Parental attitudes and involvement with elementary education in Area Three schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze parental or guardian attitudes, general education behavior of parents and homework assistance behavior. The amount of time spent on assisting students with homework will also be studied. The objectives of this study was to (1) analyze parental involvement attitudes in relationship to grade level of the child, parent’s gender, parent’s age, educational level of the parent, employment status of the parent and child’s grades, (2) analyze parental behaviors in relationship to grade level of the child, parent’s gender, parent’s age, educational level of the parent, employment status of the parent and child’s grades, and (3) analyze the relationship of parent’s help with schoolwork and the child’s grades. The population of this study consisted of parents or guardians from Area Three of the Chicago Public School System to respond to the questionnaire designed by the researcher to question the relationships between parent attitudes, parent behaviors, and the child’s grades and parents help with schoolwork. The research instrument for this study was divided into three parts. Part I contains demographic information. Part II consists of 26 attitude questions ranked on a 1-9 Likert Continuum Scale. Part III consists of 15 parental homework behavior questions ranked on a 1-5 Likert Continuum Scale. The responses for this questionnaire was evaluated using mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage, T-test, two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Probability Test. Research found that there are many factors that contribute to effective parent participation. There are also many ways in which a parent can participate in their childs education. My findings suggest that some of the most influential factors that promote successful parent participation is the age of the parent, education, and employment status. Current research suggest that even though parent age, education, and employment status might be important to whether they participate; more importantly is the methods in which parents participate. Having books around the house, reading to children from a young age, helping with homework, communicating values with the child and general communicating with the teacher, participating in extracurricular activities are some ways in which my research agreed with current studies. Attitudes and Behavior of parents varied by parent’s age, educational level of parent and employment status of parent. Parent help with school work had no relationship to student grades. Most parents strongly agreed that: (1) “It is important for parents to try to be supportive of their child’s education”, (2) “I believe education is an important part of my child’s future”, and (3) “Schools and parents must work together to educate the children”. Recommendations for future research concerning parental or guardian attitudes, general education behavior of parents and homework assistance behavior include: (1) Expand the research on parent participation and behaviors in their child’s education to include teachers values, and (2) expand the research to include student attitudes and behaviors toward parent participation and grades received.