Impact of Family Involvement Programs on Student Achievement and School Practices

1. Major Findings on Family Involvement Programs and Family Process

2. Learning OutcomesParent/Community Involvement and Student Achievement • Students are able to: • Apply appropriate change strategy to promote and sustain parent/community involvement • Compare and contrast the synthesis done by Henderson & Berla and that done by Henderson & Mapp • Utilize research synthesis done by Herderson & Berla (1994) and Henderson & Mapp (2002) to relate the relationship between parent/community involvement and student achievement • Utilize key findings and recommendations provided by Henderson and Mapp (2002)

3. Three Strategies of Planned Change(Robert Chin) • Empirical-rational change (The rational behind the utilization of research findings) • Power-coercive change • Normative-reeducation change Empirical-rational change • The linkages between researchers and practitioners • It is related to knowledge production and utilization (KPU) • The aim is to bridge the gap between theory and practice • Research, development, and diffusion (R, D, and D)

4. Power-coercive strategies Willingness to use sanctions in order to obtain compliance from adopters It requires that individuals comply with the wishes fo those who are in positions superior to theirs In empirical-rational and power coercive strategies, organizations are made to change • Both empirical-rational and power-coercive strategies believe that best ideas are best developed outside of the organization and the organization is the target of external forces for change

5. A normative-reeducative strategy • Norms of the organization’s interaction-influence system (culture) can be deliberately shifted to more productive norms by collaborative action of people who populate the organization • The shift from a close climate to a open climate (Andrew Halpin) • Moving from System 1 management style to System 4 (Rensis Likert)

6. School and Family Partnerships inPrimary SchoolsWee Beng Neo Ph. D. (Petaling District, Selangor) • Perception on the need for parent involvement Headmaster Teacher Parenting 95% 96.4% Communication 74.1% 71.5% Volunteer 15% 14.8% Home involvement 95% 91.3% School governance 5% 4.3% Collaboration with 95% 88% community

7. School Practices inParent Involvement • Type 4 predominates high in both high-achieving and low achieving schools • Type 2 is also another popular practice in high-achieving and low achieving schools • Parent involvement in Type 5 is minimal in both high-achieving and low achieving schools • Schools reported that their schools collaborated with community • Type 3 also not a popular practice in most schools • Type 1 was the least popular practice. The low achieving schools reported organizing more parenting activities than their colleagues in the high achieving schools (Your observation?) • Type 4 involvement was the most popular practice

8. A New Generation of Evidence: The Family is Critical to Student Achievement • Edited by: Anne. T. Henderson & Nancy Berla 1994

9. Major Themes Emerged • The family makes critical contributions to student achievement, from earliest childhood to high school • When parents are involved at school, not just at home, children do better in school and they stay in school longer • When parents are involved at school, their children go to better schools • Children do best when their parents are enabled to play four key roles in their children’s learning: teachers, supporters, advocates, and decision-makers • The more the relationship between family and school approaches a comprehensive, well-planned partnership, the higher the student achievement • Families, schools, and community organizations all contribute to student achievement, the best results come when all three work together

10. What the Studies Cover • Programs and Interventions • Early childhood//preschool Cochran et al. Cummins • Elementary school Epstein Toomey Cormer • High school Nettles

11. Family processes Dornbusch et al Ziegler Clark Eagle

12. Effects of student achievement if teachers practice parental involvement(Epstein) • Performed multiple-regression analysis to determine the relative effects of: Student and family background (sex, race, parent education) Teacher quality and leadership in parent involvement Parent reactions (rating of quality of homework assignments and requests) Student effort (quality of homework completed)

13. Epstein found that ‘teacher leadership in parent involvement in learning activities at home positively and significantly influences change in reading achievement • Epstein did not find a similar relationship for math achievement (reasons refer to page 61) • Parents are the one available but untapped and undirected resource that teachers can mobilize to help more children master and maintain needed skills for school

14. The relationship of parenting style to Adolescent school performance(Dornbusch, Sanford and …, Child Development, Vol. 58, 1987) • Three parenting styles identified are: Authoritarian: Parents tell children not to argue or question adults, punish children for poor grades, and respond to good grades with instructions to do even better Permissive: Parents seem indifferent to grades, whether poor or good, do not stress working hard, establish no rules about watching television, and are not involved in education, either at home or school

15. Authoritative: Parents tell children to look at both sides of an issue and admit that kids sometimes know more, they talk about family politics and encourage all family members to participate in decisions, they respond to good grades with praise, to bad grades with some restrictions and offers of help and encouragement

16. Across ethnic groups, education level, and family structures, authoritarian parenting was associated with the lowest grades, permissive parenting the next, and authoritative with the highest grades • Parenting style, or variations in family processes, is a more powerful predictor of student achievement than parent education, ethnic, or family structure • Subcategories response: Asian students do well in school regardless of parenting style, although there is negative relationship with authoritarian parenting

17. The effects of parent involvement on children’s achievement: The significance of home/school links (Ontario, Canada) Ziegler, 1987 • Two critical messages from the research: • The gap in school achievement between working-class and middle-class children is more effectively explained by differing patterns of child-parent and parent-school interaction than it is by characteristics of socioeconomic status (SES) • School personnel can intervene positively and effectively to show parents how to help their children be successful. The attitudes and behavior of parents who have felt powerless and excluded can be changed. Aggressive outreach techniques may be necessary to establish communication with ethnic, racial, and language-minority families

18. Findings on parent involvement at home School-related activities carried out by parents at home strongly influence children’s long-term academic success at all ages • Findings on parent involvement at school Parent involvement in education is equally powerful whether the involvement occurs at home or at school The presence of parents in school also help to transform the culture of school

19. Home-school relations and inequality in education (Melbourne, Australia) (Toomey, 1986) • The programs offering home visits were more successful in involving disadvantaged parents than requiring parents to visit the school, but the programs requiring parents to visit the school produced higher gains in reading competence

20. Why disadvantaged students succeed: What happen outside school is critical(Clark, Reginald,1990) • Sample: Black 12th-graders in Chicago • Hispanic, Asian, African-American, and Aglo elementary, middle and high school students in LA • Disadvantaged: The lack of necessary conditions for educational and occupational success • High-achieving students typically spent 20 hours a week engaged in ‘constructive learning activity’ after school. Supportive guidance from adults is a critical factor in whether such opportunities are available

21. The five categories of activities provide young people opportunities to engage in stimulating mental workouts: • Professionally guided, formal learning activities (normally provided by schools) • Deliberate out-of-school learning and work activities • High-yield leisure activities (reading, writing, conversation, problem-solving, visiting museums) • Recreational activities • High maintenance activities

22. The high-yield’ activities need the following indicators: Time spend on a particular task Opportunity to become actively involved in thinking while doing the task Extent of supportive input by knowledgeable adults and peers Standards, expectations and goals that surround the activity

23. Family matters: Evaluation of the parental empowerment program (Cochran, Cornell U) • In-depth analysis based on Family structure (married/unmarried) Income Race (Black/white) Education (> 12 years) Parents perception of effectiveness Parent-child activities Types of communication with the school Development of family support network

24. All these factors were compared to a matched group • On the average, low-income children in the program performed as well as children with middle-class, married parents who were not in the program • Children of single parents tend to do less well in school, unless parents were able to develop a social support network

25. How parents can become powerful force for building parent capacity? • School personnel can strengthen parents’ appreciation of their important role by providing positive feedback at every opportunity • Communications between home and school should be positive and preventive rather than negative and remedial • School can strengthen informal social support for parents • Provide parents with information and materials to help them work with their children at home

26. Educating poor minority children(Cormer) • A long-term program to transform two chronically low-achieving, inner city New Haven Elementary schools (1968) • 99% black and almost entirely low-income • Serious problems with attendance, discipline and staff turnover • Each school created a governance and management team led by the principal and made up of elected parents and teachers, a mental-health specialist and a support staff • The team a mental health group to handle each case and to recommend changes in school policies and practices that impeded children’s development • A discovery room allowed turned off children to form a trusting relationship with an adult

27. Results: • During the first five years, both schools attained the best records in the city and near-grade-performance • By 1979, students in the 4th grade were performing at grade level (without any change in SES makeup) • Bt 1984, 4th grades in both schools ranked 3rd and 4th highest on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)

28. Cormer’s words • Children from poor/marginal family Enter school without adequate preparation Lack of social skills – negotiation and compromise Never have heard bedtime stories Language skills underdeveloped/non-standard (How about characteristics of poor/marginal family in your community?)

29. Empowering minority students (Cummins) • The author proposes a theoretical framework for changing the relationship between educators and students that includes substantial family and community participation • The framework • Students from ‘dominated’ minority groups can either be ‘empowered’ or ‘disabled’ • Power and status relations between minority and majority exert a major influence on school performance (minority students tend to internalize their inferior status and fail to perform well in school)

30. School failure does not occur in minority that: Remain positive oriented toward both their own and the dominant culture; Do not perceive themselves as inferior to the dominant group; and Are not alienated from their own cultural values (How can we help them to achieve this?)

31. Schools that empower their students have the following characteristics: Additive: The students’ language and culture are incorporated into the school program Collaborative: Family and community participation is encouraged as an integral component of children’s education Interaction-oriented: Children are motivated to use language actively in gaining knowledge for their own use and Advocacy-oriented: Educators become advocates for the students rather than labeling students as having a ‘problem’

32. Socioeconomic status, family structure, and parental involvement: The correlates of achievement (Eagle) • The study assesses the varying effects of SES, parent education, mother’s working patterns, and family structure on high school student achievement • SES composites: Mother’s education, father’s education, father’s occupation status, family income, and number of certain possessions • Are advantageous home environment more common in high SES homes? Yes. Therefore, SES is considered to be associated with high student achievement • Does high SES alone account for higher achievement or does family involvement in education have an independent effect?

33. The researcher controlled for SES and found that three factors that demonstrated a significant impact independent of SES are • The possessions index • Students living with neither original parent • Parent involvement during high school (the most powerful) • Students’ educational attainment was strongly associated with five indicators of SES composite

34. . • Family background: Family composition, parent involvement during high school, parents reading to children during childhood, mother employment status, and having a special place at home to study • The study found that only a place to study, family reading, and family involvement during high school (ranked from least to most impact) are significantly related to student achievement

35. Family structure and the achievement of student • What matters is not family structure, but whether parents are able to provide educational experience for their children • Children from two-parent families tended to be a few months ahead of children from single-parent families • Educational level of mother (caregiver) is critical in determining the effects of the the mother’s working, while income is critical in determining the impact of the number of parents

36. Community involvement and disadvantaged students (Nettles) • Nettles defines community involvement as the actions that organizations and individuals (parents, businesses, universities, social service agencies, and the media) take to promote development • Nettles suggests a typology of change processes such community-based programs bring: Conversion: Bringing the student from one set of attitudes and behaviors to another Mobilization: Increasing citizen and local organization participation in the educational process Allocation: providing resources such as social service/financial incentives to children Instruction: Assisting students in their intellectual development and in learning social and civic skills

37. A New Wave of Evidence:The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student AchievementAnnual Synthesis 2002Anne T. HendersonKaren L. Mapp

38. How Do The Studies Define Student Achievement? • For young children: Teacher ratings of school adjustment, vocabulary, reading and language skills, social and motor skills • For school-age children: report card grades, grade point averages, enrolment in advance classes, and standardized test scores • Attendance, staying in school, and being promoted to the next grade • Improved behavior and healthy development (Example, less substance abuse and disruptive hahavior)

39. A New Wave of Evidence:The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement(Henderson & Mapp, 2002) • Studies on the impact of parent and community involvement • Benefits for students: • Higher grade point averages and scores on standardized tests • Enrollment in more challenging academic programs • More classes passed • Better attendance • Improved behavior at home and at school • Better social skills

40. Three Broad Categories • Studies on: • The impact of family and community involvement on student achievement • Effective strategies to connect schools, families and community • Parent and community organizing efforts to improve schools

41. Impact of Parent/Community Involvement on Student Achievement Factors contribute to school improvement: High standards and expectations for all students Effective leadership Frequent monitoring of teaching and learning Focused professional development High levels of parent and community involvement • Some forms of parent involvement with schools appeared to have little effect on student achievement, especially in high school. They include: Communications with school, volunteering, attending school events, parent-parent connection

42. A few found that parent involvement with homework and parent-initiated contacts with school were negatively related to grades and test scores (Catsmbis, 1998; Fan and Chen, 1999; Izzo et al., 1999; Shumow and Miller, 2001) They interpreted their results to mean that parents of struggling students provide more help at home than parents of successful students. These parents also tend to seek help from school • Key finding 1 Programs and interventions that engage families in supporting their children’s learning at home are linked to higher academic achievement Most of these programs are aimed at families with young children, from birth through kindergarten, then in elementary schools The programs include Head Start, Project EASE (Early Access to Success in Education, HIPPY (program Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters

43. Birth through preschool • An experimental study at Mathematica Policy Research and the Center for Children and Families at Columbia University (2001) produced the following results: • The program studied 17 sites and involved about 3,000 children • When the children were 2 years old, the Early Head Start children: scored higher on cognitive development scales, used more words, spoke in complex sentences than the control- group children

44. Studies conducted for the HIPPY (Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters) program showed mixed results • An experimental study carried in Turkey (over ten years) showed the following results • The four settings studied were • Home care provided by mothers with training, home visits, and discussion group (HIPPY) • Home care provided by mothers with no support • Childcare without education, and • Educational nursery schools • In the short terms, children in both HIPPY and nursery settings made greater progress than children in the other two groups • Seven years after completing the program, the HIPPY children showed greater gains than children in other groups • They earned higher scores in math and reading and in social development and were likely to stay in school

45. Elementary and middle school • A study done by Westat and Policy Studies Associates (2001) to look at the impact of the Title 1 Program in 71 elementary schools • The study used advanced statistics to analyze the relationship between student test scores and the following practices: • Visibility of standards and assessments • Basic or advance teaching techniques • Teacher preparation and teachers’ skills in math instruction • High or low ratings (by teachers) of professional development • Focus on assessment and accountability • District standards policies • Outreach to parents

46. Measurement for outreach to parents covered: • Meeting face to face • Sending materials on ways to help their children at home • Telephone both routinely and when the child was having problems • Research results: Teacher outreach to parents of low-performing students was related to improved student achievement in both reading and math (40% higher) Only the professional development that was highly rated by teacher was consistently linked to gains in both subjects

47. A study carried by Epstein, Salinas, Simon, (1997) at Johns Hopkins University on middle school children by looking at the TIPS (Teachers Involving Parents in Schoolwork) program • Results showed that: • Parent involvement boosted sixth and eighth grade students’ writing scores • The more TIPS homework students completed, the better their grades in language arts)

48. Key finding 2 The continuity of family involvement at home appears to have a protective effect an children as they progress though our complex education system. The more families support their children’s learning and educational progress, the more their children tend to do well in school and continue their education The protective effect: When students report feeling support from both home and school, they tend to do better in school. • Key finding 3 Families of all cultural backgrounds, education, and income levels encourage their children, talk with them about school, help them plan for higher education, and keep them focused on learning and homework. All families can, and often do, have a positive influence on their children’s learning Relating gender to different types of involvement, Lee Shumow and Joe Miller found: Fathers and mothers were equally involved at home, but mothers were more involved at school then fathers Fathers of all education levels were less involved at school than mothers Student gender did not make a difference in the level or type of parent involvement

49. Key finding 4 Parent and community involvement that is linked to student achievement has a greater effect on achievement than more general forms of involvement. To be effective, the form of involvement should be focused on improving achievement and be designed to engage families and students in developing specific knowledge skills

50. Effective Strategies to Connect Schools, Families and Community • Key finding 1 • Programs that are successful invite involvement, are welcoming, and address specific parent and community needs • Key finding 2 • Programs that are effective in engaging diverse families recognize, respect, and address cultural and class differences