A Comparison of Levels of Involvement for Parents with At-Risk African American Kindergarten Children in Classrooms with High Versus Low Teacher Encouragement

Abstract

Based on data obtained from their teacher, 76 African American kindergarten children were classified as at risk for poor educational outcome. The parents of these at-risk children also reported their parent involvement levels. Independent ratings by trained observers were used to divide the teachers into a highand low-involvement group based on measures of general involvement and involvement in two specific domains, that is, home-school conmmunication and school volunteering. No statistically significant differences were presentbetween the two groups of parents on the general involvement scores. However, statistically significant differences between parents occurred in home-school communication and school volunteering for parents grouped by teachers who were high and low in the encouragement of specific activities in these two areas. The implications of these findings, including designing and evaluating parent involvement programs for the large number of families with young African American children at-risk for schoolfailure, are discussed.

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