbach earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of

West Florida where she graduated in 1994. She then began her coursework for her Master’s

Degree at the University of South Alabama, and graduated in 1996. In the same year, Mrs.

Heidelbach began her work toward a doctorate at Spalding University. After completing her

internship in Gainesville, Florida, she worked as a therapist in a community mental health

facility in Clarksville, Tennessee. This dissertation is the culmination of Mrs. Heidelbach’s

work.