Child Temperament and Home-Based Parent Involvement at Kindergarten Entry: Evidence From a Low-Income,Urban Sample

Research Findings: Home-based involvement—defined as the actions parents take to promote children’s learning outside of school—is often the most efficient way for low-income parents to be involved with their children’s education. However, there is limited research examining the factors predicting home-based involvement at kindergarten entry for low-income families. This is a notable oversight given established links between parent involvement and children’s educational outcomes. To learn more about this gap, we used data from 220 low-income, urban students to examine associations between 4 dimensions of child temperament—negative reactivity, task persistence, withdrawal/shyness, and motor activity—and home-based parent involvement. Parent–child conflict was also examined as a mechanism explaining associations between dimensions of child temperament and parent involvement. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that a withdrawn/shy temperament in children predicted lower levels of home-based parent involvement, whereas a task-persistent temperament predicted higher levels of home-based parent involvement. Parent–child conflict partially mediated the relationship between task persistence and home-based parent involvement. Practice or Policy: Results expand understanding of home-based involvement at kindergarten entry in low-income families and illuminate the need to consider child temperament within the context of early intervention programs.     

A Quantitative Study of Head Start Children’s Strengths,Families’ Perspectives,and Teachers’ Ratings in the Transition to Kindergarten

This study examined the association between preschool children’s social-interpersonal skills and their transition to school in the beginning months of kindergarten. One hundred and thirty-three preschool children participated in this study. During the spring of the pre-kindergarten year, children’s social-interpersonal skills were assessed as well as rated by teachers. In the follow-up year, parents/guardians and teachers reported on children’s adjustment to kindergarten. The results of this study found no association between parents’/guardians’ and teachers’ reports of children’s adjustment and readiness in kindergarten. Children’s social-interpersonal skills were negatively associated with teachers’ reports of children’s kindergarten readiness difficulties. The findings of this study indicate that children’s early social skills, developed prior to entering kindergarten, are important for children’s readiness for school.     

Pathways to Parental Engagement: Contributions of Parents,Teachers, and Schools in Cultural Context

Research Findings: This study examined correlates of parents’ reported school engagement in an ethnically diverse, rural sample (N = 346) of parents and teachers in kindergarten through Grade 2. Of particular interest were role expectations and family–school relationships in American Indian families, who historically have been marginalized by schools. In terms of role expectations, parents and teachers agreed that they should support each other’s roles, parents should have more responsibility than schools for teaching social skills, and families and schools should have shared responsibility for children’s academic success. Teachers had higher expectations than parents for parent engagement, which in turn was greater when parent–teacher communication was more frequent and the school climate was more welcoming. American Indian parents more strongly endorsed a separation of family and school roles and felt less welcomed at school; ethnicity moderated correlates of reported parent engagement. Practice or Policy: These findings have practical promise given that parent–teacher communication, school climate, and role expectations are more easily altered than are structural barriers that also may hinder parents’ involvement in supporting their children’s early education.     

Parent Satisfaction with Educational Experiences scale: A multivariate examination of parent satisfaction with early childhood education programs

The study investigated a scale developed to measure parents’ satisfaction with experiences of various aspects of their child's early education program. The Parent Satisfaction with Educational Experiences (PSEE) scale was co-constructed with parents and teachers in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade programs in a large urban school district. Demographic and PSEE data were collected from a representative sample of 648 parents. Factor analyses yielded three dimensions of parent satisfaction with teacher contact experiences, classroom contact experiences, and school contact experiences. Multivariate analyses showed that parents with children in Head Start or kindergarten were more satisfied in all three dimensions than were parents of children in child care or first grade. Married parents were more satisfied with their teacher contact than were single parents and parents who were not employed full-time were more satisfied with their contact across all three dimensions than were parents who were employed full-time. Implications for fostering parent involvement were discussed.     

Including children with selective mutism in mainstream schools and kindergartens: problems and possibilities

There is little research on inclusion of children with selective mutism in school/kindergarten. Moreover, few studies have tried to understand selectively mute children’s interactions in the natural surroundings of their home and school/kindergarten. Five children meeting the DSM‐IV criteria for selective mutism were video‐observed in social interactions in kindergarten/school and at home. Their parents and the staff in kindergarten/school took part in semi‐structured interviews. Themes arising from the data were: (1) assessment by the school/kindergarten; (2) interactions in the classroom/kindergarten: inadvertent maintenance of mute behaviour; (3) interactions in the classroom/kindergarten: overcoming selective mutism; (4) school/kindergarten contacts with parents; and (5) tensions in cooperation between home and kindergarten/school. Kindergartens/schools that succeeded in including children with selective mutism found that the child started to speak after a year with encouragement and gentle support from adults and other children. In those cases where the children maintained their selectively mute behaviour, teachers and other children either accepted their refusal to speak and their exclusion of themselves, or selectively reinforced the maladaptive behaviour.     

Home Environments and Parental Support for Literacy: Children's Perceptions and School Literacy Achievement

This study examined literacy in home environments and how children perceive literate events that occur in their families. Four children were selected from a larger study of 129 children. Two children (one African American and one biracial) were from a low income urban community. The other two were Caucasian and from a small farm community. Ninety-six hours of observations over eight weeks during the summer of the kindergarten school year were conducted. Data collected included field notes, tape recordings, parent questionnaires, awareness interviews and school achievement measures. Domains were identified and analyzed for literacy support in the home, The analysis indicated three major findings: 1) all the parents provided support for literacy but there were differences in the way literacy was constructed, 2) the differences in the children's awareness responses describing how they were learning to read at home reflected their home literacy experiences, 3) the home literacy environments of the four children who were from low income families were conducive to literacy development and school success.     

Parents’ and teachers’ views on the psychosocial adjustment of students with and without a history of early grade retention

The study compared teachers’ and parents’ views about elementary school children’s psychosocial adjustment with and without a history of early grade retention. The sample included retained and non-retained students currently in Grades Two and Four (age range 7.5 to 11.6 years) in Cypriot public schools. The retained students experienced early grade retention either in kindergarten or Grade One and, therefore, were one year older than their current classmates. Both parents and teachers of all children completed a psychosocial adjustment inventory designed to assess social, emotional, and school competence as well as behaviour problems. The findings indicated important differences between teachers and parents in their evaluation of children’s psychosocial adjustment, but notable similarities in consistently evaluating early-retained children lower on all aspects of adjustment. Teachers evaluated all students lower than parents in terms of behaviour, school, and social competence. Both groups, however, considered retained students lower in social and school competence regardless of grade level. The implications of these findings in relation to evaluation aspects of psychosocial adjustment and the practice of early-grade retention are discussed.     

Socioeconomic Status and Preschoolers' Mathematical Knowledge: The Contribution of Home Activities and Parent Beliefs

Research Findings: Children from families of lower socioeconomic status (SES) enter kindergarten with less developed mathematical knowledge compared to children from middle SES families. This discrepancy is present at age 3 years and likely stems from differences in the home learning environment. This study reports SES-related differences both in the quantity and quality of mathematical support children receive in the home and in parent beliefs about early mathematical development and then compares both with children's performance on a comprehensive mathematics assessment. Participants included 90 children in their 1st year of preschool (2 years before kindergarten entry) and 88 children in their prekindergarten year (the year just prior to kindergarten entry). Both cohorts were balanced for SES and gender. The results suggested minimal SES-related variation in mathematical support received in either cohort but clear SES differences in parents’ beliefs about early mathematical development. Middle SES parents of children in both cohorts held higher expectations in terms of skills they expected children to possess by age 5, as well as a more accurate understanding of which skills are within the developmental range of most children by age 5. These differences accounted for unique variance in children's scores on the mathematics assessment. Practice or Policy: Implications are discussed.     

Kids,College, and Capital: Parental Financial Support and College Choice

Parents vary in both their willingness and ability to pay for their children’s college expenses, yet there is little research on how adolescents’ expectations of future financial support from parents affect their college enrollment decisions. Using data from the High School Longitudinal Study, I fill this gap in the literature by examining the predictors of parents’ plans to pay for college and estimating the effect of having a parent that plans to pay for college on an adolescent’s probability of college attendance. The results suggest that after parents’ ability to pay is taken into account, social class remains a strong predictor of whether parents plan to pay for their children’s college education. Additionally, parent’s plans to pay for college have a measurable impact on children’s college enrollment as long as the child is aware of or agrees with the parent’s plans. Therefore, it is likely that socioeconomic differences in parents’ pledges of financial support to adolescents contribute to postsecondary stratification. The results from this study suggest that policymakers and researchers who are concerned about educational inequality should pay greater attention to the role of parental financial support in structuring children’s ability to access college.     

CHILDREN'S AFFECTIVE ORIENTATIONS IN PRESCHOOL AND THEIR INITIAL ADJUSTMENT TO KINDERGARTEN

Children's prior attitudes toward school may be an important entry factor to consider in their initial adjustment to kindergarten. This short‐term longitudinal study examined children's affective orientations and other school‐related perceptions and approaches to learning in late preschool and then 1 to 2 months after entry into kindergarten. Child, parent, and teacher reports were obtained, and classroom practices were observed. Findings showed that children who anticipated liking school demonstrated more positive approaches and adjustment in kindergarten than did less enthusiastic children. Children's approaches to learning in the classroom, reported by teachers and parents, were similar across the transition from preschool to kindergarten, despite notable differences in practices. Recommendations for practice include attending to children's affective orientations, involving multiple informants in school readiness assessments, and fostering communication among teachers in school transition activities.     

Choosing the arts: the moral regulation of parents in the educational marketplace

The neoliberal turn in public education positions the parent as a consumer within an expanding educational marketplace. This shift is premised on the notion that the free market is best suited to promote equity. Critics of this claim highlight how a larger choice arena creates additional opportunities for privileged parents to mobilize their resources to further their child’s advantages. While extremely important, this framework of analysis ignores the role that educational choice plays in producing parent subjectivities. In this article, we explore how parents at one specialized arts high school construct notions of the ‘good/moral’ parent around the decision to ‘choose the arts,’ and how these categories work to reinforce dominant race, class, and gender hierarchies within the school. We hope to illuminate how educational choice is not solely about shaping the material and symbolic conditions of the child; it is about producing parent subjectivities as well.     

农村学校家长参与的低迷现象研究——专业主义、不平等关系与家校区隔

本研究以一项为期一年的民族志调查为基础,旨在从教师访谈数据中揭示农村家长参与学校教育的障碍。在理论层面,本研究着眼于教师的专业身份及其对他们对于家长参与建构性理解的影响。在数据分析层面,本研究指出,接受访谈的教师倾向于认为家长在学校教育中的角色是"边缘性"的辅助角色,家长常被看作教师的追随者,而不是平等的合作伙伴,而教师则视自己为专业的工作者,其专业判断不容质疑。在行动层面,家长不同形式的参与又是教师构建专业身份的重要实践,常被看作鼓励"先进"、解决"后进"问题的重要手段,其符号意义要高过实质意义。本研究从教师的角度出发解释农村学校家长参与的低迷现象,是对本领域文献的一项重要补充,有着重要的理论意义。     

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.     

Home Environments and Parental Support for Literacy: Children's Perceptions and School Literacy Achievement

This study examined literacy in home environments and how children perceive literate events that occur in their families. Four children were selected from a larger study of 129 children. Two children (one African American and one biracial) were from a low income urban community. The other two were Caucasian and from a small farm community. Ninety-six hours of observations over eight weeks during the summer of the kindergarten school year were conducted. Data collected included field notes, tape recordings, parent questionnaires, awareness interviews and school achievement measures. Domains were identified and analyzed for literacy support in the home, The analysis indicated three major findings: 1) all the parents provided support for literacy but there were differences in the way literacy was constructed, 2) the differences in the children's awareness responses describing how they were learning to read at home reflected their home literacy experiences, 3) the home literacy environments of the four children who were from low income families were conducive to literacy development and school success.     

Development of SFON in Ecuadorian Kindergartners

This study explored the development of Ecuadorian Kindergartners’ spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) during the kindergarten year, as well as the contribution of early numerical abilities to this development. One hundred Kindergartners coming from ten classrooms received two SFON tasks, one at the beginning and one at the end of the school year, and an early numerical abilities achievement test at the beginning of the school year. Results first demonstrated limited SFON development during the kindergarten year, with inter-individual differences and intra-individual stability of children’s SFON tendency. Second, both children’s SFON tendency and their early numerical abilities at the start of the kindergarten year were predictively related to their SFON tendency at the end of the year. Our results do not only add to our theoretical understanding of SFON in young children, but also inform educational policy and practices in the domain of early mathematics education in Ecuador, as they provide building blocks for optimizing the educational goals and curricula for kindergarten mathematics.     

Job Satisfaction Among Jordan’s Kindergarten Teachers: Effects of Workplace Conditions and Demographic Characteristics

The main objective of this study was to examine the job satisfaction levels of Jordanian kindergarten teachers in relation to work-related dimensions and socio-demographic variables. The sample consisted of 264 randomly selected teachers working in private kindergartens in Amman. To meet the study’s objectives, a two part questionnaire was developed soliciting information about (1) teachers’ age, marital status, and level of education, and (2) level of satisfaction with the physical environment, school relations, working conditions, children’s behavior, and parent participation. The findings of this study revealed that Jordan’s kindergarten teachers experience an overall average level of job satisfaction. While teachers were highly satisfied with their kindergarten classroom physical environments and their relationships within the school, teachers reported average satisfaction levels with their working conditions, children’s social behaviors, and parent participation. Significant relations were found between teachers’ personal-related dimensions and job satisfaction. Several recommendations are made including a call for regulating the working conditions in the kindergarten private sector in accordance with existing international policies that promote teachers’ job satisfaction.     

The influence of being ready to learn on children’s early school literacy and numeracy achievement

This study investigated the extent to which learning readiness, prior‐to‐school experiences, and child and family characteristics influence children’s literacy and numeracy achievement across the first year of primary school. A sample of 104 kindergarten children was recruited from 16 classrooms and followed from the beginning to the end of their first year of primary school. At the start of school, parents provided information on children’s prior‐to‐school experiences and their preparedness for school; teachers provided ratings of children’s self‐directedness and cooperative participation; and children’s cognitive ability was assessed using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – III. Classroom quality was observed and rated mid‐year. Children’s literacy and numeracy achievement was assessed at the end of the school year, using the Who Am I? (WAI?). Regression analyses indicated that WAI? scores were predicted by child age, gender, cognitive ability and teacher‐rated learning readiness at the start of school. Discussion focuses on the importance of the ‘ready child’ for early academic success.     

How African American Parents Understand Their and Teachers' Roles in Children's Schooling and What this Means for Preparing Preservice Teachers

Preservice teachers are socialized by their own raced, classed, and gendered experiences to expect “caring parents” to behave and contribute in certain ways to their children's schooling. Preservice teachers who come from widely divergent backgrounds from the communities in which they serve can sometimes be skeptical of parents who are not involved in children's schooling in ways that are familiar from their own upbringing. Moreover, much of the existing scholarship on parent involvement and the transition to school takes a top-down approach that discounts the important knowledge parents bring to the table. This is a study of African American parents of young children who were preparing to transition to kindergarten or first grade that proposes an alternate conversation about what we can learn from parents when we examine their ways of framing and enacting “involvement” in their children's school lives. African American parents and caregivers (N?=?25) participated in qualitative interviews. Thematic analyses of the interviews revealed that participants constructed preparation for the transition to school broadly, as preparation for the “real world.” I will discuss the implications of the study for teaching, teacher education, and future research, so that preservice teachers and teacher educators can begin to build a greater imagination for parent involvement.     

Predictors of portable technology adoption intentions to support elementary children reading

Much attention has focused on technology acceptance in the classroom, with little investigation into how parents make decisions about their children’s use of portable technology to support reading development in the home. Applying the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, this study identifies predictors of parents portable technology adoption intentions to support children’s reading development in the home. Participants were parents from two elementary schools within 46 classrooms in the southeastern United States. Phase one of data collection included 120 parents who responded to a validated survey that identified predictors and behavioral intention to adopt technology. The regression model explained 64% of parents have intentions to use portable technology to develop their children’s reading skills, with social influence and attitude as the most important predictors. Surveys indicated 99% of children used portable technology to support reading in the home, therefore phase two included explanatory interviews to examine adoption predictors. Interview data specified social influence ensued from the child’s school and parent community; attitude resulted from children’s affinity to use technology. Though parents’ intentions indicated continued portable technology use, parents preferred their child read print books. Interview data also revealed parents perceived an increase in performance expectancy when their child used portable technology. This study highlights the need for teachers and school administrators to be cognizant of educational requests on home learning, influences of the broader parent community on parent intentions to adopt educational technology, and children’s enjoyment reading with portable technology.     

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.