Parent Participation in the Educational Process and Student Achievement

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of parental involvement between parent and child as well as between parent and school. After the level of parent participation was established, the data set was used to determine whether a relationship exists between the level of parental involvement and student achievement at selected secondary urban schools. The selected secondary schools include two different school divisions. The study employed five approaches: (1) a descriptive analysis of the variables of parental interaction with the child as it relates to a personal, affective level; a monitoring level; and a social level; as well as parental interaction with the school on a direct level and indirect level; (2) a descriptive analysis of demographic family and student information to include combined family income, grade level of student, age, number of children in household, employment of student and race; (3) documentation of student achievement with grade point average (GPA) and scores on the SRA Test; (4) a statistical analysis utilizing step-wise multiple regression to determine if a relationship exists between the levels of parent participation and combined family income, race, age, grade level, number of children in household and employment status of child; and (5) a statistical analysis utilizing step-wise multiple regression to determine if a relationship exists between the kinds of parent participation and the criterion variable, student achievement. The descriptive analyses relating to parental involvement were supported by information obtained by the use of a questionnaire administered to parents. The questionnaire was designed by the researcher in conjunction with the Dissertation Committee, since no appropriate instrument was available. A field test of the instrument was conducted initially with fifty parents at local churches, and ultimately with 350 parents who have children in secondary schools. This field test was used to validate the questionnaire by making changes to questions that ...