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Family Engagement is an imperative practice to ensure sustainable success in schools. Extensive research has been conducted on the effectiveness of family engagement practices in schools. Family Engagement's successes have been acknowledged: however, upon deeper examination of the research, it can be concluded that many family engagement practices are not effective in all schools. This is due to the demographic profile of the schools where research was conducted. This basic qualitative study was conducted at a diverse and rural Title I school. The following research questions guided the study: what family engagement practices do parents, teachers, and administrators indicate the school is implementing? What practices are perceived by parents, teachers, and administrators as effective family engagement practices? What else do parents, teachers, and administrators indicate the school should be doing to support family engagement? Parents were stratified into groups based on their declared race, while teachers were stratified by experience. Two administrators were also interviewed. Data from the interviews were coded and reviewed to see what the stratified groups perceive as successful family engagement practices. Findings from this study indicated that one-and-done family engagement events were the most prevalent method of family engagement. School leaders should consider the variety of these events and involve parents in the planning of such events. Parents also identified communication and relationship building as the basis of strong family-school partnerships. Leaders need to ensure that many opportunities for relationship building exist and a proactive approach is taken regarding communication with families. Participants identified that accessibility to family engagement events was necessary. Leaders must consider the scheduling of such events and increase the variety of times they are scheduled. Participants also identified communication as the most significant need from Country Elementary School. Leaders need to ensure multiple methods of communication are used and language barriers are eliminated. / Doctor of Education / Family Engagement is an important practice to ensure student achievement and overall success of schools. There is already an extensive body of research proving family engagement's effectiveness. However, newer research indicated that not all schools are benefiting from these engagement practices. This is mainly due to the population of students and families at the schools where the initial research took place. This basic qualitative study takes place at a rural Title I school and answer the following research questions: what family engagement practices do parents, teachers, and administrators indicate the school is implementing? What practices are perceived by parents, teachers, and administrators as effective family engagement practices? What else do parents, teachers, and administrators indicate the school should be doing to support family engagement? Parents, teachers, and administrators were participants in interviews to collect data to answer those questions. Findings from this study indicated that one-and-done family engagement events were the most prevalent method of family engagement. School leaders should consider the variety of these events and involve parents in the planning of such events. Parents also identified communication and relationship building as the basis of strong family-school partnerships. Leaders need to ensure that many opportunities for relationship building exist and a proactive approach is taken regarding communication with families. Participants identified that accessibility to family engagement events was necessary. Leaders must consider the scheduling of such events and increase the variety of times they are scheduled. Participants also identified communication as the most significant need from Country Elementary School. Leaders need to ensure multiple methods of communication are used and language barriers are eliminated.

Parents often perceive schools as the sole educator of their child when in actuality the school prefers parents to be involved as partners in the learning process (Comer and Haynes, 1991). Likewise, schools make the assumption that parents realize their role in the learning process, but do not effectively communicate the partnership to parents, and misconceptions about the parents and teachers roles and behaviors arise. Research has shown that both schools and parents have a major influence on children as they develop and that they learn best when schools and parents work together (Comer and Haynes, 1991). The purpose of this study was to examine parent and teacher perceptions of effective communication. This was a non-experimental quantitative study that compared the differences between parents' and teachers' perceptions of effective communication. The study consisted of a survey for parents and teachers on a Likert scale. The survey data were compared through the use of the t-test statistic and a One-Way Analysis of Variance. The information discovered in this study will allow the researcher to bridge the learning gap regarding how parents and teachers can actively participate in the effective communication process to enable both parties to send and receive messages and limit the amount of misunderstanding on educational topics relating to students. This information will be provided to principals and school leaders in order to better manage the communication process between parents and teachers to include the information, attitudes, and perspectives that exist, thus, impacting student achievement and school success. Findings included identified differences between parent and teacher perceptions regarding the effectiveness and frequency of communication, and difference between teachers at the two schools and between parents at the two schools. / Ed. D.

Using Delgado-Gaitan and Trueba’s (1991) empowerment/disempowerment definition as a framework, this dissertation investigated how Korean immigrant mothers perceived and practiced parental involvement in their children’s schooling, and how an empowerment/disempowerment process occurred during their involvement. To inquire into the research questions, this study used the qualitative case study method, and five Korean immigrant mothers were the cases. The interview method was used to gather data, and an unstructured interview protocol, as well as a semi-structured interview protocol, was used for the interviews. Each mother was interviewed three times. From this study, I found these things: For the concept of schooling, all the Korean mothers in this study agreed that schooling is all activities relevant to acquiring abilities related to having a better school life, and that the concept of parental involvement includes all the activities to support their children’s schooling, regardless of activity types. In a comparison of their beliefs and their practices for involvement, they show accord in terms of the comprehensive nature of parental involvement. However, there were also discrepancies between their perceptions and practices of involvement. To get an understanding of the discrepancy issue, their involvement experiences were explored, based on an empowerment/disempowerment framework. The Korean immigrant mothers showed distinctive features in empowerment and disempowerment while they were involved in their children’s schooling. First, they felt contradictory feelings—guilt and pride-- toward their identity, and this influenced their empowerment and disempowerment. The second feature was the struggles that the Korean immigrant mothers reported: cultural differences, exclusion, and a lack of English skill for involvement. Last, the most salient feature to influence their empowerment/disempowerment was the standard they were using to evaluate their involvement. These findings were discussed in terms of the features of empowerment/ disempowerment and the factors that influenced their empowerment and disempowerment. The Korean mothers’ standard of evaluation was discussed in depth, since it was determined to be the most basic issue to impact their empowerment/ disempowerment experiences. Based on the findings, this dissertation concluded with presenting implications for teachers, educational administrators, and Korean immigrant mothers themselves, and with suggestions for future research. / text

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abstract: ABSTRACT Parental involvement is vital to student success academically as well as socially (Jeynes, 2007; Kim & Hill, 2015). The purpose of this mixed-methods action research study was to examine the perceptions of parental involvement of parents and teachers in a Title I school. A training session intervention, Social Hour, was designed using the Heath and Heath change model (2010) to create an opportunity to learn about parental involvement and educate the school community on the Epstein’s six-types of parental involvement (Epstein, 1987). The goal of the Social Hour workshop was to address the challenges and barriers to parental involvement, previously listed in the literature. Using the lens of Critical Race theory (Blalock, 1967) ensured that the research gives a voice to those who are often marginalized while also helping parents and teachers build a relationship of trust and understanding using principles of Community of Practice (Wenger, 2009). The results of this study indicate that Social Hour-type learning events are significant in the change to perceptions of parental involvement. The participants had a lower level of confidence at the beginning of the session than at the end. Additional qualitative results also suggest a change in attitude after attending the Social Hour. Participants noted they had more energy about parental involvement and were encouraged that parental involvement does not require them to volunteer more; that it is more about being engaged in their child’s education. Overall, participants reported an increase in confidence and had a positive view of parental involvement based on attending the Social Hour workshop. Keywords: Parental involvement, Critical Race theory, Epstein Six Types of Parental involvement / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2020

Enrollment in K-12 online courses continues to rise substantially each year (Evergreen Education Group, 2015). As the number of students taking courses online increases, the number of parents parenting in online courses also increases. This qualitative exploratory case study, bounded by the online program that was studied, was performed to better understand parents’ perceptions of their roles in online high school mathematics courses. Eighty-seven parents participated in an online questionnaire which elicited both quantitative and qualitative responses. Guided by the major tenets of symbolic interactionism theoretical framework, these responses were combined with data from six interviews to investigate why parents chose to enroll their children in online mathematics courses, their expectations pertaining to the online mathematics course, and their perceived roles and responsibilities in the online mathematics course. Through a detailed process of analyzing the questionnaire and interview data, nine themes emerged: (a) participant parents enrolled their children in online mathematics courses to remove their child from a negative social environment and to avoid distractions in the traditional setting; (b) participant parents want their children to have the flexibility to work ahead of their peers; (c) the school should provide quality curriculum and resources for teachers, students, and parents; (d) teachers should identify and address when students need help; (e) teachers should be available and approachable; (f) students should put forth their best effort; (g) students should ask for help when they experience difficulty understanding a new concept; (h) participant parents monitor to make sure their children are completing assignments and asking for help; and (i) participant parents help their children by re-teaching mathematics concepts or encouraging the child to seek help from others. This study has theoretical and practical significance by adding to literature investigating parental roles in mathematics education and providing insight on the nature of parental involvement in an online high school mathematics program. Consistent with relevant literature (Currie-Rubin & Smith, 2014; Curtis, 2013; Thurber, 2013), results of this study call upon educators to invest in efforts that enhance understanding of parents’ perspectives in an effort to strengthen parental involvement in online mathematics courses. INDEX WORDS: Mathematics, Online learning, Online mathematics, K-12 online learning, Virtual learning, Parental involvement, Parental engagement, Parental roles, Interactions, Teacher responsibilities, Student responsibilities, Success, Perceptions of success, Flexibility

Thesis advisor: Irwin Blumer / This study examines the perceived impact of a parental empowerment project on parents of students of color transitioning into high school. The overarching problem addressed is the achievement gap. The study is an investigation of a means to increase the involvement of parents of color at an important transition. This is a gap closing measure because research dictates that this type of intervention can lead to higher academic achievement for minority students. To this end, seven participants constitute the sample group. Each sample member is treated as an individual case in keeping with the study's design as a qualitative case study. This study seeks to determine how these seven parents had their attitudes and behaviors shifted as a result of their participation in the aforementioned project, and which factors supported and inhibited their involvement as their children transitioned into high school. The researcher finds that all of the sample members perceived some benefit from their participation. These benefits for the parents include fostering a greater role understanding, increased ability to hold their children accountable, and an increased understanding of the high school curriculum. The monthly parent meetings, one of the three elements comprising the empowerment program, were most helpful for parents. Whereas, the scheduling of meetings made it difficult for members of the sample to be as involved as they wanted to be. Ultimately, the study concludes that a program which involves parents during their children's high school transition can help them increase their own sense of efficacy. It suggests opportunities for further research to be done on the impact of such a program on the actual academic performance of students. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration.

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This study is about factors affecting the effectiveness of parental involvement in their children’s education. This chapter focuses on the background to the study, statement of the problem, research questions, delimitation and limitations of the study and definitions of terms used in the context of the study. The education system during the apartheid era did not encourage effective involvement of stakeholders in schools. The achievement of democracy in South Africa has consigned to history the past system of Education which was based on racial inequality and segregation whereas this country requires a new national system for schools which will redress past injustices in educational provision, provide an education of progressively high quality for all learners (South African Schools Act (SASA) 84 of 1996). One of the factors which influence the success of a school system is the involvement of its stakeholders (SASA 84 of 1996). The school stakeholders are parents, educators, the learners, the community and the department of education officials. This means that these stakeholders should work together. According to SASA, a parent is the person legally entitled to the custody of a learner or a person who undertakes to fulfill the obligations of a person towards the learner’s education at school. Parental involvement is described as the willingness and active participation of parents in a wide range of school and home-based activities related to their children’s education. Literally, parental involvement is a dynamic process whereby teachers and parents work together for the ultimate benefit of the child. The SASA emphasizes that the role of parents in the education of their children is a vital support source of learning.