The Role of Parents in Enhancing Students Academic Achievement at Primary Level

The Elementary School Journal Volume 86, Number S O 1986 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0013-5984/86/8603-0002$01.00 Teachers have strong opinions about parent involvement. Some believe that they can be effective only if they obtain parental assistance on learning activities at home. Others believe that their professional status is in jeopardy if parents are involved in activities that are typically the teachers' responsibilities. The different philosophies and beliefs of teachers reflect the two main, opposing theories of school and family relations. One perspective emphasizes the inherent incompatibility, competition, and conflict between families and schools and supports the separation of the two institutions (Parsons, 1959; Waller, 1932; Weber, 1947). It assumes that school bureaucracies and family organizations are directed, respectively, by educators and parents, who can best fulfill their different goals, roles, and responsibilities independently. Thus, these distinct goals are achieved most efficiently and effectively when teachers maintain their professional, general standards and judgments about the children in their classrooms and when parents maintain their personal, particularistic standards and judgments about their children at home.

The Elementary School Journal Volume 83, Number 2 ? 1982 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 001 3-5984183/8302-0009$01o.00 Teachers approach their instructional tasks with a variety of perspectives and strategies that emphasize certain aspects of teaching and deemphasize others. For example, some teachers teach language skills using organized games, while other teachers teach the same skills by direct instruction. Teachers adopt different approaches to the same subject matter partly because their teaching situations differ. Their students may have different learning problems or their classrooms may have varied resources and facilities. Even in the

Relationship between Socio-Economic Status, Interpersonal Communication, and School Climate with Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education

Parent involvement in elementary school and educational attainment

added by over 1,000 teachers to a survey of teachers' practices. Results of the survey of 3,700 teachers in about 600 schools in Maryland are described in Becker and Epstein (in this issue). The teachers' comments reflect the variation in years of experience and in the number and types of contacts individual teachers have had with parents. Each theme can be viewed from two perspectives-there are potential advantages, but there are also potential problems, with any parent-involvement technique. Teachers' comments reveal their contrasting opinions on the benefits expected from parent assistance at home and on the organizational structures used to conduct parent-involvement activities. Some teachers are very positive about parent involvement; others have been discouraged by their attempts to communicate and work with parents.

A link between parental involvement in school and student victimization in school is often assumed, but empirical studies have shown inconsistent results. Research suggests that the quality of student-teacher relationships could potentially serve as a crucial mediating factor in the link between parental school involvement and student victimization in school. However, the proposition in question lacks sufficient empirical evidence to substantiate it. This paper examines how parental school involvement indirectly influences student victimization by peers and teachers in school mediated via the quality of student-teacher relationships. Additionally, it further investigates sex differences in the patterns of relationships among parental school involvement, quality of student-teacher relationships, and student victimization by peers and teachers in school. Data were derived from a nationally representative sample of 934 junior high school students and their parents/caregivers in Taiwan. The results revealed that parental school involvement had a nonsignificant direct association with school victimization by peers and teachers, but a significant indirect association with both types of school victimization mediated via the quality of student-teacher relationships. These findings are applicable to both boys and girls. To reduce school victimization, policies and intervention programs could consider promoting parental school involvement and the quality of student-teacher relationships.

Parental involvement in inclusive school is crucial for the development of children with special needs. Thus, the present study observed an inclusive primary school in Denpasar to identify the types of parental involvement in the school, the school's programs to involve parents, and the challenges faced by the teachers in involving parents in their children's education. Following Miles' and Huberman's (1994) model of Interactive Qualitative Data Analysis combined with Epstein's et al. (2002) types of parental involvement at school, the present study revealed that 1) all the six types of parental involvement’s in Epstein’s model were identified with an average of moderate frequency; 2) Seven programs were designed to involve the parents, namely, parenting seminar, class conference, WhatsApp Group discussion, Guest teacher, interactive project, field trip, and collaboration with English-speaking community; 3) there were moderate challenges in involving parents in communicating with the schools, in decision making, and in enrolling the parents in the school activities. This implies that there should be more deliberate effort from the parents in inclusive schools to be more involved in their children’s education, while schools should relentlessly initiate and inspire more intensive parental involvements in the schools’ program.

Background Educational reform is a major challenge facing schools in Taiwan. The new educational reform requires that every primary school must have parental involvement programmes in their school schedules, and to support these new programmes, there is a need for research to examine the extent and nature of parental involvement in primary schools in Taiwan, and to investigate the impact of parental involvement on pupil outcomes. Purpose The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which parents' involvement in schooling is related to primary pupil outcomes, after taking into account differences in family social status and family structure, and the children's perceptions of their school learning environments. Sample For the analyses data were collected in 2001 from 261 6th-grade Taiwanese students, 128 boys and 133 girls, from four primary schools in the Taichung City school district. The average age of the children was approximately 11 years. Design and methods In the analysis of the research model, a quantitative approach was adopted, in which each student completed two questionnaires and two academic achievement tests. The first questionnaire included questions to assess family social status, family structure and parents' involvement in their children's education. In the second questionnaire there were questions to measure pupils' self-concept and perceptions of their schools' learning environments. The data were analysed using multiple-regression techniques to examine relationships among family social status, family structure, parental involvement, the school learning environment and pupils' school-related outcomes. Results The findings suggested that: (a) children's academic achievement is related to their family social status and perceptions of immediate family learning environments, and (b) children's self-concept is associated with their perceptions of classroom learning environments, parents' aspirations and parents' involvement at home. These propositions indicate the differential nature of the relationships among family and school environments and measures of children's school outcomes. Conclusions In the Taiwanese context, by showing the particularly important association between Taiwanese family environments and children's school outcomes, the present investigation supports the educational reform movement that encourages schools to involve parents more intimately in shared responsibilities.

The purpose of this case study is to investigate parental involvement in the schooling process of their children through the six typologies of Parental involvement within the two selected primary schools in Katsina state of Nigeria. The study used qualitative case study method, students, parents, and teachers, of the two selected primary schools in Katsina state were interviewed. In addition to the interviews, observations were conducted; school documents were used as instruments for data collection. The study shows that parent involved in the schooling process of their children through six typologies of parental involvement. The result also indicated that parents in SA use all thesix typologies to get involve while SB uses parenting & decision making more than the rest. The finding also indicated that there is a low level of meaningful contact between school, parents and community members within School B. Apathy exists on the side of parents, low ex­pectations on the side of School teachers, and there is no organisational structure to facilitate parental involvement in the school. The students whose parents were involved in their schooling process achieved more academic success at school than students whose parents were less involved. The study contributed to the body of knowledge by adding insightful information to the knowledge base surrounding the Implementation of the Eptein’s (1998) Typologies of parental involvement for facilitating academic success in Kasina State, Nigeria.

The present paper investigates parental involvement in a rural primary school in Kenya. Qualitative interviews have been used to gather information from ten parents, a class teacher and a head teacher. The aim of the case study is to find out how – if at all – parents are involved in their children’s education, and how important parents’ background and involvement in school activities are for their children’s results. It is also interested in determining whether the school-home relationship in rural Kenya may provide new knowledge to the relationship between minority parents and schools in western countries. The findings of the study indicate no shared responsibility between parents and school; the school is solely responsible for students’ education. Normally, parents’ responsibility is limited to providing economic resources: buying school uniforms, books and other necessities. Where the mother tongue is not a school language, some parents also prepare their children for school by code-switching at home: using both the school language and the mother tongue. There is hardly any relationship to be found between parents’ involvement and students’ results. The findings from the study may provide new knowledge about minority parents’ involvement in school in western education.

The transition to school may be particularly difficult for children with developmental disabilities and behavioral difficulties. Such children are likely to experience problems with self-regulation skills, which are critical to school adjustment. Additionally, inconsistent discipline practices and low parental involvement in children's schooling may contribute to a poor transition to school. This study employed a randomized clinical trial to examine the effects of a school readiness intervention that focused on children's self-regulation skills as well as parenting and parental involvement in school. Results showed that the intervention had positive effects on children's self-regulation in kindergarten as measured by teacher and observer reports. Additionally, the intervention significantly reduced ineffective parenting prior to school entry, which in turn affected parental involvement. This finding is significant because it demonstrates that parental involvement in school may be increased by efforts to improve parenting skills in general. Overall, the study demonstrated that school adjustment across kindergarten among children with developmental disabilities and behavioral difficulties can be enhanced through an intervention aimed specifically at improving school readiness skills.

The aim of this study was to investigate the management of parental involvement in three multicultural schools in the Umlazi District in Durban, South Africa. A literature survey resulting in a theoretical framework on parental involvement in schools, multicultural schools, and themanaging of parental involvement in schools has been done. The contextual background of schools in contemporary South Africa is depicted. A qualitative research design has been used. Focus group discussions have been conducted, with a total of thirty-three principals, teachersand parents. It has found that there is a low level of meaningful contact between school and parents. Apathy exists on the side of parents, low expectations on the side of principals and teachers, and an organisational structure facilitating parent-school interaction is lacking. In managing parental involvement in multicultural schools, school managers displaya lack of intercultural sensitivity.

Research indicates the importance of parental and community agency involvement for the reduction of adolescent delinquent behavior. However, few studies specifically examine the role of parental involvement within the physical school context, and many neglect to examine this issue based on school administrator perceptions. This study, a cross-sectional secondary data analysis of the 2008 School Survey on Crime and Safety, examines the impact of parental and community agency involvement in schools on student delinquency among a representative sample of 2,331 schools. Findings show that parental involvement in schools is predictive of decreased delinquency, while formal community agency involvement in schools by agencies such as law enforcement and social services is predictive of increased delinquency. Results suggest that based on school administrator perceptions, stimulating parent involvement in schools may reduce delinquency and serve as a preventative measure, allowing schools to rely less on reactive punishment. Furthermore, additional work should be done to determine how the involvement of both formal and informal community agencies impact student behavior.

Home-school dissonance (HSD), or differing values, beliefs, and behavioral expectations between home and school may contribute to variation in parental involvement (Arunkumar, Midgley, & Urdan, 1999). This study utilized data from parent and teacher interviews to examine perspectives on parental involvement and HSD in middle school. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Teachers described a spectrum of HSD ranging from low parental involvement (high-HSD) to high involvement (low-HSD). Although all parents reported involvement in school, some parents described negative experiences related to race and a fear of retaliation from school officials. Schools may benefit by improving policies and practices that decrease HSD, and thus increase parental involvement in schools.

Parental involvement in school: A test of Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler's model among Jewish and Arab parents in Israel