1. Parental Involvement & Teacher Communication Inna Shenker Spring 2011 Final

2. Table Of Contents Statement of the problem Literature review Practitioners/Beginning teachers References Research Design Threats to Internal /External Validity Pre-Test/Survey and Post-Test/Survey Consent Form & Pre-Test Samples

3. Statement of the Problem Parents of elementary schools (whether public, private, or charter, etc) are not always involved with the school system. Parents are not coming to parent teacher conferences, responding to letters, volunteering, or helping out at home with their children for various reasons. Some reasons may be: language barrier, lack of cultural understanding, and so on. Parents and teachers need to find a way of communicating, working together, and improving ways of being involved schools and at home.

4. Hypothesis Over a 5 week study with parents directly and six children (2 nd,3 rd, and 4 th grades), Ms. X will look at ways parents are involved and not involved with homework and schools. Ms. X will send out consent forms, pre and post tests, pre and post surveys, and a survey for parents. Parents will talk to Ms. X and additionally write a journal response every week about ways they helped their children with mathematics.

5. Communication with parents  Finding ways through cultures J oshi, Arti Eberly, Jody Konzal Jean. “ 2005. Mikatavage, Raimonda. Aldrich, James. Ford, Martin2002  Teachers learning about their students backgrounds Watkins, Thomas J..2010  Parents finding it difficult to communicate with teachers and the school staff for various reasons and vice versa Joshi, Arti Eberly, Jody Konzal Jean. 2005 Wong, Shuk Wa. Hughes, Jan N. 2006  Some parents prefer emails, where they are informed. Teachers see improvements. Tobolka, Darby. 2006. Starr, Linda 2001  Getting parents involved and allowing them to know what is happeing in the classrooms. Albee, Julie Jackson. Drew, Margaret

6. Parents’ involvement in schools ~Pros and cons~  Parents help their children with homework Schumacher 2000. Starr 2001  Parents discipline their children to get their homework done and on time  Teachers see improvement in working on tasks and grades Starr 2001  Parent-teacher trust Watkins 2010; Wong and Hughes 2006; Aldrich andFord 2002  Parent-teacher education on students Griffin and Steen 2010; Watkins 2010; Starr 2001  Parents know what is happening in the school system Starr, Linda 2001 One CON is that parents have no time to come to schools and be involved. Another is the language barrier

7. Click to edit the outline text format Second Outline Level  Third Outline Level Fourth Outline Level  Fifth Outline Level  Sixth Outline Level  Seventh Outline Level  Eighth Outline Level Ninth Outline LevelClick to edit Master text styles Second level Third level Fourth level Fifth level Asian American/European American Parents on Education  Education is important Schumacher, Bev. 2000); Huntsinger and Jose 2009  Important to educate child at home, including more emphasis on own teaching as well Huntsinger andJose 2009  Teachers teach in class, parents teach at home Huntsinger and Jose2009  Teachers are an important part of teaching their children Huntsinger and Jose 2009  Use schools techniques at home Huntsinger and Jose 2009; Schumacher 2000; Floyd and Veron-Dotson2009  Help in classroom and in school as much as they can Huntsinger and Jose 2009

8. Latino Parents and African American parents on Education Latino Parents  Important to volunteer Wong and Hughes 2006; Quintana and Warren 2008  Help in class and school Wong and Hughes 2006; Watkins 2010  Language barrier between teachers and parents Quintana and Warren 2008 African American Parents – Dialects in English are different Teachers need to learn and respect their culture

9. Theorists/Practitioners and Beginning teachers  Epstein’s theory plays an important role in education. Griffin and Steen 2010 1) Epstein discusses six types of involvements 1. Parenting 2. communicating 3. volunteering 4. learning at home, 5. decision making and 6. collaborating Griffin and Steen April 2010 Beginning teachers – College courses Experience in fieldwork/student teaching Professor and student discussions Alidou, Hassana 2000

10. Method Participants - six students (2,3,4 graders) European American parents and 1 student is European born, everyone else is American born Method is based on parents know personally who gave their consent to work with for the thesis

11. Research Design Quasi – Experiment Group – Single Group One group: designated treatment group X, Pre- tested group O, and Post-tested group O Symbolic Design: OXO Groups are randomly assigned, because not in a school environment (communication with parents outside the school and know personally)

12. Threats to Internal and External Validity History: I will be working directly with the parents that I know personally. Attendance and teaches communication is not a threat. Maturation: Student may be interested in specific aspects of the project, since it will direct communication with parents. Interest ma vary. Testing/Pretest Sensitization: The pre-test & survey may have slight affect on the post test and survey. Instrumentation: 5 week period. Parents will be involved in their child’s education, particularly in math. Mortality: the rate will mainly stay the same, since I am doing research outside a school with families I know personally. Kids are in grades 2-4 Generalizable Condition: This research can be done in any school, state or country around the world. The results may vary depending on the families, culture, children, and type of research done.

13. Pre-Test and Post Test/ Pre- Survey Post Survey  Pre-Test and Pre-Survey for the students  Post-Test and Post-Survey for the students  Consent forms for parents  Development throughout 5weeks with parents about their involvement with their kids

14. Pretest and Post test

15. Survey Questions I - Always (5+ times a week) II - Usually (3-5 times a week) III - Sometimes (2- 4 times a week) IV - Rarely (2-3 times a week) V - Never (2 or less times a week)

16. I - Very Important II - Important III - Uncertain IV - Not Important V - Not Very Important Stude nt Survey A Important B Very Important C Important D Very Important E Uncertain F Not Important

17. References Joshi, Arti Eberly, Jody Konzal Jean. “Dialogue across cultures: a teachers’ perceptions about communication with diverse Families.” Understanding Family Diversity. Winter 2005 Huntsinger, S. Carol. Jose, E. Paul. “Parental involvement in children’s schooling: Different meanings in different cultures.” Early Childhood Research Quarterly Volume 24, issue 4, 4th Quarter 2009 Quintana, Anita P. and Warren, Susan R. “Listening to the Voices of Latino Parent Volunteers”. Kappa Delta Pi Record Spring 2008 Tobolka, Darby. “Connecting Teachers and Parents Through the Internet” Communication December 2006 Griffin, Dana and Steen, Sam. “School-Family-Community Partnerships: Applying Epstein’s Theory of the Six Types of Involvement to School Counselor Practice". American School Counseling Association. April 2010 Schumacher, Bev. “Learning continues at home” Montessori Life. Montessori Life v.12 no.2 (Spring 2000) Floyd, Loury Ollison. Veron-Dotson, Lisa Jo. “Using home learning tool kits to facilitate family involvement.” Intervention in School and Clinic January 2009 Vol 44 numb 3 Hoover-Dempsy, Kathleen V. Battiato, Angela C. Walker, Joan M.T. Reed, Richard P. DeJong, Jennifer M. Jones, Kathleen P. “Parental involvement in homework” Educational Psychologist 2001 Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc. Watkins, Thomas J. “Teacher communications, child achievement, and parent traits in parent involvement” The Journals of Education Research (Washington, D.C) 91(1997):3-14. Education full text. Web 13 Sep.2010 Wong, Shuk Wa. Hughes, Jan N. “Ethnicity and language contributions to dimensions of parent involvement.” School Psychology Review, 2006, Volume 35, No. 4, pp. 645-662 Jared, Elizabeth J. “Preparing new teachers to effectively communicate with parents.” Journal of Instructional Psychology v.24 (September ‘97) p.176-82

18. References Continued … Albee, Julie Jackson. Drew, Margaret “Off to the write start: a parents-teacher-child story”. Reading Horizons 41 no3 S/O 2001 Kyriakides, Leonidas “Evaluating school policy on parents working with their children in class” Journal of educational research 2000 Culp, Rex E., J.D., Howell, Christina S., Culp, Anne McDonald., Blankemeyer, Maureen. “Maltreated children’s emotional and behavioral problems: do teachers and parents see the same things?” Journal of child and family studies. Vol 10. No.1, 2001. pp39-50 Starr, Linda “Parents and teachers working together” Education World Copyright 2005 (10/07/2005) Wherry, John H. “Engagement ideas for disengaged parents.” Principal(Reston, Va) Mar/Apr 2010 Chen, Grace. “Parental involvement is key to student success”. Public School Review March 25, 2008 McDonald, Emma “Developing positive parent partnerships” Education World 10.07.2005 Mikatavage, Raimonda. Aldrich, James. Ford, Martin. “Immigration, ethnic cultures, and achievement” MultiCultural Review September 2002 Al-Hassan, Suha Gardner III, Ralph “Involving immigrant parents of students with disabilities in the educational process” Teaching exceptional children 34 No 5 May/Jun 2002 Musti-Rao, Shobana, and Gwendolyn Cartledge. "Making Home an Advantage in the Prevention of Reading Failure: Strategies for Collaborating With Parents in Urban Schools." Preventing School Failure 48.4 (2004) Ramirez, Fred. "Technology and parental involvement." The Clearing House 75.1 (2001) Guo, Yan “Communicating with parents across cultures: an investigation of an ESL parents’ night” Journal of Educational Thought Vol. 43, No. 2, 2009, 171-190 Alidou, Hassana “Preparing teachers for the education of new immigrant students form Africa” Action in teacher education Summer 2000 No.2A Adams, Michal B Womack, Sue A Shatzer, Ryan H Caldarella, Paul “Parent involvement in school-wide social skills instruction: perceptions of a home note program” Education Vo. 130 No. 3 Spring 2010 p. 513-28 O’Connor-Petruso, S.A (2010). Descriptive statistics and threats to validity (power point slides). Retrieved from blackboard.