Parental Involvement Critique of Parent

Parental Involvement

Critique of Parent Involvement in Education among Low Income Families

The assumption of this study is that the parents with a low socio-economic status are less involved in their children's education than parents of higher socio-economic status. The premise of this study is that the delivery of community services through a neighborhood school will increase parental involvement. The implication is that increased parental involvement will enhance student academic achievement (Smith, 2006, 44). The study centered on the reopening of Clark Elementary School in 2002. The campus, located in the Pacific Northwest, is a new facility replacing an existing facility. The school's student population is predominantly low social economic status (99% free or reduced lunch rate) and receives Title I funds. According to Smith the "physical, emotional, social, and intellectual needs of the families" were taken into account and "efforts were created intended to meet those needs" during the inception of the new Clark School (45).

Discussion

There are questionable portions of this study. The author, Jane Graves Smith, is an associate professor of psychology at Concordia University whose interests focus on child and family development. Her connection to student academic achievement is tenuous at best. She acknowledges that she was a participant-observer and that her role during the study was that of a volunteer "lunch buddy" tutor, and assistant for Read and Play and other family events (47). These proclivities and activities may call into question her ability to be objective about the subject matter being evaluated.

Correlation between parental involvement and student achievement varies depending on the how parental involvement and student achievement are defined, for instance, parental involvement might be defined as participation at school, or involvement in the student's academic and social lives (McCoach et. al. 2010). Fan and Chen's (2001) meta-analysis of parental involvement revealed relatively small effects of parental involvement on student achievement. On the other hand, there are many indications that socioeconomic status and parental involvement are positively related. One of the recommendations to come out of their study was the need for more studies that include both socioeconomic status and parental involvement as factors influencing academic achievement. In this way, researchers can control for the effects of socioeconomic status and better extricate the true relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement (Fan & Chen, 2001).

Though the Smith (2006) study seeks in increase parental involvement in the school, it fails to connect the influence increased parental involvement had on had on the academic achievement of the students. The study would be of greater value had if there had been a pre-assessment and a post assessment to ascertain overall student academic gains.