Association of Home Language with School Involvement among Mexican-American Parents

Abstract

Mexican-American parents of children attending a K-6 public elementary school in Texas were surveyed to examine the association of parental use of language at home with the extent of the parents' involvement with the school. A sample of 403 parents represented 317 who spoke only Spanish at home, 33 who spoke both Spanish and English, and 53 parents who primarily spoke English at home. Parents who spoke English at home volunteered at school significantly more often than parents who spoke Spanish at home, and more often than parents who spoke both Spanish and English at home. Conversely, parents who spoke Spanish and English at home attended school board meetings more frequently than did parents who spoke only Spanish at home.