Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Abraham S. Fischler College of Education
Advisor
Willis Furtwengler
Committee Member
Anne Joslin
Committee Member
Ronald P. Kern
Keywords
collaboration, communication, document review, elementary education, focus groups, homework, interviews, mathematics achievement, parent involvement, parent-school relationship, parental roles, quantitative analysis, school-related activities, student achievement, t test, teacher-parent communication, third-grade students, two-way communication
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which implementing a collaborative effort using 2-way communication increased parent involvement, impacted parental roles, and helped students improve their performance in mathematics. This parental-involvement intervention was implemented in response to low parental involvement at the school site and low mathematics achievement of students.
Eighteen parents of 3rd-grade students were invited to participate in the study, and only 5 participated. Data were collected from individual interviews with parents to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. Focus groups were conducted with parents using a protocol to collect data about the parents’ perceptions of their parental roles and interactions with their children at home concerning school-related activities. Document review included recording student mathematics achievement assessment scores from the 3rd-grade students of the 18 parents invited to participate in the study, and from 18 students whose parents were not invited to participate in the study.
Results of this study showed that the 5 parents appeared to have increased their involvement at home with their child’s school-related activities, including homework and the child’s progress. Mean scores from the 2 student groups of 18 students each were compared using an inferential statistical assessment, the t test, to assess the effectiveness of parental involvement on mathematics-achievement scores. Mean mathematics-achievement scores also were reported for the students of the 5 parents who participated in the intervention and for the 13 students whose parents were invited to participate but did not participate in the study. Results showed that the 2-way-communication intervention between teacher and parents had no apparent effect on the 5 students’ mathematics-achievement scores.