PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND THE IMPLICATIONS ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, MOTIVATION AND STUDENT BEHAVIOR

The State University of New York at Potsdam PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND THE IMPLICATIONS ON STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT, MOTIVATION AND STUDENT BEHAVIOR By Jayson M St.Croix A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Education Department In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Science in Education Potsdam, New York — October, 2007 This Thesis entitled Parental Involvement and the Implications on Student Achievement, Motivation and Student Behavior By Jayson M St.Croix Has been approved for the Department of Education Advisor Date Department Chair Date Director of Graduate Admissions Date The final copy of the above mentioned thesis has been examined by the signatories and found to meet acceptable standards for scholarly work in the discipline in both form and content PERMISSION TO COPY I grant The State University of New York College at Potsdam the non-exclusive right to use this work for the University’s own purposes and to make single copies of the work available to the public on a not-for-profit basis if copies are not otherwise available Jayson M St.Croix _ Date ABSTRACT This study is concerned with how parental involvement affects student achievement since parental involvement has implications for student achievement, behavior, and motivation Educators realize there are obstacles that prevent parents from being involved Since there is a direct relationship between parental involvement and academic success, this study examined how to increase parental involvement This can be accomplished through open, consistent, clear, and positive communication with parents, teachers and administrators This communication helps to establish a positive relationship in which everyone works as a team to ensure that the best interests of the students are being met CHAPTER ONE Statement of the Problem Parental involvement positively affects student achievement Educators find that there are obstacles that prevent parents from becoming involved Effective strategies to involve parents in students’ academic lives are needed Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study will be to examine obstacles to parental involvement, strategies to overcome those obstacles, and how educators can incorporate best practices in the classroom This will be accomplished by examining already existing research to see if lack of parental involvement is a problem in other school districts This study will also examine what strategies are being used for parental involvement across schools in the United States Administrators and educators will be interviewed to learn of parental involvement in the North Country in New York Research Question(s) The following research question will guide the study: To what extent are parents involved in their children’s education in North Country secondary public schools? Are there any obstacles that are hindering parents from being more involved? Rationale Parents are children’s first teachers They have the greatest long-term impact on their children’s future success in life-long learning Therefore, parents are inherently involved in their children’s education Whether they are aware of it or not, parents are role models Increasingly, parents are leaving the brunt of the responsibility for raising and educating their children to teachers Aside from content, educators are now required to teach behavior and responsibility From the educators’ point of view, parents need to become more involved in their children’s academic progress The goal of this research is to enhance the lives of children in North Country schools through increased parental involvement Assumptions The following assumptions will be made during this study: There is low parental involvement in children’s academic life There are obstacles that hinder parental involvement Obstacles exist that hinder educators from effectively encouraging and utilizing parental involvement Educators want to implement parental involvement Parents want to be involved in their children’s academic lives Many educators perceive that parents not care about their children's academic success Many parents perceive teachers/schools as threatening people/places Many educators are not properly trained to effectively engage parents in their children’s lives Knowledge about how to involve parents is important Definition of Terms Motivation – For the purposes of this study, motivation will be defined as the desire for students to want to excel academically This desire is manifest in the student’s behavior and the effort put forth to achieve academically North Country – A region of New York that is located north of Watertown and south of the Canadian border Obstacles – For the purposes of this study, obstacles will be defined as anything that gets in the way of effective communication between parents and their children and/or their children's teachers Some obstacles between teachers and parents include: language barriers, perceptions, misconceptions, parent's level of education, type of employment held by the parent, availability of time, cultural barriers, and prior positive or negative parent/teacher interactions Parental involvement – For the purposes of this study, parental involvement will be defined as the parent’s interest in their children’s academic lives This can be observed when: parents attend parent-teacher conferences, when parents review homework with their children, when parents volunteer their time or talents to help their children or other children in the classroom, when a parent offers suggestions on how to motivate their children, or when a parent is attentive to their children’s progress and asks teachers for help or researches ways to help their children excel academically Socioeconomic status – For the purposes of this study, socioeconomic status is defined as the income bracket in which parents are classified by the government In this study, we will define the levels as follows: low income (poor), middle income (middle-class), and high income (wealthy) Student achievement – For the purposes of this study, student achievement will be defined according to a children’s ability to meet academic standards or criteria by producing mastery work When children have demonstrated at least 80% competence (or a grade of B or 3.0 on a scale of 4.0) in a specific subject area, then children have reached mastery Basically, student achievement is measured by children’s successful attempt at reaching a level of mastery or better in a particular content area Limitations This study will be limited by the following limitations: Knowledge, skills, and abilities of the researchers Researchers’ biases Time allotted to conduct the study Researchers in this study are not yet permanently certified as Secondary Education teachers Delimitations This study will be further defined by the following delimitations: Researchers will only focus on parents, teachers, and students affiliated with 7th through 12th graders Researchers will only focus on schools in the "North Country" of New York State This research will only draw from and examine parents, teachers, and students, in the North Country Summary Parental involvement has a positive impact on student achievement and attitudes Most schools would like to increase the level of parental involvement but there are many barriers to achieving that goal This study will focus on grade 7-12 schools in the "North Country" of New York State Factors studied will include types of barriers to parental involvement and the effect of socio-economic status on involvement Approaches that work in increasing parental involvement will be documented and local "best practices" will be identified 10 CHAPTER TWO The following review of the literature will further examine parental involvement in public schools by focusing on the following issues: student achievement, motivation, student behavior, obstacles, and socio-economic status Student Achievement The positive effect of parental involvement on student achievement seems intuitively obvious The vast majority of parents want their children to be successful in school Many parents not know how to help their school performance (Epstein, 1986) Educators and parents must be careful in assuming that all forms of academic involvement by parents positively affect all aspects of education for their children There exists wide variation just in the definitions of the terms used in these studies What is parental involvement? Some researchers have focused on attitudinal components of parental involvement by defining it as parental aspirations or expectations for the child's educational success Other researchers have focused on behavioral aspects of parental involvement, such as helping with homework or attendance at parent-teacher conferences In other cases, parental involvement was viewed as parenting style (Baker, 1998) "Parental involvement also includes parents’ roles as decision-makers: parents serving on advisory councils, curriculum committees and management teams, participating in joint problem-solving at every level." (SDCOE, 1997; Cotton, 2001) 60 APPENDIX B Teacher Interview Prompts on Parental Involvement Identification Code: Date: _ How you define parental involvement in your classroom? How you encourage parental involvement in your classroom? What methods you use to involve parents in your classroom? What is the most effective method that you have used to get parents involved? How are the parents being utilized to their full potential in your classroom? What difference you see in student achievement with the parents who are involved? What else would you like to add to this topic? 61 APPENDIX C Parental Involvement Checklist Identification Code: APPENDIX D Questions 1-8 – Parents feelings, attitudes and beliefs I believe there are things I can to help my son/daughter at school I am comfortable communicating with my son/daughter’s teacher(s) I am invited to go to my son/daughter’s school I believe that I can bring my questions and concerns to my son/daughter’s teacher(s) I feel I am included in my son/daughter’s education My needs are being met by the school My goals are being met by the school Any additional comments: Questions – 16 Barriers It is difficult for me to participate in parent-teacher conferences and/or other school activities 10 I have difficulties participating due to time constraints (job/other responsibilities) 11 I have difficulties participating due to childcare 12 I have difficulties participating due to transportation 13 There are language/cultural barriers that interfere with my participation 14 I would like to know how I could be more involved in my son/daughter’s education 15 I am actively involved in my son/daughter’s education 16 Any additional comments: Strongly Agree Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly Disagree 62 Administrator Interview Prompts on Parental Involvement Identification Code: Date: How you define parental involvement? How you encourage parental involvement at your school? What methods you use to involve parents at your school? What is the most effective method that your school has used to get parents involved? What difference you see in student achievement with the parents who are involved? What else would you like to add to this topic? APPENDIX E 63 Alice Alexander-Felts’ audit trail Friday, April 1, 2005 Today, we formed a group based on our interest in parental involvement The members of the group are as follows: Alice Alexander-Felts, John Bean, Carla Morrow Hellinger, Jennie Sabo, and Jayson St Croix As a group, we began to write chapter one of this study This was accomplished with the guidance of our Professor, Dr Valentine We described the following in our first draft of Chapter One: the problem, the purpose, questions, rationale, assumptions, definition of terms, limitations, and delimitations I went home and typed up the information for the first chapter I also made five copies of the draft and distributed them to the group members for peer review Saturday, April 2, 2005 Today, we met as a group We reviewed the typed version of Chapter One Jennie looked it over and made some very good suggestions for editing I also showed the typed copy to Dr Valentine who made further editing suggestions Holly Chambers, a SUNY Potsdam librarian showed us how to search three specific databases for scholarly articles: First Search ERIC interface, CSA PsychINFO interface, and ProQuest interface This valuable information was applied immediately to our search for articles on our specific topics I had a hard time finding articles dealing with “parental involvement and students’ love for learning” Therefore, I changed my topic to “parental involvement and students’ choice” This topic was also too difficult, so I changed my topic once again to “parental involvement and students’ behavior” With this topic, I began to have 64 success The process of gathering quality articles took about four to five hours I was, however, able to leave the computer lab with five quality articles Sunday, April 3, 2005 Carla emailed me about the participants we will include in the study She suggested that we use teachers I asked if she would also like to use parents as well I am revising the first draft of Chapter One so I can send it via email to the group members Chapter One is near completion All we need to complete is the summary Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Today, I began reading the literature that pertained to my portion of the paper My portion of the paper is about parental collaboration and student behavior Wednesday, April 6, 2005 Today, I continued to read and highlight important points found within the literature that pertained to my portion of the paper Thursday, April 7, 2005 Today, I continued to read and highlight important points found within the literature that pertained to my portion of the paper Friday, April 8, 2005 Today, I continued to read and highlight important points found within the literature that pertained to my portion of the paper Saturday, April 9, 2005 65 Today, I finished reading and highlighting important points found within the literature that pertained to my portion of the paper Tomorrow, I will refer to the Action Research: a Guide for the Teacher Researcher text for guidance on how to complete my portion of Chapter Two and Chapter Three Sunday, April 10, 2005 Today, I emailed the accession numbers of all the articles I read and will cite in my portion of the paper I also edited Carla’s portion of the paper up until page I sent her an email of the modifications I have made to her paper to see if she would like to use or reject them Also, I reviewed the information that Jennie wrote for Chapter Three I emailed a request to her about my portion of Chapter Three I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the hidden responsibilities of the compiler In an effort to alleviate some of the anxiety, I asked Jennie to take on one of my tasks, since the role of compiler is so involved (it requires reading everyone’s work, editing, and placing it strategically within the paper) Jennie responded by volunteering to complete the “data management procedure” portion of the work I was responsible for in Chapter Three I wrote my first draft of my portion of Chapter Two Monday, April 11, 2005 Today, I edited the group’s work I asked questions of Jennie and Jayson regarding their submissions for Chapter Three I typed and emailed my portion of Chapter Two, “Student Behavior” and Chapter Three “Data analysis” and “Data management and validity” to the members of my group I continued to correspond with group members via email concerning their parts of the paper as 66 well as mine I revised my portion of Chapter Three and sent it to the group members Tuesday, April 12, 2005 Today, I edited the “Motivation,” “Student behavior,” and “Obstacles” sections I was also communicating with John, Jennie, and Jayson via email about meeting on Friday and about their portions of the paper Thursday, April 14, 2005 Today, I edited the “Socio-economic status” section of the paper I also communicated with the group about meeting on Friday I told them that things are running smoothly with the compilation of the paper Therefore, it was no longer necessary to meet with the group on Friday After the whole paper is compiled, I will email a copy to each group member They can look it over and send any comments or corrections I also began compiling the “Appendices” Friday, April 15, 2005 Today, I completed edited the paper one final time before presenting it to Dr Valentine This was the last opportunity we had to fine-tune our work We put a great deal of time and effort into this paper We hope that our tenacity paid off APPENDIX F 67 John Bean’s audit trail Date Task 4/1/2005 Class 4/2/2005 Class Loaded Endnote program on computer & familiarization Time spent hours hours 4/3/2005 with same, Lit search using Clarkson's ERIC hours 4/4/2005 Called SUNY-Potsdam help desk for username & PW Called SUNY-Potsdam help desk for username & PW - got 30 minutes 4/5/2005 it for Bb but not for searching, , Endnote testing Attempted to login to Bb - not registered, attempted search hour but not allowed Called Dr Valentine to get registered on Bb and see about getting help with search account Called 4/6/2005 help desk again to no avail hour 4/7/2005 Searched ERIC using Clarkson's library got more articles 4/8/2005 None Used Clarkson's limited version of ERIC to get reference hours 4/9/2005 data for all papers in the group 4/10/2005 Read, read, read, start writing lit review 4/11/2005 None Received search username and password, further lit search hours hours 4/12/2005 and updated other references in endnote 4/13/2005 Wrote chapter summary, edited rest of chapter Date Task Wrote methodology and rationale for chapter 3, update hour hour Time Spent 4/14/2005 refs, more lit review Finish writing Lit review and audit trail, final reference hours 4/15/2005 updates 4/16/2005 Meet at am w/ group, with Dr V, after w/ group hours hours 68 APPENDIX G Carla Morrow Hellinger’s audit trail Friday, April 1, 2005 Decided upon groups Selected and defined topic- parental involvement Began working on chapter Saturday, April 2, 2005 Literature review search Met with group to decide on tasks Selected articles for literature review 69 Began reading articles Sunday, April 3, 2005 E-mail from Jayson for distribution list E-mailed John accession numbers Individual literature review Continued reading articles Monday, April 4, 2005 E-mailed with group about project Continued reading articles Began writing section on obstacles Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Continued e-mail correspondence with group Continued reading articles Continued writing section on obstacles Wednesday, April 6, 2005 Continued e-mail correspondence with group Continued reading articles Continued writing section on obstacles 70 APPENDIX H Jennie Sabo’s audit trail Friday, April 1, 2005 Researchers met and worked on chapter one which includes developing a problem statement, purpose, question, rationale, assumptions, definition of terms, limitations, and delimitations Saturday, April 2, 2005 Researchers met and searched ERIC and other credible sites for Chapter two, Review of Literature Tasks were discussed and divided among researchers Sunday, April 3, 2005 71 Communicated through email with group members Started reading literature review articles and assigned text Monday, April 4, 2005 Communicated through email with group members and continued to read literature review articles and assigned text Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Continued reading literature review articles and assigned text Friday, April 8, 2005 Wrote and typed chapter three procedure used for data gathering and analysis, timeline, and audit trail These parts were e-mailed to group members for feedback and revisions Reviewed cover page and chapter one; feedback was given and returned Saturday, April 9, 2005 Compiled notes, wrote and typed literature review for chapter two Sunday, April 10, 2005 Wrote “Data management procedure” for chapter three Developed forms for questionnaires and rating scale Sent to group members to look over and make corrections Monday, April 11, 2005 Revised and finalized forms, literature review and chapter three parts Sent them to be compiled Tuesday, April 12, 2005 72 Reviewed group member’s work and replied back Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Communicated with group members through e-mail Thursday, April 14, 2005 Communicated with group members through e-mail and sent audit trail notes to be compiled Friday, April 15, 2005 Reviewed and edited final copy APPENDIX I Jayson M St.Croix’s audit trail Friday, April 1, 2005 Picked a topic for our group research paper At this time we worked on completing our problem statement, purpose, question, rationale, assumptions, definition of terms, limitations, and delimitations Saturday, April 2, 2005 Alice typed up our research so far and we reviewed and corrected it as a group After this, we searched for articles on our specific sub-topics for the 73 “Review of Literature” chapter We came up with sub-topics Each group member took one topic and reviewed the articles that we had found Sunday, April 3, 2005 Emailed the group all of our email addresses so that we could begin corresponding Monday, April 4, 2005 Began reading articles on SES and taking notes Tuesday, April 5, 2005 Continued reading articles on SES Reviewed Alice’s chapter and cover page Thursday, April 7, 2005 Started putting together notes that I have compiled from reading the literature on SES Friday, April 8, 2005 Finished putting the notes together Started writing a rough draft on SES Emailed John my references Saturday, April 9, 2005 Finished writing my rough draft on SES and parental involvement Sunday, April 10, 2005 Typed rough draft and edited draft Proof read draft Emailed final copy to the group for their opinion Monday, April 11, 2005 74 Finished my portion of questions for chapter three Typed up questions and sent them to Alice Tuesday, April 12, 2005 Alice needed clarification because I sent her an incomplete draft Fixed my draft of chapter three and resent to Alice who could now understand it Thursday, April 14, 2005 Thought Alice was in trouble Haven’t checked email in a day and there was a lot of action At first Alice looked like she was in over head but in her next email she said that she had it under control God Bless Alice, she took on an enormous task and is doing great Friday, April 15, 2005 Sent audit trail to Alice ... This Thesis entitled Parental Involvement and the Implications on Student Achievement, Motivation and Student Behavior By Jayson M St.Croix Has been approved for the Department of Education ... focusing on the following issues: student achievement, motivation, student behavior, obstacles, and socio-economic status Student Achievement The positive effect of parental involvement on student. .. reading, and/ or understanding the English language There may also be a disconnection between the home culture and the cultural norms of the school The school may not value the home culture of the students