Parents' and School Psychologists' Perspectives on Parent Involvement Activities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe parents' and school psychologists' perspectives on 33 parent involvement activities aimed at enhancing school success of students. A national sample of 217 parents rated the degree to which they believed schools should offer and the degree to which they would use the activities. School psychologists rated the extent to which the activities would be feasible to implement in their schools during the next 5 years. The activity, “Provide information on how schools function,” received the highest rating by both parents and school psychologists. The activity rated the lowest by both parents and school psychologists was “Make home visits to teach parents activities they can do at home to promote student learning or to answer parents' questions about their children's school work.” Although parents' mean ratings for use were higher than school psychologists' mean ratings of feasibility of implementation on 94% of the activities, there was a high degree of similarity in the rank order of the activities across parents and school psychologists. School psychologists are challenged to develop, implement, and evaluate parent involvement programs to enhance students' success in school.