Introduction
Recently, there has been a significant reduction in parents actively being involved in the child’s education in Title I school located in Rutherford County. Due to this reduction, stakeholders such as government, community, and education practitioners have raised concerns in regard to parent absence (Kuusimäki et al., 2019). Although development such as extra federal funds being provided to address parents’ training, supplement the curriculum, and purchase material to support student learning have been allocated, the measures have failed to ensure the active involvement of parents in the child’s education (Lam & Yeoh, 2019). Additionally, parents must be actively involved in the academic process since making the learning process successful is a collective effort involving both caregivers and educators. Since parents have failed to actively participate in their kid’s education to improve their results, this proposal will include information on the conduction of a study that can facilitate high involvement.
Significance of the Problem
When parents actively engage in their kid’s education, students feel motivated, leading to higher grades and success in regard to academic goals. Additionally, the level of involvement is crucial, which is why they should actively participate to ensure the student’s performance is maximized (Agostinelli et al., 2022). The research aims to minimize the challenges in the parent’s participation in their children’s academic life. This research proposal will help parents by providing them with access to instructions and concepts that can lead to an improvement in their engagement in the education of their children. Moreover, the measures will facilitate parents and schools to gain knowledge on what is required to ensure parent engagement in a child’s education.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of my action research is to address the measures that are to be implemented in regard to parent involvement in the education of their children. The involvement will be facilitated through an action-based session. Additionally, the study will highlight the concepts of measures parents can apply to be actively engaged in school and home education processes.
Research Questions
- Why should parents be actively involved in their child’s education?
- How can parents be actively involved in their child’s education?
- Why is parent active involvement crucial to students’ performance?
Review of Literature
The theoretical framework applied to the current paper aligns with the notion that academic results can be positively influenced. Namely, the theory of intelligence and the incremental theory specifically illustrated that intelligence is malleable and can be successfully addressed through perseverance and motivation (Jiang et al., 2019). Concerning the current framework, the theoretical overview supports the argument that parents who cultivate perseverance and desire to gain knowledge and academic success can assist their children in their education process.
Parental involvement is a crucial component of school policy, and numerous parental involvement initiatives try to improve kids’ academic success. Cosso et al. (2022) use academic and non-academic outcomes to examine the relationships between parental participation shifts and children’s results. The aforementioned research adds to the previous meta-analyses that summarized the findings on the effectiveness of parental involvement programs. The findings revealed that parental participation treatments had a favorable and moderate impact on kids’ general performance and academic and non-academic results when treated independently. However, home and school-based interventions were not significantly associated with the known effects. Generally, the article revealed that variations in effect sizes on the results of the children were strongly correlated with the intervention’s effects on parental participation.
An efficient way of examining parent engagement in relation to student performance was the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Namely, children were subjected to homeschool learning, which allowed researchers to determine whether the engagement of caregivers generated positive academic results. Selanger et al. (2020) researched parents’ contributions to their kids’ education at home during a school lockdown. For the study to be conducted, the researchers selected teachers and parents from a local primary school using a mixed-method design. Pek and Mee (2020) argued that children whose parents are more interested in their schooling perform better in school than those parents who are less involved. However, the study revealed that parents are not motivated to engage in their kid’s education.
Parent engagement is especially important in early education as it is the basis for the child’s academic life, and the student has no prior experiences with similar tasks. The study conducted by Dereli and TĂĽrk-Kurtça (2022) has exemplified the subjective opinions of preschool teachers in regards to parent involvement in the academic life of their children during the COVID-19 lockdown. The study uses a qualitative research method, namely, phenomenology, to analyze the data collected. Research findings revealed that parent involvement had become crucial, especially during the lockdown when children were autonomous in how they attended classes and studied. However, there have been controversies about parents serving as proxy instructors during the COVID-19 pandemic (Johnson et al., 2016). Additionally, the study conducted by Dereli and TĂĽrk-Kurtça (2022) revealed the value of parents’ involvement in education and their ability to better their child’s education. The findings showed that the Ministry of Education should promote parent involvement at the microsystem level. Furthermore, the researchers promote the Ministry of Education as being an active participant in the provision of the necessary information teachers can use to encourage parent involvement in education.
Three concepts regarding parent behavior that have been conceptualized as correlating with high academic performances are mutual trust, effective communication, and respect between the caregiver and the student. Trust, specifically, allows parents to easily participate in the education process of their children as the students are openly sharing certain concerns or seeking assistance. In most cases, open lines of communication between teachers and parents increase parental engagement (Krage, 2018). The parent-wise feedback intervention is another relationship-building strategy that establishes clear expectations between two parties and promotes communication to foster trust. A study conducted by Houri et al. (2019) revealed a notable increase in parental behavior and relational engagement as methods used by parents for intervention. In addition, the research showed that educators could easily apply this low-cost, parent-directed intervention to improve parental involvement.
In most cases, engagement in homeschooling helps a student to learn how to read. A study conducted by Lynch (2021) examines literacy instruction and homeschool interaction in a low-income school from the viewpoints of parents and language arts instructors. After interviews with language art teachers, the findings generated through the research were: opposing viewpoints on homeschool participation, diverse views on assignment completion, and similar perspectives on what drives students’ interest in literacy. Due to these conclusions, the researchers recommended increased engagement of school administration when it comes to parents in regards to providing children with reading instructions and guidance.
Extensive research has been conducted to determine whether a quick, parent-reported evaluation of strengths and needs can be the initial step in a multiple-gating strategy for determining the support and type of engagement necessary to minimize educational challenges. A study by Moore et al. (2016) assesses the validity and reliability of the Positive Family Support-Strengths and Needs Assessment (PFS-SaNA) in public middle schools. The study found that the 14-item, unidimensional PFS-SaNA has convergent validity concerning teacher risk assessments. Since the survey was relatively quick and affordable, it can be applied by school staff when enrolling children in school at the start of each year to ensure maximum parent involvement.
Numerous authors have questioned if there is a difference in parent involvement and public charter and district schools’ satisfaction. Due to this question, Oberfield (2020) conducted a study examining if any such variations persisted after taking into account observable aspects of the school and family. The observable features included the parent’s research of the school before enrolling their children as students. The findings revealed that charter parents demonstrated higher levels of volunteerism but did not participate in more activities linked to education. Contrarily, charter parents reported higher levels of satisfaction compared to district ones. Generally, the results revealed that the inequalities persisted even after considering the visual elements in which these families and schools varied.
Researchers have also developed investigations exploring how parents feel about their involvement in their kids’ educational experiences. Robison and Volpe (2015) conducted qualitative research on parents at two public elementary schools in an Appalachian system by examining the two across various sites. The study findings reveal that parents were inspired to participate in education, time constraints were a limitation, and marginalization decreased participation. Due to these findings, the study provided recommendations to teachers, educational leaders, and other school district personnel.
There are numerous ways parents can be engaged in the child’s education. An article by Protacio and Edwards (2015) argues that sharing time is a staple classroom practice that can be used to increase parents’ involvement in their child’s English learning lesson. In addition, sharing time presentation increases the knowledge and interest of students and their classmates in their native culture. Hence, the article reveals that sharing time between learners and their parents is an effective measure that can facilitate involvement in the students’ academic life.
The literature review has revealed that parents do, indeed, have major roles in their children’s academic performances. Moreover, communication between parents and students is critical when it comes to addressing gaps in knowledge and understanding the areas that require assistance. Nonetheless, the findings have also illustrated the importance of the presence of communication channels between parents and educators. As a result, teachers can form a professional relationship with the caregivers with the aim of communicating about the successes or areas that require assistance in regard to the students’ academic experiences. The current study aligns with the aforementioned articles since it seeks to highlight the importance of parent engagement and measures that can be implemented to maximize involvement and, hence, positive educational results.
Methodology
Administering questionnaires is the method that will be applied to collect data. Three sets of questionnaires will be prepared to be distributed to teachers, parents, and students in Title I schools. The questionnaires will consist of open-ended, multiple-choice, and close-ended questions. Since the purpose of the study is how we will get our parents actively involved in their child’s education, qualitative and quantitative research design will be used in the study. Further on, the questionnaires will be used to gather data from students, parents, and teachers for the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the research.
The participants that will be examined for this research are students in Title I school, as well as their parents and teachers. First, researchers will organize a meeting with teachers to inquire if they are willing to help with this research. Secondly, parents will be sent a consent form asking for their approval to participate in the study with their children. Finally, questionnaires will be distributed to the number of parents who agreed to enroll their child and themselves in the study.
Data Collection
Since the study will use a mixed-method approach, quantitative and qualitative questionnaires will be designed and sent to teachers, parents, and students who have volunteered to participate. The questionnaires will include questions on the active involvement of parents in their child’s education (Zhang et al., 2021). The forms will be distributed via emails to ensure that feedback is obtained in real-time. It is expected that the participants will offer their full cooperation by completing the questionnaires as they volunteered to participate.
Data Analysis
Since the questionnaires will be completed and returned to the researchers, the analysis will be conducted on the feedback. Microsoft Excel will analyze quantitative data by performing descriptive statistics analysis. Additionally, the tool will present results in tables, bar graphs, and pie charts for visual analysis. Further on, the study will use qualitative data analysis software to examine parents, teachers, and students’ perspectives on how to involve parents in their kid’s education actively. In addition, the qualitative analysis tool will reveal factors that hinder parents from actively participating in their child’s education.
Preliminary Conclusions
This participatory action research process and investigation will identify factors that hinder parents from attending training. The assessment will consider factors such as poverty, lack of educational resources and home structure, single parenting, and community. Applying such measures and considering the aforementioned variables will generate a comprehensive understanding of why parents are not actively involved in their child’s education. On the other hand, the study will reveal certain measures that are considered to generate involvement that, de facto, do not significantly impact the kid’s education.
Further on, the study will reveal how parents can actively participate in their child’s education. The first activity the study will identify to ensure that parents are actively engaged is parents and teachers sharing ideas via videos on the school websites. This measure will ensure that teachers provide the necessary guidance on how parents can help their children with the specific assignment. Additionally, the method will allow parents to gain insight into the specific areas where their children need extra help. Secondly, it is crucial to adopt extensive social media use at school to create communication channels between schools and parents. Finally, home visits and parent conferences will be implemented as a method for active involvement.
Since the study will reveal the factors that hinder parent involvement and how they can be active participants in students’ academic performance, the results will facilitate an improvement in grades and other performance variables. In most cases, when parents are actively involved in their kid’s education, students are more successful in reaching their educational goals. The results correlate with the relationship between educators and parents when it comes to revisions and evaluations. Discovering what makes parents adopt a passive role in education will be a crucial step in this research. Additionally, determining ineffective measures is vital to ensuring significant progress and addressing potential disruptions. After the findings are highlighted through data collection and examination, solutions will be provided. Although the research proposal will generate conclusions and results specific to the Title I school framework, it will apply to all institutions, highlighting the importance of the research to the education system.
References
Agostinelli, F., Doepke, M., Sorrenti, G., & Zilibotti, F. (2022). When the great equalizer shuts down: Schools, peers, and parents in pandemic times. Journal of Public Economics, 206, 104574. Web.
Cosso, J., von Suchodoletz, A., & Yoshikawa, H. (2022). Effects of parental involvement programs on young children’s academic and social-emotional outcomes: A meta-analysis. Journal of Family Psychology. Web.
Dereli, F., & Türk-Kurtça, T. (2022). Parent engagement in early childhood education: Pandemic period. Southeast Asia Early Childhood Journal, 11(1), 35-48. Web.
Houri, A. K., Thayer, A. J., & Cook, C. R. (2019). Targeting parent trust to enhance engagement in a school-home communication system: A double-blind experiment of a parental wise feedback intervention. School Psychology, 34(4), 421-432. Web.
Jiang, K., Liu, J., Liu, C., Guo, X., Zhou, H., Lv, B., Liu, Z., & Luo, L. (2019). The discrepancy of parents’ theories of intelligence and parental involvement. Frontiers in Psychology, 10. Web.
Johnson, S. B., Arevalo, J., Cates, C. B., Weisleder, A., Dreyer, B. P., & Mendelsohn, A. L. (2016). Perceptions about parental engagement among Hispanic immigrant mothers of first graders from low-income backgrounds. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44(5), 445-452. Web.
Krage, V. A. (2018). Parent, Teacher, and Principal Perspectives of Parent Engagement in a Title 1 Elementary School (dissertation). ProQuest Dissertation Publishing, Minneapolis.
MN. Kuusimäki, A., Uusitalo-Malmivaara, L., & Tirri, K. (2019). Parents’ and teachers’ views on digital communication in Finland. Education Research International, 2019, 1-7. Web.
Lam, T., & Yeoh, B. (2019). Parental migration and disruptions in everyday life: Reactions of left-behind children in Southeast Asia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(16), 3085-3104. Web.
Lynch, J. (2021). Elementary school teachers’ and parents’ perspectives of Home–School engagement and children’s literacy learning in a low-income area. School Community Journal, 31(1), 127-148. Web.
Moore, K. J., Garbacz, S. A., Gau, J. M., Dishion, T. J., Brown, K. L., Stormshak, E. A., & Seeley, J. R. (2016). Proactive parent engagement in public schools: Using brief strengths and needs assessment in a multiple-gating risk management strategy. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 18(4), 230-240. Web.
Oberfield, Z. W. (2020). Parent engagement and satisfaction in public charter and district schools. American Educational Research Journal, 57(3), 1083-1124. Web.
Pek, L., & Mee, R. (2020). Parental involvement in child’s education at home during the lockdown. JHSS (Journal of humanities and social studies), 4(2), 192-196. Web.
Protacio, M. S., & Edwards, P. A. (2015). Restructuring sharing time for English learners and their parents. The Reading Teacher, 68(6), 413–421. Web.
Robison, D.V., & Volpe, L. (2015). Navigating the parent involvement terrain-the engagement of high poverty parents in a rural school district. Journal of Family Diversity in Education, 1(4), 66-85. Web.
Zhang, L., Bai, W., Xiao, H., & Ren, J. (2021). Measuring and improving regional energy security: A methodological framework based on both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Energy, 227, 120534. Web.
Reflection
Part A
In my instructional practices, I will ensure that parent involvement is a critical factor. I will achieve this by creating a rapport with my students’ parents. The connection will encourage parents to participate in their child’s education actively. Another change I will make in my instructional practices is to ensure that I have three parent and students conference in a year. This will help me have physical contact with parents and students to identify loops hindering parent involvement. The last change is giving students assignments that will need parents’ assistance.
The action research will improve students’ grades since they will receive education assistance from teachers and parents. Additionally, the student’s confidence will be boosted as the teacher’s theoretical moral lesson will be practically implemented by parents due to active involvement. From another perspective, the study will ensure that I always value parents’ feedback and respond in real-time. Further, the action research will ensure that I always have contact with parents to be aware of my student’s progress or regression at home. Finally, this action research is a crucial improvement for the school because teaching will become a collective effort between practical educators and parents.
I plan to engage the faculty by highlighting the potential positive results following the intervention. For instance, this action research can improve the school’s general performance. Since the faculty’s primary goal is good performance, the entity will be motivated to participate in the action research. The faculty’s involvement in the action research ideals correlates with investment in all activities that foster parents’ engagement in their child’s education. Namely, the investments include such factors as creating a school website and installing Wi-Fi in the school compound.
Part B
If I had a chance to redesign my action research, I would add the types of active parent involvement that significantly impact the child’s education. The study focuses on actively involving parents in their child’s education but fails to show specific types of participation. Therefore, if I were to redesign, I would ensure that only required active parental involvement is included and eliminate those that do not impact the child’s education. This shows that in case of a redesigning, there will be a significant improvement that will increase the accuracy of the action research.
To improve the recruitment of participants, I suggest that researchers inform them that their responses will be confidential. This will ensure that all responses to the action research questionnaires are accurate and truthful. Further on, I suggest a time frame be included to show how the action plan will be implemented and the duration it requires. My final suggestion is that the action plan should strictly comply with the requirements in the research proposal to ensure anticipated results are acquired.
As a school leader, I supervise all the projects assigned to me and ensure they become a success. Additionally, I have the role of developing ideas that enhance the faculty to achieve its goals. Due to this role, I have developed action research to ensure the faculty’s performance improvement. Promoting involvement as described in the action research will ensure school improvement in terms of infrastructure and student success. Therefore, developing this action research indicates that I am performing my role as a school leader.