Retention of students in high school continues to be a problem. At-risk students, principally minority high school students, drop out at a staggering rate (1990 national dropout statistics indicate that 13.2 percent of Black students and 32.4 percent of Hispanic students leave high school before graduating). There is a direct, positive correlation between parent involvement and student retention. Students whose parents demonstrate positive influence regularly are more successful academically and participate more often in school and extra-curricular activities. Parents' interest in their children's education can be expressed differently. Few parents realize how important and powerful their influence can be in a school. Some parents have invested so much time and energy in previous years that they assume the high school student is emotionally mature enough to speak for him/herself. Other parents will participate in school-related projects only when or if asked by school representatives. Nearly all parents are willing to respond in a crisis. Lack of parent participation in school governance and affairs has been evident for years. In fact, it is expected by many administrators and teachers. Many articles have been written that support the importance of parent participation in a child's education. This paper will attempt to discuss strategies ten single working parents use to motivate their children to succeed in high school. Parent involvement in the child's academic success may be most needed when parents have low education levels and the children are in high school. Additionally, there are unique problems associated with single working parents; however, there is a positive correlation between single parent involvement and student retention. As a guidance counselor, talking to students it is obvious that parents use many strategies not identified in the literature at home to motivate their children to remain in high school until graduation. This research was designed to elicit, explore, and evaluate strategies used by ten single working parents to keep their children in high school when many of their peers have left high school.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-9046 |
| Date | 01 January 1995 |
| Creators | Harrell, Patsy Martin |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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