abstract: ABSTRACT The high percentage and the steady growth of Hispanic/Latino students in Arizona demand that special attention be placed on improving academic achievement and attainment. The need to support Hispanic/Latino parents in becoming meaningful positive contributors to their children's schooling continues to surface as a critical issue in school improvement efforts in many Arizona districts. American Dream Academy, part of the Center for Community Development and Civil Rights at Arizona State University, has aimed to address this critical issue. Their focus has been to change Latino parents' beliefs about, knowledge of, and behaviors related to their children's education from pre-kindergarten to the post-secondary level. The Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler model, Realizing the American Dream, for parental involvement was the basis for the design of the curriculum used by the American Dream Academy. The purpose of this study was to analyze the efficacy of the American Dream Academy in changing the beliefs, knowledge, and behaviors of parents. The data sources were demographic and pre- and post-academy surveys taken by 719 parents representing 42 Title 1 school districts throughout Maricopa County, Arizona during the spring semester of 2012. Two tailed t tests and the significant p values revealed statistically significant changes after participation in the academy for each one of the survey statement constructs, beliefs, knowledge, and behaviors. A computation of the effect sizes using Cohen's d revealed that there were moderate to large effect sizes for each of the constructs. The knowledge construct had the largest effect size. Pearson correlation coefficients revealed that the gains for each construct were positively correlated with each of the other constructs and that the relationships were statistically significant. The significant effects of the American Dream Academy's curriculum were considerable in changing parents' beliefs, knowledge, and behaviors as to pre-kindergarten and post-secondary education. Of special notice is the effect that the academy had on parents' knowledge of how to help their children as they navigate through the United States' educational system. It is recommended that school districts partner with the American Dream Academy in efforts to engage parents in meaningful participation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2013

The purpose of this study was to examine parents’ motivational beliefs for involvement in a Comprehensive School Health approach (locally called Healthy Active Schools, or HAS) at their child’s school. Literature suggests that parents’ role construction and parents’ self-efficacy are the most salient influences on parents’ decision to become involved at their child’s school. Twelve parents involved at two urban public elementary schools were interviewed. Questions were based on Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s model of parental involvement (1995, 1997, 2005c). Qualitative multiple case study analysis additionally utilized Penner’s (2002) model of sustained volunteerism and Bandura’s collective efficacy theory (1997, 2000; Goddard, Hoy, & Woolfolk-Hoy, 2004) to clarify findings. Results suggest most parents’ strong active role construction and negative valence grounded their parent-focused role orientation. School case study analysis revealed that the principal’s leadership, the structure of the HAS committee and the school’s climate uniquely influenced parents’ beliefs. Individual parent case analysis revealed four distinct patterns of parents’ motivational beliefs for HAS involvement. Future research is warranted to further examine the decisive impact of parents’ health and prosocial values on their decision to become involved specific to a CSH approach type of involvement. Additional case studies in local schools, school districts and provinces are recommended to illuminate unique contextual influences and the potential for the emergence of collective efficacy; including consideration for parents’ belief construct general invitations from the school would contribute to gaining a deeper understanding within this domain. Finally, the link between parents’ motivational beliefs of empowerment and their sustained motivation for involvement needs to be explored further.

This dissertation seeks to examine the schooling experiences of African American males attending predominately White independent schools in California. Using Critical Race Theory as a theoretical framework and the factors contributing to schooling experiences, this qualitative research explores the role of student self-perception, teacher expectations, and parent involvement as contributing factors to participants overall schooling experiences. Utilizing counterstorytelling as a means of capturing the rich narratives shared by the participants, data analysis included holistic content coding based on themes that emerged from narrative examination. Findings indicate how parent involvement became the overarching critical component that was most significant in positive schooling experiences for Black males. These findings also support the need to continue to examine the shortage of literature examining the schooling experiences of Black males in predominately White independent schools.

Research supports that many studies conducted across the country and internationally, acknowledge the positive effects of parental interest in learner academic achievement. The research findings reveals that no study about the role of SMTs and parents in enhancing learner academic achievement has been conducted in rural secondary schools of Sekhukhune Limpopo Province. Further inquiry discovered that studies conducted nationally and internationally focused only on parent participation in elementary schools to improve reading, composition, and cognitive powers of primary school children. Epstein (2011) posits that parental involvement diminishes as the child moves on to secondary school level. The intent of this study through qualitative case-study research explored and analysed the role SMTs and parents play in Sekhukhune District Limpopo Province in enhancing learners’ academic achievement. Five parents of Grade 8-12 learners and 3 SMT members participated from each of the six public secondary schools of Sekhukhune Limpopo province in the inquiry procedure. Principals regards parental engagement in education as interfering with school programmes. This work explored and examined how SMTs and parents collaborate and interact to improve learner academic achievement in rural public secondary schools of the Sekhukhune Limpopo Province. Knowledge of the concept parent involvement; encouraging positive parenting skills; enhancing communication with families; increasing volunteerism at school encouraging learning at home; increasing the number of parents in leadership and decision-making roles; improving community collaboration; capacitating parents and teachers with legislation and laws and dealing with barriers prohibiting effective involvement were some of the themes that evolved from the findings of this study. The implications point to the urgent need for proper training of the school management team for the efficient involvement of parents of children in rural areas, as this will enhance learner achievement. This research highlights the importance of collaboration between all stakeholders to establish a shared vision in order to improve learner academic achievement. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Education Management and Policy Studies / MEd / Unrestricted

The majority of research about parent involvement and family engagement indicates a positive relationship between parent involvement and student achievement. However, parent involvement as a useful strategy in education in developing countries is not well known, let alone researched. Until the current study no research has been published specifically about the types and frequency of family engagement in Tonga. This means there is no frame of reference for teachers, administrators and parents in Tonga to evaluate the applicability of existing family engagement research which has been predominantly conducted in developed countries, to schools in Tonga. This research is a descriptive, exploratory study to understand parent involvement in Tonga from the perspective of Tongan parents and teachers. The guiding framework was developed by Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1995) who identified three key constructs that influence parents' decisions for involvement -- parent motivational beliefs, invitations to be involved, and life context variables. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to gather and analyze data that were gathered from teachers (n=88) and parents (n=503) during focus groups and surveys at four schools that are owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tonga. The overarching desire was to understand why parents make the choices they do about the types and frequency of their involvement. Factor analysis and reliability tests supported the use of the selected survey instruments in this study. Some findings were similar to those found in research in developed countries including the way Tongan parents and teachers defined what parent involvement is. Further research could identify parent involvement behaviors that are particularly relevant in Tonga which improve student achievement Although the schools involved in this study are English speaking schools, language did not appear to be a strong barrier or enabler for parent involvement. However, a strong culture of respect and duty was repeatedly mentioned as potentially inhibiting parent involvement. Invitations appear to play a significant positive role in promoting parent involvement and may help mitigate parents' reluctance to participate. Encouraging and training teachers to extend effective invitations to parents which include specific suggestions for involvement may help increase the frequency of parent involvement.

In the present study we examined parent participation in an extrafamilial context (Head Start) and the liunily and child development conditions that predicted such participation. Participants included 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds and their pa rents in the Northern Utah and Southeastern Idaho areas. The families were grouped according to the ch il d's previous Head Start ex peri ence: those who had received home-based services in year one followed by center-based services in the second year ( l-IB to CB); those who had received no services in year one and home-based services in year two (HB only); and those families who had recei ved no services in year one and cente r-based services in year two (CB only). Pa rent involvement was measured using the Family Involvement Questionnaire {FIQ) which measured parent involvement according to three ll1c tnrs: home-based involvement (II Bl), school-based involvement (SBJ), and home-school confcrcncing (1-lSC). The chil dren's development assessments included the Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Fmotional Scale (ASQ:SE) and the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning-Third Edition (DIAL 3). Through using the FIQ, this study investigated the predictors of the type and quantity of parental involvement using class grouping (l-IB to CB, l-IB only, & CB only), family demographics. and children's ASQ:SE, and DIAL 3 scores as independent variables. Our study revealed that even though the class grouping had no significant relation to parent involvement, there were a few independent variables that were beneficial in predicting parents' involvement. The most signi ficant finding was that the chi ld 's ASQ:SE score could be used to help predict the variance in both home-based involvement and school-based involvement acti vit ies. This study found that the higher the number of the ASQ:SE score, the parents were less likely to participate in home-based and school-based activities. Other interesting findings included that as the number or children increased, the amount of home-based parent involvement decreased. In addition to this, we found that if the parents were European-American and married, they were more likely to report being involved in home-school conferencing activities.

This study explored how a multicultural/multilingual school negotiated culture with limited English proficient (LEP) students' families, particularly in the context of parent involvement activities. In order to understand how such negotiation of culture occurred, the researcher focused on the perspectives that school administrators, teachers and parents of students in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program had on the education of LEP students and their parents' involvement in school-organized activities. It also focused on the participants' understandings of cultural capital and the extent to which the school builds on immigrant /sojourner families' knowledge and culture to support their children's education. In this ethnographical study, the researcher used a variety of data collection procedures: a questionnaire for teachers and parents, document analysis, interviews, and participant observation. While results from the questionnaires show that teachers and parents had similar views of LEP student education and parent involvement, more detailed information gathered through interviews and observations show that school personnel and immigrant/sojourner parents held different perspectives and expectations. Moreover, the results revealed that cultural capital, social class, and parents' educational attainment level influence the way parents understand the academic and social expectations of the school's dominant culture and their interactions with school personnel. Likewise, cultural biases influence school administrators and teachers' perceptions and interactions with parents from ethnic/linguistic minority groups.

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