Using Technology to Increase Parent Involvement in Schools

The importance of parent involvement in Parents who monitor their student’s schoolwork and daily activities, communicate frequently with teachers and help develop schools and its relationship to student achievement have been widely studied. Nevertheless, many principals and teachers report that lack of parent involvement continues to be an obstacle to increasing student achievement at school. The purpose of this study was to determine whether emerging technologies facilitate better parent-teacher communication and parent involvement. Data were collected through surveys and semi-structured focus group interviews to analyze the relationship between parents’ and teachers’ perceptions of student achievement when electronic communications are used between parents and school. The study revealed that parents and teachers both place a high value on proactive parent involvement. Because proactive involvement does not require parents to be physically at their children’s school, the question of how technology can be used to keep parents involved in their children’s academic lives becomes important. As access to technology continues to expand, the capabilities for connecting parents to schools will continue to grow. As schools invest in websites, phone calling systems, parent portals, online curriculum, and other types of technologies that connect schools to home, research needs to continue to focus on the effectiveness of these technologies to increase parent involvement.     

Homework in the Home: How Student, Family, and Parenting-Style Differences Relate to the Homework Process

Parents (n = 709) were surveyed about involvement in their child's homework. A factor analysis revealed three dimensions of homework involvement similar to those found in more general studies of parenting style. These dimensions are autonomy support, direct involvement, and elimination of distractions. A fourth dimension, parental interference, differentiated itself from autonomy support for students in higher grades. Two-thirds of parents reported some negative or inappropriate form of involvement. Parenting style for homework was then related to student and family characteristics and student schooling outcomes. Results indicated parents with students in higher grade levels reported giving students more homework autonomy and less involvement of all other types. Parents in poorer families reported less support for autonomy and more interference. Parents reported less elimination of distractions when an adult was not at home after school and, for elementary school students, when there were more than one child living in the home. Elementary school parents of males reported more direct involvement in homework, while high school parents of females reported more direct involvement. More parental support for autonomy was associated with higher standardized test scores, higher class grades, and more homework completed. More positive parent involvement was associated with lower test scores and lower class grades, especially for elementary school students. Student attitudes toward homework were unrelated to parenting style for homework. Stage–environment fit theory and conceptions of families as varying in resources to support children are used to explain the findings and draw implications for parent behavior and educational practice.     

Multiple Predictors of Asian American Children's School Achievement

Research Findings: A structural equation model (SEM) and multiple indicators and multiple causes (MIMIC) model were used to test family factors, parent psychological well-being, parent–child home activity, and parent school involvement in relation to children's school achievement. Data for this study were drawn from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten (ECLS-K), conducted by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The sample for this study was 1,100 Asian American kindergartners and their parents. Practice or Policy: The results of this study are as follows: (a) Family factors, especially parental education levels and family income, were significantly associated with Asian American students' school achievement; (b) parent–child home activity was significantly related to students' school achievement but in a negative direction; (c) parental school involvement was not found to be significant in predicting students' school achievement; (d) parental psychological well-being was significantly associated with both parent–child home activity and students' school achievement; (e) family income was significantly associated with parental psychological well-being, parental school involvement, and children's school achievement; and (f) family structure was not significantly associated with school achievement.     

New Zealand students' perceptions of parental involvement in learning and schooling

This study investigated the relation between multidimensional aspects of high school students' perceptions of their parental involvement and their achievement. It explored differences in socio-economic backgrounds, ethnicity, gender, and higher and lower achieving students, and a structural model was developed to further investigate these relations. A parental involvement questionnaire and measures of efficacy, liking and achievement in mathematics and reading were administered to a sample of 1,554 New Zealand high school students from 59 schools. In the view of students, there is support for parents to be talking to their children about learning and schooling and having high expectations of them and their future in learning, especially for lower achieving students. Students who claim that their parents are talking with their teachers or attending school meetings are more likely to have lower achievement. The implications from this study relate to developing student self-regulation for learning in home, providing more surface than deeper learning as homework, and assisting parents to learn the language of learning and schooling.     

The relationship of school-based parental involvement with student achievement: a comparison of principal and parent survey reports from PISA 2012

This paper explores parental involvement using principal and parent survey reports to examine whether parents’ involvement in their children’s schools predicts academic achievement. Survey data from principals and parents of seven countries from the PISA 2012 database and hierarchical linear modelling were used to analyse between- and within- school variance in students’ math achievement. Factor analysis of both principal and parent responses revealed three dimensions of parental involvement with schools: parent-initiated involvement, teacher-initiated involvement and parent volunteerism. Principal reports of parent-initiated involvement positively predicted between-school differences in student achievement. Within schools, parent reports of teacher-initiated involvement negatively predicted student achievement. The paper shows the importance of understanding the source of information for survey measures. Information on parental involvement from the parent surveys of the PISA study is suitable for describing within-school variation in student achievement, whereas principal reports can be used to predict variation between schools.     

The Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters Program's Relationship with Mother and School Outcomes

Research Findings: This study investigated the relationship of the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program to mothers' involvement in education at home and school, student school readiness in kindergarten, and student academic outcomes at 3rd grade. HIPPY serves a mostly minority, low-income family population and employs home visitors that are mostly female and Spanish speaking. Using a within-group analysis, we found that HIPPY mothers increased educational activities in their home with their children after 1 year of home-based intervention. The majority (84.8%) of HIPPY kindergartners were rated as “ready for school” by their kindergarten teachers according to a within-group analysis. In addition, between-group analyses showed that HIPPY kindergartners had higher attendance rates, higher prekindergarten enrollment, and higher promotion to 1st grade compared to other kindergartners in the school district. HIPPY 3rd graders scored significantly higher on a state-mandated math achievement test than their matched peers. Practice or Policy: The results suggest that HIPPY had a positive relationship with families and schools through improved parent involvement and student school outcomes.     

Technology Programs...for All or for Some?

The 1990s have been a decade of great spending and great introspection, particularly when it comes to educational allocations. Citizens, corporations, and public officials are becoming increasingly inquisitive about where their money is going and if the dollars spent are making a difference. For 5 years, the multimillion-dollar Delaware Technology Innovation Challenge project has implemented Lightspan^TM educational software in the classrooms and homes of elementary school students. Program goals are to increase parent involvement, generate more time for learning, and improve student achievement. On the surface, the program seems to have met its goals. Parents report being more involved in their child's education. Students and parents describe the time spent on the software at home as not replacing traditional homework, but rather television watching. And, student achievement in both reading and mathematics has increased at rates higher than would be expected. However, a closer examination of evaluation results reveals the program has worked best for lower achieving students; students who scored below the 50th percentile in fall testing had much greater achievement gains than their higher scoring peers. This paper investigates whether evaluation findings are reflective of the program's implementation or rather reveal a limitation of the technology.     

Does it matter who your schoolmates are? An investigation of the association between school composition,school processes and mathematics achievement in the early years of primary education

Although many studies have focused on the importance of school composition for student achievement, there is still no consensus on whether school composition matters to student achievement, and, if so, why. Therefore, the present study investigates the association between school composition and mathematics achievement at the end of second grade in Flanders. International research points to the initial ability level, SES, ethnicity and sex composition of the school as potential variables in explaining differences in student achievement. Moreover, some researchers suggest that schools ‘react’ to their student body and for that reason we investigated the possible association between school composition and school processes. Data from the SiBO Project have been analyzed using multilevel regression and multilevel mediation analysis. The results showed no direct school composition effects with respect to prior achievement, SES, ethnicity and sex on math achievement. We found two small differential effects, indicating that mean school prior achievement seems to positively affect initially high achievers, and the proportion of minority students in school seems to negatively affect students speaking a non‐European language except for Turkish, Arabic or Berber at home. Furthermore, two small indirect effects were found which suggest that schools with a high mean prior achievement or a high mean SES keep in regular contact with their students' parents and this, in turn, appears to enhance students' math achievement. Overall, our results seem to indicate that school composition in the early years of primary education hardly matters.     

Effective Schools and Home‐School‐Community Partnership Roles: A Framework for Parent Involvement

The increased interest in parent involvement as a strategy for school reform stems from two bodies of parent involvement research. One set of studies examined family learning environments; the other investigated the impact on student learning of school‐initiated parent involvement programs. This article reviews these two bodies of research, which have influenced current discussions about home‐school partnerships, shows the relationship between practices of successful home‐learning environments and effective schools research, and uses this relationship to propose a typology of home‐school‐community partnership roles and activities. When the research on effective family practices is combined with effective schools research and placed within a typology of partnership roles, schools have a framework for examining current parent involvement practices and exploring strategies that will enhance student learning both at home and at school.

     

Having Fun Doing Math: Text Messages Promoting Parent Involvement Increased Student Learning

There is a consensus that family involvement is key to academic achievement. However, it is often difficult to keep parents involved, particularly when they lack the time or academic knowledge. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact on achievement in mathematics among adolescent children when involving parents from low-income communities in the learning process. This involvement is achieved through activities that do not include any formal curricular content. A randomly selected group of parents was nudged, via text message (SMS), to complete short and simple weekly activities with their children. The teacher then connected these activities to the curricular content in class. The results reveal that, on average, the intervention increased the students’ math grade point average (GPA) by 0.488 standard deviations (p?相似文献   

Flipped learning and parent engagement in secondary schools: A South Australian case study

Parent involvement in and engagement with children’s learning has been shown to strongly influence student achievement, engagement, motivation and school completion. However, parent involvement decreases once students reach middle school, as subject content gets harder, the number of teachers increases, and students are less likely to share their homework and learning with parents. To this end, the flipped learning (FL) approach has received growing attention, with evidence of improved higher order thinking and collaborative skills and increased transparency for parents. This paper explores school leader, parent, student and teacher perceptions of the FL approach, through the lens of a 1-year case study of two rural South Australian schools, in order to uncover how the approach affects parent engagement. Findings reveal that, whilst stakeholders feel that the flipped approach is beneficial for absent students, to reinforce content and increase student responsibility, it has not yet improved transparency for parents, with a disconnect between what schools think parents know and are engaging in, and the actual level of parent engagement in student learning. Recommendations for schools implementing the FL approach are provided against a bioecological model, adapted for this study.     

Discourses of the good parent in attributing school success

Recent education policy places a heavy emphasis on parents in relation to students' success at school. This paper explores how parents and teachers account for school success. Using membership categorisation analysis, it interrogates data collected in different interview situations across sites over a period of 20 years. The analysis shows how parents and teachers use talk as moral work to conversationally constitute particular agreed versions of the category ‘parent’. This category is interactively assembled through the use of category-bound attributes that construct deficit discourses of parents that explain student achievement. The analysis demonstrates that parents are complicit with teachers in producing versions of being a good parent wherein they are held responsible for their children's school success and that minimises the responsibility of the school. These findings raise questions both about who is responsible for schooling and about current contradictory policy emphases on parent and teacher responsibility for school success.     

Social capital and student achievement in Norwegian secondary schools

This paper investigates student social capital in Norwegian secondary schools and its effects on student achievement. Using data from the national survey ‘Young in Norway 2002’, it explores the concept and measurement of social capital in the school context by applying factor analysis. The paper also tests an analytical model that links student home background, social capital at school and student academic achievement, using a structural modelling technique. Control variables in the analysis are student age, gender, school size and home community. Testing the analytical model with female and male student subgroup data takes gender perspectives into consideration. Finally, statistical results are presented and discussed, and implications for further research are provided. The study finds that student social capital, generated from student social relations with parents, teachers and peers, has a significant influence on student achievement.     

Determinants of Grade 8 Achievement in Jordan: a multilevel analysis approach

Although a large body of research exists on students achievement and school effectiveness, recent studies have pointed to major methodological drawbacks associated with research in this field. In the present study, an attempt was made to overcome some of these drawbacks by utilising a hierarchical linear modelling strategy. Applying this procedure on four data sets of 2918 Grade 8 students, 2918 parents, 344 teachers and 152 school principals simultaneously, the findings revealed that the variation in achievement within schools is more than five times as high as the variation between schools (84% compared to 16%). That is, school‐level variables are far less important in affecting academic achievement than student‐level variables. Students background variables included in the model (gender, father education, mother education, home possessions and number of siblings) accounted for 12% of the total variability in students’ achievement.     

Pupil participation and the home–school relationship

Schools are required to develop policies and practices in line with the principles of both partnership with parents and pupil participation. However, there is increasing recognition of the potential tensions that may exist between these two principles. This paper reports on a study that aimed to explore the question of how schools might develop their home–school relationships in ways that enhance rather than constrain pupil participation. It focuses on the perspectives of children aged 6 to 16 years (with and without special educational needs), parents and teachers concerning children's involvement in decision-making at home and at school, and their participation within the home–school relationship. The findings highlight the need for schools to develop a coherent view of what active participation means for children and a vocabulary to communicate about this not only with pupils and staff across the whole school, but also with parents. They demonstrate that there is scope for two-way support between parents and teachers in relation to the promotion of children's involvement in decision-making both at home and at school. Further, they illustrate the complex and evolving three-way partnership between parent–child–teacher that is central to the home–school relationship. While it is acknowledged that children may rightly wish to keep a distance between aspects of home and school life, it is argued that there is a need for schools to give explicit consideration to the place of pupil participation within the home–school relationship.     

Causal Attributions and Reading Achievement: Individual Differences in Low-Income Families

In this study the development of causal attributions about reading within low-income families was examined. Specifically, relations between children's reading achievement and their causal attributions were investigated as well as relations between the children's attributions about themselves and their parents’ attributions about them. A total 513 students from Grades 3, 6, and 9, and one parent of each student, all from low-income families, participated. Students and parents independently rated the importance of seven causal variables (effort, intellectual ability, liking for reading, the teacher, help at home, difficulty of reading material, and luck) for the students’ good and poor reading outcomes. The major findings were that (a) at each grade, students’ attributions were reliably related to their reading achievement on the Gates–MacGinitie reading comprehension test, with attributions to ability, liking for reading, and help at home especially critical; (b) at each grade, parent attributions were reliably associated with student attributions; and (c) as students’ grade in school increased, they focused more on themselves and less on others as causal determinants of their reading performance. The implications of these findings for research and education are discussed.     

Parent involvement: perceptions of recent immigrant parents in a suburban school district,Minnesota

The study aimed to examine the perceptions of immigrant parents regarding their school’s efforts to encourage three types of parent involvement: Parenting, Communicating, and Learning at Home. The sample includes 106 immigrant parents with children who were enrolled in English Language Learners programmes at 10 schools in a suburban school district in Minnesota, USA. The results showed that depending on their ethnicities, the children’s school levels and the father’s educational level, the perceptions of the parents were significantly different in terms of the “Parenting” and “Learning at Home” involvement types. Mother’s educational level was significantly correlated to the languages used at home and to their children’s academic achievement in English. Results indicated that schools should consider ethnic backgrounds and educational levels of parents, and languages used at home to instil as collaborations between immigrant parents and schools.     

Ambivalent relations: the ‘tricky footwork’ of parental involvement in school communities

Parental involvement in schools, generally seen to be a good thing, is now closely linked through policy to the educational achievement of their children. In this Victorian case study, teacher and parent responses to policies advocating parental involvement are examined. It explores the intersections of gender and class in the context of changing home/school relationships characterised by policies and processes of institutionalisation, familialisation and individualisation that are shaping parental involvement. It suggests that the current discursive construction of parent/school relationships around partnerships for student learning fail to recognise the complexity of parent/teacher relations and its gendered nature. Feminist critical policy analysis framed by the sociology of the family inform our understandings of the ways changing discourses and practices currently are informing parental involvement in a culturally and socio‐economically diverse school.     

Engaging with parents: the relationship between school engagement efforts,social class,and learning

Using data from the U.S. Department of Education's (2000) Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998–99 (ECLS-K), this study investigates the relationship between school efforts to engage parents, average socioeconomic status (SES) of families within a school, and kindergarteners' end-of-year reading and mathematics achievement. Drawing from Epstein's (2001 Epstein, J.L. 2001. School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools, Boulder, CO: Westview Press.  [Google Scholar]) parent involvement framework, the 4 types of engagement efforts explored are intended to promote communication, parent volunteering, parent influence in school decision making, and parenting skills. We apply multilevel methods to explore the impact of schools' efforts to engage parents on student achievement. Our findings indicate certain types of school efforts to engage parents influence achievement. Depending on average school SES, efforts to promote volunteering has a differential impact on reading achievement, efforts to involve parents in school decision making has a differential impact on mathematics achievement, and efforts to increase communication and promote parenting skills have a differential impact on reading and mathematics achievement.     

Some effects of parent involvement in schools

This study examines the interrelationships among components of parent involvement at schools and investigates their effects on school outcomes. The study used data collected during an evaluation of California's Early Childhood Education Program. Varinbles included socioeconomic status, the frequency of school-parent communications, parent awareness of school events, amount of parent involvement at the school, parent influence in school decision making, the nature of parent-teacher relationships, parent satisfaction with the school, and student achievement in reading and mathematics. The results indicated that there are positive effects associated with parent involvement at schools, and the interrelationships between the endogenous variables suggested ways in which such benefits may be maximized.