Linking the Process and Outcomes of Parent Involvement Policy to the Parent Involvement Gap

Abstract

This study compares what schools are doing to engage parents and analyzes the efficacy of these initiatives across predominantly Black, Latino, and White schools. Using the National Center for Education Statistics’s (NCES) Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS, 1999-2004), we specify a model that accounts both for factors associated with school policies and practices to engage parents in school- and home-based activities and the extent to which these policies affect parent involvement. Findings indicate that predominantly Black and Latino schools achieve significant gains in parent involvement as the number of policies in place to support and encourage participation increases, but that not all programs achieve the same results within or across racial contexts. Furthermore, we find leadership by minority principals, teacher attributes, responsibilities and training, as well as greater shares of Title 1 funding are positively and significantly related to school- and home-based policies across all three racial contexts.

Keywords

parent involvement segregation school policy inequality racial/ethnic context of schooling

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