Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

The Zone of Tolerance is a concept which describes the latitude of control that a community gives to its professional educators. Current research which attempts to delineate this zone indicates that community control of a district will vary, but is predictable when variables are arranged to meet certain criteria. Specifically, William Boyd (1976) concluded in a summary of the research that in large heterogeneous urban districts professional interests will dominate in routine internal issues such as personnel. This study used multiple qualitative methods to examine Boyd's contention by analyzing the hiring of successful principal candidates in a large heterogeneous school district. Interviews were conducted with principals selected by questionnaires and hired in the district during the period of time from 1975 to 1985. Corresponding data about school district events for the period were also collected from newspapers and other public archives. In addition, principals' perceptions of legitimacy affected by changes in influence on the hiring process were gathered. Data were then reduced, categorized and analyzed on the basis of shifting patterns of community and professional dominance. Results indicated that an increase in minority rights issues and the community's changing demographics shifted control of the hiring process from the school professionals to a newly elected school board more representative of community interests. Principals' perceptions of legitimacy affected by the changing patterns of dominance were varied and inconclusive, however the shift in control over personnel decisions regarding the hiring of principals was conclusive and contradicted Boyd's contention.

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was that of surveying the attitudes of parents, teachers, and principals toward parental involvement in school activities. The study had a threefold purpose. The first was to determine the attitudes of parents toward involvement in school activities. The second was to determine the attitudes of teachers and principals toward parental involvement in schools. The third was to identify attitudes of parents, teachers, and principals toward various methods of involvement.

Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

This study explores parental involvement in basic education in two school communities in rural Ghana. There has been relatively little previous research on parental involvement in school governance in Ghana generally and in poorer rural areas in particular. In such contexts, the term ‘parent' often extends beyond the biological parent to wider family and community networks and in this research, parental involvement is understood as a construct and practice that is both contextually located and produced through the intersecting spheres of influence between school, family and community (Epstein, 1995, 2001). The study starts from an understanding that when it comes to parental involvement in rural Ghana, there is a continuum of involvement that begins with basic decisions such as whether to send a child to school or not. It also recognises the importance of relational matters and issues of equity (Baquedano-Lopez, Alexander and Hernandez, 2013). Developed as a small-scale qualitative case study, focus group discussions and individual interviews were used to explore the inter-relationships between parents, staff and communities. The decentralised system of education delivery in Ghana assumes an important role for school management committees and parent teacher associations and the focus group discussions therefore involved community participants who were members of school management committees or parent teacher associations as well as head teachers and teachers in each of the two rural case study schools. Additional data were collected from individual interviews with parents. A key finding of the study was that although the formal structures for parental engagement in school governance were in place, in practice many members of the school management committee were unable to contribute fully to school management. The specific barriers to parental involvement unearthed in the study included socioeconomic factors such as the cost of equipping children to attend school but also the loss of income to the family. The practice of corporal punishment was identified as a potential source of misunderstanding between parents and school authorities and as something that could discourage involvement. Tensions in school governance situations also arose from the use of the English language. The study concludes that policies designed to encourage parental involvement in school governance must reflect not only important contextual differences but also the dynamics between structures and participants.

"December, 2003" / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 211-223) / vii, 270 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Graduate School of Education, 2004

The purpose of the study was to describe perceptions toward schools held by black parents of students granted racial balance transfers for 1978-1979 school year by Fort Wayne Community Schools administration officials. An attempt was made to discover if parental support for schools changed when children transferred from one school to another using racial balance transfers.Personal interviews were held with six randomly selected black parents of elementary students granted racial balance transfers for the purpose of generating questions for a parent questionnaire. Information secured from the interviews was compiled and placed into categories relative to administration, curricular offerings, quality of teaching, student progress, school environmental, school climate, and parental involvement. A questionnaire was developed from data gained from interviews with the parents. Black parents, two doctoral committee members, students enrolled in the doctoral seminar for research, and a selected jury for final editing examined the questionnaire for clarity, simplicity, and consistency in language. A Likert five-point scale labeled "strongly agree," "agree,"' "undecided," "disagree," and "strongly disagree," was utilized so parents could express strength of agreement or disagreement with questionnaire items. The questionnaire was mailed to the total Population of 232 black parents representing 337 elementary school students granted racial balance transfers. One-hundred twenty-four parents completed questionnaires.A computer program, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), was chosen to generate raw data from returned questionnaires. Data were analyzed in an attempt to answer eleven research questions relative to black parent perceptions toward school.Parents perceived that predominantly black schools previously attended by black students equalled predominantly white schools in certain respects, such as, teacher expectation of students and fair dealings of principal and teachers with parents and students. Parents perceived that previous schools offered certain benefits over present schools, such as, more teachers were able to teach subjects so children could understand. Parents were generally favorable toward present schools attended by black children. Parents wire generally satisfied with previous school environments, but perceived present school environments as more desirable for black children.Black parents of students granted racial balance transfers did not become more involved in school activities. Slightly more than one-fourth of responding parents were active in present school PTAs; about 50 percent were active in previous school PTAs.About one-third of the respondents regarding previous schools and about one-half of the respondents regarding present schools did not feel encouraged to help plan and develop school programs and activities. Fewer than one-fourth of the respondents reported actual participation in planning and developing school programs and activities.Based on the findings and conclusions of the study, the following implications seem warranted:In view of the need for parent support for and financing of school programs, gaining support for schools from all parents seems imperative. School personnel should seek information about how black parents perceive schools and the administration of schools. Knowledge of parental perceptions about schools may be helpful to school authorities in the evaluation of racial issue postures and the handling of problems related to effective instruction.School principals and teachers need to be well grounded in sociology and psychology of various racial groups. While psychological effects of integrated school settings are important, black parents seem most concerned about the effects of integrated school settings on the academic success of black children.How well black students do in school may be directly related to how much teachers expect of students. When teachers set reasonably high expectations for students, students may conform to these high expectations. The selection of teachers and the attitudes of teachers toward students are important aspects to consider where black students are expected to do well.

Thesis (M.A.)--California State University Channel Islands, 2009. / Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Education. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed January 25, 2009).

Previous research has suggested that parent involvement with children at home and in school is positively related to academic performance. Children with little to no parent involvement are at a distinct academic disadvantage. In light of this disadvantage, the present study examined the possibility that participation in extracurricular activities might serve as an alternative option for the school success of these children. Past research has found a significant positive association between participation in extracurricular activities and performance in school. Thus, this study tested the hypothesis that the relationship between parent involvement and school performance depended upon participation in extracurricular activities. In other words, children with low parent involvement who participated in extracurricular activities were expected to academically outperform children with low parent involvement who did not participate in extracurricular activities. This study also contributed to the literature on parent involvement and extracurricular activity participation by testing the relationship of each to academic performance. Participants came from a longitudinal, nationally representative data set and included 8410 third grade children. Parent involvement was measured with a composite variable including home-based and school-based involvement items (derived from parent and teacher report). Extracurricular activity participation was measured by parent report. Each child's academic performance was measured by teacher report of academic competence in reading and math. This study controlled for sex, race/ethnicity, previous achievement and family structure. Contrary to what was expected, the interaction between parent involvement and extracurricular activities was not significant. Although the relation between extracurricular activity participation and academic performance was statistically significant, that of parent involvement and academic performance was not. Supplementary analyses revealed a positive, statistically significant association between school-based parent involvement and school performance; a negative, statistically significant relation was found between home-based parent involvement and school performance. Previous research supporting home-based parent involvement has utilized parent training provided by schools and teachers. Results of the current study, which did not involve formal parent training, may therefore suggest that children stand to gain more from home-based parent involvement when schools and teachers encourage, train, and support parents. In response to the encouraging finding with respect to extracurricular activity participation, future researchers may wish to delve further into the topic by examining the activities or characteristics of those activities that prove most beneficial for the academic performance of children. / text

This study addressed the questions of whether parents can give effective phonological and phonics skills instruction to their own young children, who are at risk for reading difficulties, and whether any positive changes in child attitude and parent confidence occur as a result of the instruction. Early phonological and phonics skills instruction is known to be effective for children at-risk for reading difficulties, but is not always provided in schools. Two groups of families (experimental and "waiting list" control) used a home program (providing phonological and phonics skills instruction, and Paired Reading guidance) for two separate, daily, ten-minute activity and reading sessions, for ten weeks. The program also included a process to address reading motivation, whereby parents used the language of strategies of mediation based on Vygotsky's social learning theories. Significant Time by Group interaction effects were calculated for Word Attack and Phoneme Deletion (Initial Sound). Parent and child pre-test and post-test questionnaires explored changes in motivation and attitude to reading. There were significant positive changes in child attitude to reading, and parent perceptions of progress. Small but significant correlations were also found between parent perceptions and treatment integrity, and between treatment integrity and achievement outcomes. It was concluded that the study provides limited support for the idea that parents of grade 1 children at-risk for reading difficulties can give instruction effectively when given detailed information about all three aspects of early reading.