Authentic and effective family engagement requires a high commitment from the school principal. This study is a representation of the researcher's effort to better understand how principals can form strong school-family relationships in order to improve overall achievement for economically disadvantaged students living in rural communities. Interview data were examined pertaining to six elementary school principals serving Title I schools within rural Appalachia. Data were analyzed to identify strategies practicing principals and policy makers can use to better strengthen school-family relationships. The findings focus on the principals' role in fostering and improving these relationships. As an educator in a high-poverty school system in rural southwest Virginia, I want to add to the literature research-based strategies for implementing family engagement strategies in elementary schools within rural communities. This research should provide practitioners with effective strategies for reflecting on their own strategies and to build relationships with families to ultimately improve the overall achievement for students experiencing economic distress. / Doctor of Education / Authentic and effective family engagement requires a high commitment from the school principal. This study is a representation of the researcher's effort to better understand how principals can form strong school-family relationships in order to improve overall achievement for economically disadvantaged students living in rural communities. The researcher completed interviews with six elementary school principals serving Title I schools within rural Appalachia. This research should provide practitioners with effective strategies for reflecting on their own strategies and to build relationships with families to ultimately improve the overall achievement for students experiencing economic distress.

The achievement gap is an important problem with serious consequences for the United States’ economy. A long history of oppression has contributed to a substantial gap in achievement between students of minority status or low socioeconomic status and their white or higher income peers. Large scale efforts to address this problem have been unsuccessful in substantially reducing the problem. As parent involvement has been linked to student achievement, capitalizing on strong family-school partnerships offers a valuable opportunity to target student achievement. Low-income and minority parents face many barriers to parent involvement. If schools embrace a more inclusive view of parent involvement and collaborate with parents to reduce these barriers, however, successful family-school partnerships may be formed. Themes for creating such partnerships include recognizing that parents care about their children’s education and want them to succeed, treating parents as equal partners in the educational process, and using innovative techniques to solve problems. / text

Résumé : Les enfants de maternelle dont la préparation scolaire est limitée risquent de présenter des difficultés comportementales nuisibles à leur adaptation ultérieure. L’implication des parents à l’école, plus précisément la collaboration famille-école (CFE), peut représenter un facteur de protection favorisant l’adaptation de l’enfant tout au long de son parcours scolaire. Les écrits scientifiques suggèrent que la CFE jouerait un rôle important dans l’explication des difficultés de comportement, surtout auprès des enfants provenant de familles défavorisées. Cette étude porte sur le rôle de la CFE dans l’explication des difficultés de comportement intériorisé et extériorisé des enfants de maternelle qui présentaient des lacunes sur le plan de leur préparation scolaire. Les analyses de régression linéaire montrent que pour l’ensemble des familles de l’échantillon (n=47), plus il y a de communication entre le parent et l’enseignant, plus il y a présence de comportements extériorisés et intériorisés. Par contre, la CFE modère la relation entre un indice d’adversité constitué du cumul de cinq facteurs de risque sociodémographiques et les difficultés de comportement intériorisé. Ainsi, chez les familles défavorisées, une communication plus fréquente est associée à moins de comportements de type intériorisé. / Abstract : Children with limited school readiness are at risk for behavioral problems, which impact their school adjustment. Parents’ involvement in school, such as family-school partnership (FSP), may be a protective factor improving child's adaptation throughout their school career. Literature shows the important role of the FSP in reducing behavioral difficulties, especially for children from disadvantaged families. This study aims to explain child externalizing and internalizing behavior problems in kindergarten through FSP in children showing a limited school readiness. Linear regressions show that a frequent communication between the parent and the teacher is associate with a greater presence of externalizing and internalizing behaviors for the whole sample (n=47). However, FSP moderates the relationship between the demographics vulnerabilities and internalized child behavior problem in kindergarten. Indeed, for disadvantaged families, when there is a more frequent communication, children have less internalized behaviors.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:44:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3206.pdf: 4866995 bytes, checksum: ed007ae3e8fdfce0d7dd9ac6cb05a012 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-30 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / Literature highlights family and school as important agents to the infant development, having special influence on child‟s learning. In this perspective, partnership between scholar and familiar systems has been seen as one of the alternatives to prevent and/or to attenuate difficulties in learning and behavioral problems presented by children at the school. Based on these assumptions and on the theoretical framework of the Bioecological Perspective on Human Development, the present study shows the need to train teachers to work with children with learning difficulties. The goal of this study was to elaborate, implement and assess an intervention program for high school teachers working with students with learning difficulties. This program enables the teachers to work with families and to increase the parental involvement in the academic activities, creating better conditions for the children to learn. In order to control the variables investigated, it was used a quasiexperimental design composed by two groups (Experimental Group GE and Control Group GC). We provided measurement of pre-test, post-test and follow-up. Overall, the study involved 180 participants. The 60 teachers, 60 parents and 60 children were divided in GE and GC groups. The program entitled Intervention Program for Teachers as Agents of Promoting Parental Involvement (PROAPEP) was consisted of 1 lecture per week during 10 weeks. The goal of PROAPEP was to provide information to teachers about the strategies to involve parental in the learning process of their children, mainly through their homework. Teachers developed practical and theoretical activities focused on the involvement of the families with their students. The instruments used to collect data from teachers, children and families were: Questionnaire (pre-test, post-test and follow-up situations, Criterion of Brazil Economic Classification, Protocol of Session Evaluation of the Intervention Program, Protocol of Final Evaluation of the Intervention Program, Parental Involvement Scale Teacher´s Perception, Parental Involvement Scale Teacher´s Practice, Home Environment Resources Scale, Rutter A2 Parent Scale, Parental Involvement Scale Practices of Families and Test of School Performance. The results were analyzed through qualitative criteria, descriptive statistics and ANOVA and MANOVA tests. The scope was to verify differences between the participants of GE and GC. We also used the pair-t test to investigate differences in the teachers‟ repertoire of the GE group between the post-test and follow-up phases. The results indicated: a) the teachers of GE group gave more importance to the parental involvement and implemented more activities than the teachers of GC group; b) the families of GE group practiced more activities related to the learning process of the children than those in GC group; c) the children of GE group had better academic performance and fewer behavioral problems compared to children of GC group; d) there was a major difference between pre-test grades and post-test grades for both groups, which indicated the improvement of the GE teachers‟ repertoire at the end of PROAPEP; and e) there was a significant differences between two of the three questions that were answered by GE teachers in the post-test and follow-up, which pointed to an increase in the repertoire of teachers even after six months elapsed from the end of PROAPEP. This way, it is possible to conclude that PROAPEP program was effective to train teachers as agents of the parental involvement in the learning process of children with difficulties. For future research, we suggest the development of studies with the randomization of participants, the monitoring the effects of long-term program and the selection of stratified samples for possible comparisons. / A literatura destaca a família e a escola como importantes contextos de desenvolvimento infantil, que exercem especial influência sobre a aprendizagem da criança. Nessa perspectiva a parceria entre os sistemas escolar e familiar tem sido vista como uma das alternativas para a prevenção e/ou atenuação das dificuldades de aprendizagem e problemas comportamentais apresentados pelas crianças no âmbito escolar. Embasado nesses pressupostos e ancorado no arcabouço teórico oriundo da Perspectiva Bioecológica do Desenvolvimento Humano, o presente estudo visou investir na formação de professores que atuam com crianças que apresentam dificuldades de aprendizagem. O objetivo do estudo foi elaborar, implementar e avaliar um programa de intervenção dirigido aos professores do ensino regular que lecionassem para alunos com dificuldade de aprendizagem. A meta foi instrumentalizá-los a trabalhar junto às famílias de seus alunos para aumentar as possibilidades de envolvimento parental nas atividades acadêmicas e conseqüentemente favorecer a aprendizagem das crianças. Para um maior controle das variáveis investigadas optou-se pelo emprego de um delineamento quase-experimental composto por dois grupos (Grupo Experimental - GE e Grupo Controle - GC), prevendo medidas de pré, pós-teste e follow-up. Participaram do estudo 180 participantes, sendo 60 professores, 60 familiares e 60 crianças distribuídos entre GE e GC. O programa intitulado Programa de Intervenção para Professores como Agentes de Promoção do Envolvimento Parental - PROAPEP foi ofertado em situação presencial por meio de 10 sessões semanais. O PROAPEP teve como meta fornecer suporte informativo aos professores sobre as estratégias para favorecer o envolvimento parental na aprendizagem de seus filhos por meio principalmente de atividades desenvolvidas em seus lares. Os professores desenvolveram atividades teóricas e práticas voltadas ao envolvimento das famílias de seus alunos. Para a coleta de dados com os professores, crianças e famílias foram utilizados os seguintes instrumentos: Questionário (situação de pré, pós-teste e follow-up, Critério de Classificação Econômica Brasil, Protocolo de avaliação das sessões do programa de intervenção, Protocolo de avaliação final do programa de intervenção, Escala de Envolvimento Parental Percepção do Professor, Escala do Envolvimento Parental Prática do Professor, Inventário de Recursos do Ambiente Familiar, Escala Comportamental A2 de Rutter, Escala de Envolvimento Parental Prática das Famílias e Teste de Desempenho Escolar. A análise dos resultados envolveu o uso da análise qualitativa, estatística descritiva e dos testes estatísticos ANOVA e MANOVA para verificar diferenças entre os escores dos participantes do GE e do GC e do TESTE T PAREADO para verificar diferenças no repertório dos professores de GE entre os momentos de pós-teste e follow-up. Os resultados indicam: a) os professores do GE atribuíram maior importância e implementaram atividades de envolvimento parental com freqüência maior do que os professores do GC; b) as famílias do GE praticaram atividades relacionadas a escolarização das crianças em maior proporção do que as famílias do GC; c) que as crianças do GE apresentam melhor desempenho acadêmico e menos problemas comportamentais quando comparadas as crianças do GC; d) a existência de diferença significativa entre as médias do pré e do pós-teste implementados junto aos professores do GE e do GC, o que indica o aumento do repertório dos professores do GE após a participação no PROAPEP; e e) a existência de diferença significativa entre duas das três questões que foram respondidas pelos professores do GE no pós-teste e no follow-up, o que apontou para um aumento no repertório dos professores mesmo após transcorrido seis meses do término do PROAPEP. Desta forma é possível concluir que o PROAPEP se mostrou eficaz na capacitação dos professores como agentes de promoção do envolvimento parental na escolarização das crianças com dificuldades de aprendizagem. Para futuras pesquisas sugere-se o desenvolvimento de estudos com distribuição randômica de participantes, a monitoração dos efeitos do programa a longo prazo e a seleção de amostras estratificadas para possíveis comparações dos resultados.