Date of Award
2012
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Abraham S. Fischler College of Education
Advisor
Matthew Delaney
Committee Member
Anne Joslin
Committee Member
Ronald P. Kern
Keywords
parent attitudes, parental involvement, parent opinion inventory, parent-school relationships, quality of instruction, racial imbalance, race relations, rural elementary school, school climate, school closing, school-parent relationship, student satisfaction, structured interviews, teacher quality, integrated schools, multicultural education, communication, educational quality, learning environment, mixed-method study
Abstract
This applied dissertation study sought to determine what impact the closing of a small elementary school whose students were predominately Black had on parents’ levels of satisfaction with their children’s education now that they attended an integrated school and what cultural differences, if any, existed among and between different ethnic groups of parents. The Parent Opinion Inventory and an open-ended, structured interview were used to gather data in this mixed-method study.
A random select technique was used to generate a pool of 226 participants from 1 rural elementary school in the southern part of the United States. Eighty of these participants were parents of students who attended the closed school and now attended the integrated school, and 146 were parents of students who had attended only the integrated school. The parents who were dissatisfied based on survey responses were the target population interviewed in person or by telephone to determine what factors influenced their dissatisfaction. The purpose of the study was to assess parents’ satisfaction with their students’ education and to measure the extent to which parents believed the school was meeting the needs of students.
The satisfied parents of the target school rated the target school high in the areas of quality of instruction and school climate, specifically, safe and orderly learning environment and parents were welcomed. The majority of parents perceived the school as meeting the needs of their children’s education. The dissatisfied parents perceived parentschool relationships as the area with which they were most concerned. Participants did not perceive culture or race as a primary barrier to a quality education but, rather, the lack of communication as the primary problem; however, race relations were important and contributed to parents’ perceptions. The dissatisfied parents questioned the overall quality of the school to prepare students for real-world experiences, fairness to all students, and teacher quality. The majority of parents perceived that parental involvement was important and that the school provided various multimedia means and opportunities for parents to get involved. There was little to no cultural differences in the parents’ attitudes toward parental involvement.