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A New Wave of Evidence - The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connectionson Student Achievement

(Henderson & Mapp 2002)

retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/evidence.pdf

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1) What are the effects of daily parent-teacher communication through technology on students’ academic achievement? 2) How does the medium for communication affect parents’ willingness to participate in daily parent-teacher communication through technology?

3) What effect will individualized interventions based on daily parent-teacher communication have on students’ academic achievement?

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Assessing Technology’s Role in Communication between Parents and Middle Schools

Summary - Research explores the possibility that the nature of communication by adolescents lends itself to parental involvement in school without having to be a physical presence in the school.

The researchers ask these 3 questions which guide the study:

1. When used to communicate with middle school parents, do innovative technologies such as cell phones, e-mail, and websites facilitate parental involvement? 2. Which modes of communication facilitate Epstein’s six types of parental involvement? 3. What barriers inhibit the use of technologies in communication between schools and parents?

Rogers, R., & Wright, V. (2008). Assessing technology’s role in communication between parents and middle schools. Electronic Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education, 7, Retrieved from http://ejite.isu.edu/Volume7/Rogers.pdf

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Parental Effort, School Resources,
and Student Achievement

link to article - http://www.unh.edu/news/docs/Conway_May08.pdf

Summary - The researchers suggest that it is not additional financial resources that improve school performance, but parental involvement. An example from the study reports that of 15 schools that were given a $300,000 cash settlement, only the two that invested heavily in increased parent involvement reported significant improvement. The proposed theory is that the relationship between school resources and parent nvolvement is negative. The results of the research are ambiguous.

Relevant citation(s) - "Our results suggest that parental effort has a strong
positive direct effect on student achievement that is large relative to the effect of
school resources" (Houtenville & Smith Conway, 2008).

Houtenville, A., & Smith Conway, K. (2008). Parental effort, school resources, and student achievement. The Journal of Human Resources, XLIII(2), 437-453. Retrieved from http://www.unh.edu/news/docs/Conway_May08.pdf

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Parental School Involvement
and Children’s Academic
Achievement: Pragmatics and Issues

link to article - http://jamaicakdid.zaloni.net/sites/jamaica/files/gcontentadmin/files/Parent%20School%20Involvment%20and%20Academic%20Achievment.pdf

Summary - The authors identify two key mechanisms that contribute to effective parental involvement. First there is the growth of "social capital", which makes parents better equipped to contribute to school related activities. The second mechanism is "social control," which happens when families and schools work together to establish consensus on expected behaviors and work together to communicate those expectations

Relevant citation(s) - Parental school
involvement is largely defined as consisting of the following activities:
volunteering at school, communicating with teachers and other school
personnel, assisting in academic activities at home, and attending
school events, meetings of parent-teacher associations (PTAs), and
parent-teacher conferences.
It is well established that parental school involvement has a positive
influence on school-related outcomes for children. Consistently,
cross-sectional (e.g., Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994) and longitudinal
(e.g., Miedel & Reynolds, 1999) studies have demonstrated an association
between higher levels of parental school involvement and
greater academic success for children and adolescents.

Hill , N., & Taylor, L. (2004). Parental school involvement and children’s academic achievement: pragmatics and issues. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13(4), 161-164. Retrieved from http://jamaicakdid.zaloni.net/sites/jamaica/files/gcontentadmin/files/Parent School Involvment and Academic Achievment.pdf

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Examining the Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Student Motivation

link to article - http://people.uncw.edu/caropresoe/edn523/examining_the_relationship.pdf

Summary - "The purpose of this article is to present some of the specific types of parent involvement related to students’ motivation. Conclusions drawn from the articles reviewed indicate parental involvement is related to the following motivational constructs: school engagement, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, autonomy,self-regulation, mastery goal orientation, and motivation to read."

-Izzo et al. (1999) suggested that it is advantageous for schools to focus on fostering
more constructive interactions instead of counting the number of interactions.

-When parents were more involved in their child’s schooling,
their children had higher grade-point averages and were more engaged in
school. Steinberg et al. (1992).

Gonzalez-DeHass, A., Willems, P., & Doan Holbein, M. (2005). Examining the relationship between parental involvement and student motivation. Educational Psychology Review, 17(2), 99-123. Retrieved from http://people.uncw.edu/caropresoe/edn523/examining_the_relationship.pdf

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Meeting NCLB Requirements for Family Involvement

link to article - http://www.amle.org/portals/0/pdf/publications/On_Target/family_involvement/family_9.pdf
Summary - Joyce Epstein, creator of the framework of parental involvement, details the difference between a school-parent pledge and a school parent compact; the latter involving an action plan. She describes the ways that some schools involved in the NNPS have carried out this action plan.
The most relevant types of parental involvement to my project are types 2 and 6.
Type 2—Create two-way communication channels
from school to home and from home to school so that families can easily communicate with
teachers, administrators, counselors, and other families.Epstein et al. (2002)
Type 6—Collaborating with Community: Coordinate resources and services for families,
students

Epstein, J. (2004). Meeting nclb requirements for family involvement. Middle Ground, 4(3), Retrieved from http://www.amle.org/portals/0/pdf/publications/On_Target/family_involvement/family_9.pdf

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Parental Involvement in Middle School:
A Meta-Analytic Assessment of the Strategies That Promote Achievement
link to article - http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/dev453740.pdf

Interesting note - the study proposes that homework help is not the most significant type of parental involvement, but that endearing a sense of the importance of school is.

Hill, N., & Tyson, D. (2009). parental involvement in middle school: a meta-analytic assessment of the strategies that promote achievement. Developmental Psychology, 45(3), 740-763. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/dev453740.pdf

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- parent attendance at parent teacher conferences is under 70%, meaning that at least 30% of parents never receive their child's report card.

- it has not been unusual to find five parents or fewer at the PTA meetings for a school comprised of nearly 400 students

- student achievement is critically low, evidenced by common assessments, MEAP scores, and Scantron Performance Series results.

- parents use technology (cell phones, tablets, & PC's) to communicate.

- parents are willing to take measures to help their children when they believe in those measures

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The purpose of this project is to use parent communication through technology to help design interventions that will target student learning needs and lead to higher achievement as measured by common assessments and Scantron scores.

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Prefatory: Fearless Faith
link to article- http://journalofafricanamericanmales.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2010/05/FINAL-BEACHUM.pdf
Summary - The relevance of this article to my project lies within the article's exploration of "the potential to inform the research by enhancing our understanding of African American males philosophically, methodologically, and experientially."

Beachum, F. (2010). Prefatory: fearless faith. Journal of African American Males in Education, 1(2), 63-72. Retrieved from http://journalofafricanamericanmales.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2010/05/FINAL-BEACHUM.pdf

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Effects of Parental Involvement on Eighth Grade Achievement

link to article - http://www.learningcommunity202.org/kennedy/Teams/PIE/8th_grade.pdf

The most interesting aspect of this study to me is the direct analysis of individual characteristics of parental involvement and its large sample size.

Sui Chu, E., & Willms, J. (1996). Effects of parental involvement on eighth-grade achievement. Sociology of Education, 69(2), 126-141. Retrieved from http://www.learningcommunity202.org/kennedy/Teams/PIE/8th_grade.pdf

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WHAT RESEARCH SAYS ABOUT PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN CHILDREN’S EDUCATION: In Relation to Academic Achievement

link to article - http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Final_Parent_Involvement_Fact_Sheet_14732_7.pdf

Summary - Parental involvement is most effective the earlier it starts in a child's education. The most effective types of parental involvement are those that engage parents working on learning activities at home.

As a teacher in Michigan, I am interested in what the Michigan Department of Education says about the topic I have chosen for my project. Especially noted is the claim that "the most consistent predictors of children’s academic achievement and social adjustment are parent expectations of the child’s academic attainment and satisfaction with their child’s education at school."

Michigan Department of Education. (2002). What research says about parent involvement in children's education in relation to academic achievement . Retrieved from website: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/Final_Parent_Involvement_Fact_Sheet_14732_7.pdf

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A Meta-Analysis: The Effects of Parental Involvement on Minority Children’s Academic Achievement
link to article - http://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?hl=en&q=http://94.23.146.173/ficheros/f20e386283252639a04654d8eb79e45f.pdf&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm2cjKeMQ2fJOQCgiuClGonnZaET3g&oi=scholarr

This article digests the findings of over twenty studies to answer the question, "Does parental involvement affect academic achievement of minority students'?" The methods and results of these studies are of particular interest to me because the student population at the school where I teach and where I will conduct my project is 99% African-American.

"The presence of more parents in the workforce, the fast pace of modern society as a whole, and the declining role of the family have all been reasons that some social scientists have pointed to to explain an apparent decline in parental involvement in education" (Coleman & Hoffer, 1987; Jeynes, in press).

parental involvement may reduce some
of the downward impact on academic achievement that deficient schools
(Hampton et al., 1998; Hara, 1998) and broken homes (Bronstein et al., 1994)
generally have on children.

Jeynes, W. (2003). A meta-analysis: the effects of parental involvement on minority children’s academic achievement. Education and Urban Society, 35(2), 202-218. Retrieved from http://scholar.google.com/scholar_url?hl=en&q=http://94.23.146.173/ficheros/f20e386283252639a04654d8eb79e45f.pdf&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm2cjKeMQ2fJOQCgiuClGonnZaET3g&oi=scholarr

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A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement

link to article - http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/evidence.pdf

Summary - This is actually a synthesis of over 50 studies spanning several years. Some information is very useful. Of most interest so far is a framework of parent involvement developed at Johns Hopkins University that may be very useful in my approach to the parent involvement component of my project.

Relevant citations -

Henderson, A., & Mapp, K. (2002). A new wave of evidence: the impact of school, family, and community connections on student achievement. National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools, Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/evidence.pdf

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Effects of Parental Involvement On Achievement for Students Who Attend School in Rural America

link to article - http://www.jrre.psu.edu/articles/v12,n2,p55-67,Keith.pdf

One interesting detail of note is the authors observation that "it appears that higher achievement leads to more parental involvement which, in turn, leads to continued higher achievement" (Keith, et al., 1996).

Keith, T., Keith, P., Quirk, K., Cohen-Rosenthal, T., & Franzese, B. (1996). Effects of parental involvement oil achievement for students who attend school in rural america. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 12(2), 55-67. Retrieved from http://www.jrre.psu.edu/articles/v12,n2,p55-67,Keith.pdf

(Keith, Keith, Quirk, Cohen-Rosenthal & Franzese, 1996)