Parental involvement in the Early Learning Center at Tiffany Creek Elementary

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the current level of parental involvement in a four-year-old kindergarten program in a public elementary school. Research has shown that parental involvement in children’s schooling has a dramatic effect on children’s academic achievement (Henderson & Berla 1995; National PTA 1997; US Department of Education 1997). The benefits of effective parental involvement programs reach beyond the child to the parents and schools as well. When parents are involved in their children’s schooling, parents show increased self-confidence in parenting and are more knowledgeable about how to help their child with learning at home. When teachers and parents connect, teachers reap the benefits as well. Teachers who involve parents become better teachers and devote more time to teaching. Schools that work well with families have improved teacher morale. This research looked at a sample of parents whose children were enrolled in a four-year-kindergarten program and assessed their parental involvement attitudes and parental engagement behaviors at home and at school. The parents were asked to complete a survey regarding their attitudes and behaviors toward parent involvement. The surveys were then scored calculating the means, standard deviation, and rank order. In addition, T tests, ANOVA, and the Student-Newman-Keuls Multiple Range Test were used to determine if any significant differences existed based on gender, age, family structure, level of education, and employment status. The results of the study revealed that parents’ attitudes toward parental involvement were positive. At home, parents most performed behaviors closely tied to the classroom, such as asking their children about school projects and activities and reading notes/papers in their child’s folder. The behavior that parents performed most at school was attending school functions, such as family nights and classroom parties, while volunteering in their children’s classroom was performed less often. Using T tests and ANOV, significant differences were found in all demographic categories of the study. In regard to gender, males’ attitudes toward parental involvement were not as positive as females’ attitudes. Males engaged in parental involvement behaviors less often than females did. Age of the parent was found to make a difference in both their attitudes and behaviors toward literacy activities. Parents that were single/remarried/separated had more positive attitudes towards not wanting their children to miss school and in their belief that the teacher makes the biggest influence on their child’s success in school than married parents. In this study, two-parent families volunteered in their children’s classrooms more often than single/separated/remarried parents. Better educated parents read to their children more often and had higher expectations for their children attending college or vocational school. Parents employed full time felt that their work somewhat interfered with them spending quality time with their children. Those employed part time and unemployed reported less conflict with work-family balance conflicts. The results of the average score in the behaviors section of the survey, showed that parents employed full time engage in parental involvement activities less frequently than unemployed or those working part time. The challenge with parental involvement can be getting school personnel to recognize the value in the putting time and effort into collaborations with parents. This study concluded with recommendations for school personnel on how to improve and enhance parental involvement in their schools based on the findings in this study. Suggestions included improving teacher training in the area of parental involvement, getting teachers to recognize and value the work that parents do at home, and working to eliminate as many barriers to parental involvement as possible.