Parental Involvement in Urban School

Parental Involvement in Urban School Settings

Context of the Problem

This designed research project is to examine the effects of why there is a lack of Parental Involvement in urban schools is low. Not many parents particularly minorities are able to work together with the school activities due to lack of immovability. Most parents of the minority ethnic groups can not afford to take off work to become involved with school activities. Most of the students that go to urban schools are dominantly minorities which make the percentage for Parental Involvement in urban schools tremendously low. Most of the students come from a single parent home. The concept of Parental Involvement is to allow parents to become involved with the teachers and the school. In order to show participation, parents have to show interest for the child. "Although it has been well established that parental involvement in school is linked to positive outcomes for children, there are a myriad of issues that make it challenging for some African-American families to engage school personnel in collaborative problem solving" (Koonce & Harper, Jr., 2005, p.55).

Some of the obstruction that reduces participation contains parents' poor school understanding, pressure by school staff, and hard meeting times (Koonce & Harper, Jr., 2005). If teachers were given a logical justification from the parents due to the lack of school involvement teachers would become more accepting to the circumstances which would be helpful to the child. When some minority parents are faced with defy of negative experiences with schools and commonly have to release the false intuition that the parent do not care about the education of the child, the parents are left with few resources to receive correspondence in educational opportunities.

For parents to be positively engaged, we propose that they need training to learn to navigate the school systems. The training modules we devised involved the following: (a) understanding how the school system operates, (b) learning how to voice concerns about the children to teachers and administrators to gain support, (c) understanding the educational guidelines for parental involvement, and (d) understanding the mandates of special education. The model incorporates a training component with the goal of helping the parents understand the mutually beneficial outcomes of their involvement in their children's educational career and its impact on teachers' expectations and instructional practices. (Koonce & Harper, Jr., 2005, p.61).

Training would become helpful to minority parents concerning the parental involvement for the learning of the child. Students tend to endure from the lack of parental involvement because the student needs that supervision from the parents and support.

The Problem Statement

Parental Involvement has a strong effect on students in both early and secondary childhood education. The topic of this study is examining the effects of why there is a lack of Parental Involvement in urban school settings. The topic addressed in this research will detail the analysis for the lack of parental involvement due to the lack of relationship, extremely poor communication, and very poor attendance for schools in the urban areas which consist of a large number of minorities.

Research Questions

The purpose of this project is to identify the reasons why there is a lack of Parental Involvement in the urban school settings that are dominant African-Americans. The following questions symbolize what causes the lack of Parental Involvement in the urban schools:

1. How can schools eliminate the lack of relationships between the parents and the staff? This is a vital question to the study and topic because the researcher cannot propose new ideas due to the lack of connection between the parents and the staff unless the problem in recognized.

2. How can communication become more effective between the parents and the educators? It is important for the readers to understand how the lack of communication can affect both the parent and child.

3. How can poor parental attendance have an effect on the child and the teacher? It is very important for the reader to understand the problems that evolve poor parental attendance.

Significance of the Study

Parents should really be conscious of the tribulations that are happening with the lack of Parental Involvement. Students are extremely affected by the lack of Parental Involvement because it is allowing them to follow other student footsteps. Students particularly at the adolescence stage require the parent's supervision because teenagers are too young to understand right from wrong during that stage. If more parents were involve with their child, less crimes would occur, less pregnancy, less drugs, and less alcohol involved in the schools. The economy has worsened due to the lack of Parental Involvement because parents are so occupied with other things beyond the child's education. Parents need to get together and try to come up with a resolution in becoming more involved with the students.

Lack of relationships within the schools are becoming a problem for the parents. Staff should find ways of welcoming parents in to the school and making them feel comfortable getting involved. The lack of relationship among the school and the community is the first step in the disconnection of parents.

When some African-American parents are faced with the challenge of their own negative experiences with schools and often have to dispel the misconception that they do not care about the education of their children, they are left with few resources to receive parity in educational opportunities. Even African-American parents who are able to successfully resolve negative school experiences remain reluctant to exercise their legal rights when advocating for their children. (Koonce & Harper, 2005, p.57)

The lack of relationship is happening more often with secondary schools than in elementary schools. "Most secondary schools are much larger than elementary schools and can be more intimidating to parents, especially those who are disenfranchised, speak little or no English, or who themselves had negative experiences while attending school" (Constantino, 2007, p. 58).

Poor communication is another reason for lack of Parental Involvement. Teacher and parents do not have a good communication particularly in secondary schools. "Because of their size and their complexity, secondary schools suffer from poor or inconsistent communication with all families" (Constantino, 2007, p.59). Parents do not feel communication is necessary at the adolescence stage. Communication is more challenging during the adolescence stage because children are faced with more peer pressure. Many children dominant African America drop-out of high school due to the lack of Parental Involvement. Parents should become more involved with the child during this stage to possibly prevent the child from failure. More children are less concern about graduating because they are too involved in other activities. For example, skipping school, drug usage, fighting, weapons, and disrespecting teachers. Teachers are just passing kids due to the "No Child Left Behind" law.

At the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is a promise to strengthen America's education system and raise the academic achievement of all students. Well-trained teachers can provide effective instruction so that students perform at their highest academic potential and that "no child is left on their behind." The law recognizes that parents are their children's first and most important teachers, and for students to succeed in school, parents must participate actively in their children's academic lives. Parents need to become involved early and stay involved throughout the school years. That is especially true during the adolescent years. (DePlanty, Coulter-Kern & Duchane, 2007, p.361)

Adolescence is the most difficult stage in the life of a person. Adolescences tend to be affected optimistically when a relationship is continued between the home and school. Parents provide the social, cultural, and emotional supports that teenagers need to function well in school. (DePlanty, Coulter-Kern & Duchane, 2007)

One final area of significance of the study involves poor parental attendance. As students get older, parents are less likely to become involve with the child's school. Parents are a very important aspect in the child's life at this stage due to only maybe 55% of students graduated on the expected graduation date and maybe 75% graduate on-time. Parents should want to become involve with the students due to peer pressure and students become very destructive. "Adolescents' involvement with their peers can limit the ability of their parents and their families to be actively engaged" (Constantino, 2007, p. 60). Behavior problems will only continue to occur if the parents do not become involved with the students. So many students are left behind despite the "no child left behind" law because teenagers grow up not learning anything from high school and doing poorly on ACT and SAT test scores. A lot of students are not getting accepting into higher education universities due to the student's low scores. Most urban setting parents do not feel a need to participate with the child's learning because the parents feel the learning should come from the teacher. Teachers are 50% responsible for helping the child get an education but the other 50% is the parent responsibility. Children are not being watched at night because the parents are working and leaving all the responsibilities to the child. Overall parental involvement has an effect on the child from the early stage to the secondary stage. Students need the parents for guidance, integrity and confidence to become successful in life because it is not the teachers job to make sure the students have these qualities. "In reality, parent involvement is a more diverse and complex concept than is generally acknowledged" (Dom & Verhoeven, 2006, p.570).

The study will help to determine the reason for the different challenges students may face due to the lack of parental involvement.

Research Design and Methodology

The proposed study will use a quantitative research design that uses both secondary resources as well as primary data collected specifically for the purposes of this research. The research procedure will proceed in a step-wise fashion, beginning with an exploratory review of the literature to identify common themes and trends in the research concerning current patterns of parental involvement in the schools and what initiatives have been found to be effective in promoting increased levels of parental involvement. The research will proceed following an inverted pyramid approach that continually narrows the focus of the study to research specifically concerning African-American parental involvement in urban school settings as described further below.

The secondary resources for use in the study will consist of peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly texts and online resources from governmental and educational Web sites. Both university and public libraries will be consulted for this purpose, as well as reliable online research resources such as EBSCO and Questia.

The inverted pyramid approach will continually focus the research design to develop timely and informed answers to the guiding research questions:

1. Why is there a lack of communication between parents and teachers?

2. How can minority parents be helped to become more involved with their children's education?

Organization of the Study

The proposed study will use a five-chapter format to achieve the research purpose described above and will be organized as described further below.

Chapter one of the study will be used to introduce the topics under consideration including a statement of the problem, the purpose and importance of the study, as well as its scope and rationale. The general topics to be considered include a summary of the research to date, the implications of parental involvement on young learners' academic achievement and social development. The statement of the problem will provide the context of the issues that are involved, the scope will delineate the range of the study's examination, and the rationale will be used to justify the need for the study.

Chapter two of the study proposed herein will provide a critical review of the relevant peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning the impact of parental involvement on children's social and academic development. The secondary resources to be consulted in this chapter include those described further below, as well as additional relevant peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly texts and online governmental and educational resources. Both qualitative and quantitative data will be consulted for this purpose.

Chapter three of the study will be used to more fully describe the study's methodology. This chapter will include a description of the quantitative study approach using the literature review described above for chapter two as well as a survey instrument for the databases to be consulted. This survey instrument will be used to collect primary data from teachers and support staff as well as parents of school children who agree to participate in the research as the data-gathering method. All respondents will be consented prior to their participation in the study and all findings will remain confidential and all respondents will remain anonymous.

Chapter four of the study will consist of an analysis of the quantitative data developed following the administration of the survey instrument to the population of teachers, support staff and parents. The statistical data that results from the administration of the survey will be analyzed using SPSS Version 11.0 for Windows (Student Version) and the results presented in tabular and graphic formats, and interpreted in a narrative fashion in chapter five which is described further below.

Chapter five will be used to present the study's conclusions, a summary of the research and salient recommendations. The study's conclusions will be based on a synthesis of the qualitative findings that emerge from the review of the secondary resources together with the results of the primary data analysis using the survey of parents of school children. These results will be summarized and used as the basis for the recommendations for educators and parents who seek to increase the involvement of parents in their children's academic careers.

The textual material in chapters one, two, three and five and the tables and graphs developed for chapter four will all be presented following APA 6th edition guidelines. The data for each of the study's five chapters will be organized and presented as shown below.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Context of Problem

Statement of Problem

Research Questions

Significance of the Study

Research Design and Methodology

Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature

Chapter 3: Methodology

Description of the Study Approach

Data-gathering Method and Database of Study

Chapter 4: Data Analysis

Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations

Chapter-2: Review of Related Literature

It is an established fact that a child's performance at school and his excellence in his or her academic, extracurricular and co curricular activities is greatly influenced by the degree to which his or her parent or guardian is involved in a child's schooling activities. Various researches, case studies and personal accounts of experienced teachers have made it evident in the past that students whose parents tend to take interest in their child's schooling activities show much better performances in general as compared to those whose parents take little or no interest in their child's activities. In order to have an in depth understanding of the extent to which the subject of parental involvement in schools, especially those in urban settings have been touched upon and the results concluded from the respective studies, numerous peer reviewed scholarly literature pertaining to the related topic was studied and analyzed.

According to Henig, Hula & Orr (1999), parental involvement and participation in their child's schooling activities have decisive implications on their child's personal grooming and career development.

Most academic institutions have been emphasising greatly on the parents to increase their involvement and interest in their child's activities pertaining to school. Despite of this fact, the level of parental involvement in schools, especially in the urban districts is dropping at a sharp rate. This has attracted attention from a lot of researchers from relevant fields especially those pertaining to the disciplines related to education. According to most researchers, the issues related to parental involvement in schools today especially those related to urban centres is much too complex than it seems. Various researchers have outlined various issues over a period of time that explains the issue of parental involvement in urban centres.

According to McDermott & Rothenberg (2000), there are various psychological reasons that implicate on the degree to which parents get involved in the schooling activities of their children. Mc Dermott & Rothenberg (2000) claim that although schools and faculty understand and continue to emphasis on the benefits of parental involvement in their ward's school activity, many parents do not feel psychologically comfortable to get along and mix with other members of the school community, including parents and families of other children and the school staff and faculty members. This is due to differences in financial, economical, racial, ethnic and socio economic background. Many families also have a complex family structure due to which parents find it difficult to cope up or get along with the routine involvement in their child's schooling activities. Mc Dermott & Rothenberg (2000) further assert their point by stating that many parents belonging to minority ethnic and racial groups find it psychologically difficult to get along with the school community at large due to cultural constraints. Cross cultural communication and interaction is already a problem for many people and has already been a subject of research in organizational perspectives. However, the issue has similar implications in the field of education, though many teachers in the urban centres fail to recognize, understand and address this issue. According to Mc Dermott & Rothenberg (2000) the responsibility of educating the parents and encouraging them to participate in their child's schooling activity beyond cultural boundaries lies with the teachers and the faculty.

De Carvalho (2001) claims that schools vary in terms of their own attitudes towards children belonging to various racial and ethnic backgrounds. DeCarvalho (2001) claims that some schools are less welcoming towards certain ethnic backgrounds and in many cases, teachers in certain urban schools have little knowledge and expertise to tackle with children belonging to different racial backgrounds, especially with those who belong to minority races and ethnicities. As a result, children, and more than that, their parents feel little 'connection' with the school and therefore find it difficult to participate in their child's schooling activities. Such parents find it difficult to communicate with teachers and with parents and families of other children. Researchers have also shown that such children can easily be subjected to bullying by children belonging to majority ethnic and racial groups. Parents that belong to foreign ethnicities and cultural backgrounds also find it difficult to communicate with the teachers due to problems such as language barriers, and differences in pronunciation, dialect and styles of speech even if the basic language is same. Such psychological barriers also result in parents and in turn their children getting into severe inferiority complexes. De Carvalho (2001) quoted her personal experiences making it evident that in circumstances where cultural and ethnic and racial differences are major reasons behind the 'disconnect' that exists between parents and teachers, a great degree of distrust exists between the two parties that is the school faculty and the parents. Where teachers themselves lack the expertise and knowledge to tackle with cultural differences, or have racial biases and prejudice, the situation gets worse. Henig, Hula & Orr (1999) suggests that the problem of racial and cultural differences and biases is more intense in cities where blacks, primarily African-American populations dominate. Henig, Hula & Orr (1999) highlighted the fact that in many states local white population preferred taking up more prospective careers such as government jobs, law firms and multinational corporate giants and paid little attention to public works such as education sector. As a result, the state started to appoint black administrators and faculty members for their schools As blacks started to dominate the school system, the white population gradually began to feel uncomfortable getting along with the school faculty despite the fact that the black led schools followed a progressive policy, the white population felt it difficult to 'mix in' and as a result withdrew their involvement in school activities. The difference in both the situations is that where the black populations are in minority, they find it difficult to mix in due to an 'inferiority complex' while where the whites are in minority, they feel uncomfortable due to the notion that whites are superior than the blacks and therefore they feel uncomfortable engaging in an environment dominated by the black population. It must be noted that in many cases the schools administered by the black populations are much more progressive as compared to those administered by the whites.

Researches have also shown that income levels also have an immensely important role to play in the degree to which parents are involved in their child's schooling activities. According to Mc Dermott & Rothenberg (2000), middle inc9ome groups tend to take the greatest interest in their child's schooling activities. Mc Dermott & Rothenberg (2000) claim that children who belong to middle income families have the highest rate of academic performances and the pattern is directly proportional to their parents' involvement and participation in the schooling activities of their children. On the contrary, children belonging to lower income groups are subjected to greatest sufferings as their parents are least participative in the schooling activities of their wards. According to researchers, the reason behind little or no involvement from parents belonging to low income families is that they feel out of the school system mainly because their lack of understanding of how the school system at large works and a resulting 'inferiority complex'. Another reason behind little involvement of parents belonging to low income group families in their child's schooling activity is the fact that in most such cases, both the parents work for bread and butter and as a result find little time to invest in participating in their child's schooling activity due to their tough work schedules.

Rothstein (1993) pointed that children who belong to broken families and live with single parent are also highly subjected to lack of parental involvement in their schooling activities. Since there is the single parent, a single person bears the responsibility of earning and providing financial support, bringing up the children and looking after the household chores. The responsibility further increases in circumstances when the single parent has more than one child to look after. Under such circumstances parents find it difficult to participate in their child's schooling activities due to time constraint. According to Rothstein (1993), the surprising fact is that the children belonging to high income groups also find their parents involved in their school related activities at a very mild level. Parents of children who belong to high income groups although tend to participate in schooling activities at preschool and elementary level, but researchers have observed that their involvement and interest in their child's academic and personal lives reduces as the child advances in age and class standards. Many high income parents tend to perceive it as the independence they are allowing their child to enjoy.

Most researchers believe that in most cases, the problem of lack of parental involvement in school related activities of their child can be tackled and reduced. Bifulco & Ladd (2006) examine the different ways that the charter school format encourages parental involvement, thereby maximizing the return on these educational investments. Authors also provide a useful literature review to develop an overview and background of parental involvement studies that provides a valuable framework for further investigation. Bifculo and Ladd (2066) suggests that in order to deal with the consistently reducing parental involvement in schools, charter schools must be developed with the assistance and support of government and must aim at encouraging parents to participate in the schooling activities of their ward. According to Bifculo & Ladd (2006) these charter schools can devise policies and train teachers to educate and encourage parents and provide them with opportunities to boost their attentiveness and interest in their child's school life regardless of their race, color, ethnicity or socio economic background.

Blasi (2001) describes the implications of parental involvement as a means of overcoming academic achievement gap and other inequities in the public school system. Author makes an interesting point that many of the studies to date have overlooked the different ways that family material and cultural conditions affect views about education and these issues are salient in the proposed study as well. According to Blasi (2001) lack of parental involvement in schools not only negatively implicate on a child's academic performance, but also on his or her personal grooming. Blasi (2001) points out that children whose parents take little interest in their child's schooling activity take often take liberties and get into habits such as drug abuse usually due to peer pressure.

Carter & Wojkiewicz (2000) in their study analyzed data from the National Education Longitudinal Study to determine whether there were any gender-based differences in the amount of involvement by parents in their children's schoolwork. Authors found that parents tend to be more actively involved with their daughters, making the need for additional research in this area particularly important. This was yet another important issue where parents that have more than one child to look after tend to compromise on the balancing equality between the siblings and usually end up giving more time to one child and ignore the other. Mostly this is done unintentionally and not on purpose. According to the study carried out by Carter & Wojkiewicz (2000), parents usually take more interest in schooling activities of their daughters as compared to their sons. Although it seems to be a gender bias, parents usually end up doing so due to the fact that mostly girls tend to be 'easier going' as compared to boys. This means that they tend to be more obedient and get along with their parents with a lesser degree of rebellious attitudes as compared to their male siblings. Parents therefore automatically end up spending more time being involved and participative with their female children as they are much more welcoming.

Chang, Park, Singh and Sung (2009) pointed out the psychological and behavioural patterns on grounds of which families find it difficult to interact and communicate with their child's schooling community on grounds of cultural, linguistic, financial or socio economic weaknesses. Chang, Park, Singh and Sung (2009) asserted that even the school management and the faculty itself is welcoming towards such families and do not show any biases on any grounds whatsoever, many parents from 'weaker' backgrounds, whether in terms of income, race, ethnicity or language tend to find it difficult due to their own psychological barriers. They generally develop these behavioural constraints due to the attitude of society at large. Chang, Park, Singh and Sung (2009) pointed out that parents, who find it difficult to get involved and participate in their child's schooling activities due to such psychological barriers of inferiority complexes, can be dealt with by using certain cognitive therapies. Chang, Park, Singh and Sung (2009) suggested that schools can provide social forums for the interaction between parents of students and the school faculty, and among the parents of colleagues where a comfortable interactive environment provided to parents can help breaking such behavioural patterns resulting from self assumed inferiority complexes and can in turn encourage the participation of parents in their child's schooling activities. This can be done by arranging social gatherings, and extracurricular and co curricular activities where parents are provided with greater opportunities to interact in a comfortable environment. As a result, not only parents will get to participate in their child's schooling activities but also the child himself will now feel more confident to participate in his own class and school activities and therefore will have greater potential to excel in different aspects.

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

In order to have a deeper and first hand understanding of the issues related to parental involvement in urban settings, a primary research was carried out in various schools, using school management, faculty students and their parents as sample population. Although the basic research design was devised keeping in view the various primary researches already explained in previously published scholarly sources, this particular methodology was designed and adjusted according to factors and constraints that could have implicated the results of the primary research. The primary purpose behind this research type of research methodology was to gain a firsthand understanding about the extent to which parents are already involved in their child's school, in cases where they are not involved or show little participation then what are the reasons behind such a behavior and the differences in perceptions and attitudes of faculty, children and parents towards parental involvement in schools. The research also aims at analyzing whether it is the parents who are more responsible for their little participation in school or is it the faculty or the school management at large who is less welcoming or less encouraging in any way that results in the consequent behaviors shown by the parents. Moreover, the research also aims at analyzing the consequent effects and implications of the parental attitude and participation in schooling activities, on the respective child's performance at school.

The research was designed with participation of three different kinds of sample populations, mainly students being the first sample population, their parents being the other and the third one comprising of the teachers. Although members of each of the three sample groups were interviewed in isolation in order to avoid influencing the answering pattern of one member of one group being implicated on the response of another, after the interview session was completed, relationship patterns that between various members of the three population samples were analyzed in order to understand the interrelationships and reach a conclusion based on those relationships (Arguea & Conroy, 2003).

The research design involved dividing the population samples into three different groups, one being of parents, one of their children and the third one consisting of teachers. All the members of each of the three sample groups were interviewed in isolation and their credentials were kept confidential with their names remaining undisclosed. The questions targeted towards the members of respective sample population included their names, genders, ethnicity, race, religious affiliations, educational background and income group. For parents and their children, questions pertaining to marital status were also included, that inquired whether the parent(s) is/are single, married, divorced, widowed or separated. Questions were also included if the child is living with step parent, has step sibling and the number of siblings that the parents are responsible for. For teachers questions included their name, age, qualification, gender and experience. Questions about their relevant training and expertise in dealing with of various aspects of educational psychology and cross cultural communications were also made. The sample population of children was assigned the code letter 'A', the sample population of parents was assigned the code letter 'B' and the sample population of teachers was assigned the code letter 'C'. Each of the three sample populations had a representative population size of a hundred members, with 25 members each taken from schools belonging to four different urban districts, of which two of the districts had a significant population of African-American and Asian Ethnicities. All the children that were selected as research subjects had the same average level of Intelligence Quotient (IQ). It was important to have results of Intelligence Quotient for each child that was a participant as a research subject beforehand because it is highly likely that the reason behind a child's weaker performance is not low level of involvement in school activities from his or her parents but one's own learning disabilities. The overall research was done in an interview format where although the basic question answer format and structure remained similar for all representative samples, however questions were targeted according to the interviewee's level of comfort so that optimum possible levels of accuracy could be ensured. Apart from the questions pertaining to specific credentials, the questions targeted towards each sample group are given as follows.

Questions asked from population sample A (Children)

Credentials: Name, Gender, Age, Grade/Class / Standard, District, name of parents, Marital status of parent, Ethnicity, religious affiliation, and number of siblings.

Does one or both the parents are working?

How many hours a week / a day does the child spend with one or both of their parents?

What was the previous academic and extracurricular performance at school in lower classes? What is the class strength and at what position is the child ranked in his class

What is the current level of academic performance at school?

What is the level of the child's class participation?

What is the level of the child's participation and performance in extracurricular and co curricular activities besides academics such as drama, art, sports, gymnastics, music etc.

Does the child feel shy, awkward or afraid to communicate with your teachers? If yes, why?

Does the child feel shy, awkward or afraid to communicate or interact with fellow children at school? If yes, why.

How many friends does the child have?

What is the extent to which the child's friend circle is diverse in terms of ethnicity, religious affiliation, gender, race and income group?

Does the child feel that he has a potential to perform better than what he or she is currently performing.

At what frequency does the child's parents visit school and interact with his or her teachers?

Do the child's parents check his assignments and test transcripts and ask him or her about the day at school on regular basis?

Does the child feel his parents do not give him or her ample attention or his other siblings get more attention?

Does the child's parents ensure regular attendance at all parents teachers meetings, sports events and other school events where parents are invited or expected to be.

Does the child's parents discuss his or her future plans and advices him accordingly?

Has the child ever been bullied, or feels that he has been subjected to bullying by either teachers or fellow student? If yes, has he or she ever informed or talked about this with his parents? If yes, how did his parent's react?

Has the child ever been subjected to bullying or physical assault at home by either one or both the parents or older siblings?

Is the child involved or has ever been involved in bullying fellow children at school?

Is the child involved or has any history of being involved in practices such as smoking, drugs and/or alcohol? If yes, what was the reason behind indulgence in such an activity for example peer pressure, fun or depression?

Does the child feel alienated from the school community at large?

Does the child feel comfortable enough to discuss any matter or issue with his or her parents without being fearful of the reaction of the parent?

What type of television programs and movies does the child usually watch and are his parents aware of what programs does he watch?

Does the child watch television with his parents?

Is the child supervised by a parent / guardian while s/he uses the internet?

Question asked from population sample B (Parents)

Credentials: Name, Gender, Age, academic qualification, employment status, district, Marital status of parent, Ethnicity, religious affiliation, and number of children and their names and ages.

How does the parent prioritize children in the daily life?

How many hours a day does the parent spend with the children?

Does the parent give more attention to one child then the other? If yes, why?

Does the parent make sure they ask their children about their day at school and other routine on a daily basis? Why?

Does the parent make sure they attend all of the parent teacher meetings and other events at school which they are either invited to or expected to attend.

Does the parent make sure that they keep in touch with the child's teachers on regular basis?

Does the parent keep checks on the child's other activities, his friend circle and his involvement in drugs, smoking and/or alcohol?

Does the parent, or has the parent ever scolded the child or physically assaulted him/her?

How does the parent react if his child ever told him about him being bullied or harassed at school either by a teacher or a fellow student?

Has the child ever told the parent about him being harassed or bullied at school?

Has the parent ever noticed that the child is not comfortable talking to them about a certain matter? If yes, how do they react in such a situation?

Does the parent feel that the teachers are kind and courteous towards them and their children?

Does the parent feel that the teachers complain or nag too much about their child?

Does the parent feel uncomfortable when interacting with either the teachers or parents of fellow students? If yes, why?

Does the parent feel that the school shows any kind of biases towards them on socio economic, ethnic or racial grounds?

Does the parent have any kind of feelings of discomfort when it comes to participating or being involved in their child's schooling activities?

To what extent are the parents aware of their ward's activities pertaining to his or her exposure to the television and the internet.

Question asked from population sample C (Teachers)

Credentials: Name, Gender, Age, academic qualification, employment status, district, marital status of parent, Ethnicity, religious affiliation, and number of children and their names and ages.

How many years of teaching experience does the teacher have?

What are the minimum and maximum ages of children that the teacher has dealt with?

Does the teacher have any formal training pertaining to cross cultural communication and child psychology?

Does the school provide teachers with workshops in order to improve the way you deal with children and parents?

How often and in what ways does the teacher interact and communicate with parents?

How often does the parent approach teacher?

Has the teacher ever felt that certain parents interact with them less than others?

Has the teacher ever felt that students from a certain socio economic or ethnic background perform consistently poorer as compared to other counterparts?

Has the teacher ever scolded bullies or physically assaulted any of the students?

Does the teacher feel s/he gets angry at a certain student consistently, or feels more anger towards a certain student than towards others?

Does the teacher feel certain students are less participative and/or interactive in class as compared to others? If yes have you ever done anything in order to encourage his or her class participation?

All of the above questions were set forth and asked from representative members of the three respective sample population in a verbal interview and their answers were then recorded and quantified. The primary reason behind preferring a verbal and face-to-face interview over other methods of primary research is the fact that during the verbal interview, the interviewer can also analyze the respondent by his or her vocal tone and body language. After acquiring and recording all the answers from the respective members of the three sample populations, the responses were tabulated in a grouped data and were quantified as percentages. Each of the three sample groups were sub-divided into four categories with 25 members belonging to each of the four different urban districts (Funtuzzo, McWayne & Child, 2004).

Another simultaneous research was also carried out. In order to test the interrelationship between the environmental factors and the development aggressive and violent tendencies among young children a research was carried out. The research involved using random population samples of children of between age groups of 12 to 15 years old from different schools. Two population samples were used of 25 children each. Both the population samples were tested by introducing stimulus in a controlled environment for a month on regular basis. Sample A was exposed to media content such as high intensity action movies of their favorite Hollywood actors, and wrestling events. Members of this sample viewed these programs on a regular basis. Sample B, was also exposed to media content but the content was more constructive, healthy and peaceful in nature. Children were exposed to educational science fiction programs and animated cartoon movies which promoted moral and ethical values. After one month, members of both the sample population were merged together in a single group. After the two sample populations were intermingled and their behavioral patterns were observed.

Ch: 4 Data Analysis

The data collected as a result of the first research interview, that involved children, parents and teachers alike gave some interesting results. According to the results of the acquired data more than 65% students who performed weaker at school had little parental involvement at school. Another interesting correlation that was evident especially among children of older ages was that parental involvement in schools declined as the child progressed up the academic levels.

The research showed that a significant over 40% of the students whose parents showed little or no involvement in their schooling activities belonged to minority ethnic and racial backgrounds. About 20% of these parents belonged to low income groups. There were at least 15% of children who although belonged to high income groups but still had little parental involvement at school. The ethnic background of parents with little parental involvement in schools majorly comprised of whites in urban districts that have black, African-American, Mexican or Asian dominance or where schools were dominated and/or administered by African-American or Asian-American administrators. Likewise in the two districts that had a majority dominance of the white or local American ethnicity, the ethnic background of students with little parental involvement came out to be a majority of African-American ethnicity. However this must be noted that not all 'neglected students' in a white dominant district were non-whites and similarly, not all students in the African-American dominated districts were whites.

At least 35% of children who had little parental involvement in their schools and were in between the age bracket of 13 to 16 years of age were found to be involved in activities such as drug abuse, smoking, alcohol, bullying fellow children and rowdiness. 84% of such students were males while 16% of them comprised of female students. 20% of students who had little parental involvement at school and were found to be involved in bullying, drug addiction, smoking etc. belonged to high income groups.

20% of the children that were involved in bullying at school reported that they have been subjected to some degree of physical assault, pressure, scolding or bullying from older siblings or parents at home. 15% of these children claimed that they feel their other siblings are more loved by their parents and that they feel neglected. Almost all of these children stated that they do not share everything with their parents as they are not comfortable mainly due to fear of being scolded or humiliated. An interesting figure of 12% of children aged between 12 to 16 years old did not want their parents to visit school and preferred them keeping away from their schooling activities. The reason they stated behind their willingness of keeping their parents off school was that they did not want them to know about their 'mischiefs'. 30% of the children stated that they have been subjected to bullying by teachers and/or fellow students. Of these children, those who were above 13 years of age stated that though they felt fearful of bullies and being scolded by teachers when they were young, now they do not mind even if the teacher scolds them, insults them or ask them to leave the class and they consider as 'part of the package.' Around 30% of the children felt that their children neglect, ignore, insult or scold them unfairly and that they are biased. They also claimed that at times teachers ignore them and do not answer their questions on purpose which makes them feel humiliated and as a result they avoid asking questions, in order to save themselves from disgrace.

As far as the interviews of population sample B, that is the parents is concerned there were 75% of parents who according to principles of the field of education did not sufficiently participated in their child's schooling activities. While the degree to which they were involved in their child's schooling activities was determined through the questions they answered, surprisingly, 30% of those parents believed that they participate enough in their child's schooling activities. The children of such parents who believed that they were amply involved in their ward's school life but actually were not, were aged more than 11 years old and all of them belonged to high income groups. Usually these parents tended to believe that at this age the child must be given more independence and parents need not to get too much involved in their schooling except for certain occasional events. At least three percent of such parents were not aware of the fact their child was involved in substance abuse and underage smoking and was reportedly rowdy and an under average performer at school.

35% parents realized that they did not participate in their child's schooling activities as much as they should. 20% of these parents were either parents belonging to low income groups where both parents worked or single parent looking after both the house and work at the same time therefore it was difficult for them to take out sufficient time to get involved in the schooling activities of their wards. 15% of the parents complained that they only avoid visiting their child's school and avoid attending many events because they feel alienated and do not feel comfortable communicating with the teachers. All of these parents were either those who belonged to minority ethnic and racial groups or parents belonging to low income groups or both at the same time. Some of these parents also complained that they felt some teacher being disrespectful towards them directly or indirectly at least on one occasion. Some parents who were foreign immigrants to the United States of America did not feel comfortable interacting with teachers and families of fellow students due to linguistic barriers (Barnyak & McNelly, 2009). These linguistic barriers ranged from differences in dialect and pronunciation of English language to very little understanding and comprehension of language due to belonging to a foreign linguistic background (Bizar & Barr, 2001).

20% parents mainly those belonging to foreign ethnicities and low income groups admitted that they do scold their children at times but felt that occasional scolding was necessary. It must be noted that the children of these parents, in their interview disapproved of these scolding and showed negative implications. 15% of such parents claimed that at times the pressure on them to create a balance between work and family frustrates them to the extent that they vent it out on their children in form of scolding them. Most of these parents had a maximum academic qualification of high school graduation while a few of them were not even high school graduate (Check, 2002).

There were two particular groups of parents who belonged to low income group with both parents working as well as belonging to the minority ethnic backgrounds. Despite of this they ensured that they give sufficient time to their child and show ample involvement in their child's schooling activity. Children of both these parents performed much better than others at school. One thing that was however common in both these parental couple was the fact that both of them had only one child to look after. Moreover, both children of both these parents went to a school that was more welcoming than the other three and showed less biases and prejudices regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or socio economic background.

Parents who had more than one child to look after said that they spend more time with their daughters and take more interest in their schooling activities as compared to that of their sons because they find their sons 'difficult to handle'.

As far as the representative sample C, that is the teachers were concerned, teachers from at least one district were provided with workshops and formal training pertaining to deal with students and parents who originate from foreign cultures. However more than 50% teachers although were experienced teachers, but had no formal training of cross cultural interactions child psychology (Donnelly, 2003). 40% of such teachers admitted that they practice scolding and punishing students who perform poor in class as they expect them to be at the same pace as the rest of the class, given that they have about the same Intelligence Quotient. These teachers believed that the primary reason behind the poor performances of most students was their carelessness and lack of interest. None of those teachers seemed to realize that there could be other possible reasons that have affected a child's psychologically and in turn his or her performance at school in a negative way. 27% of the teachers however realized that children who came either from weak economical backgrounds or broken families found it difficult to perform up to the mark and they took practical steps in giving them extra attention and avoid scolding them (Cibulka & Boyd, 2003). Such were those teachers who had ample training and experience pertaining to dealing with such cases of child psychology and education. These teachers also claimed that many parents, especially those who have foreign origins find it difficult to communicate to them so they try to initiate interactions on their own and try to make them feel at as much ease as possible (Haus, Heinalt & Stewart, 2004). Almost none of the teachers admitted to have any prejudice or biasness against any gender, ethnic or socio economic group, in contrast to what some of their students reported. However at some circumstances, their body language and vocal tone indicated contradictions in their actions and words.

The results of the second research that involved testing relationship between a child's behavioral patterns and the environmental factors showed that 97% of the children in sample population B, who were only exposed to healthy content, were peaceful and did not initiate aggression or violence. The rest 3% children from sample B. who did indicated a limited degree of aggression were found out to have a history of a direct exposure to violence at home. However, the intensity of aggression among these 3% children was still much lower as compared to those in sample A, 100% of whose members indicated varied intensities of violence and aggression. The variance in intensity was due to their individual mental capacities to draw influence from their environment and the degree to which they were already influence to violence since childhood through other environmental factors.

Chapter 5: Summary, Recommendations and Conclusions

The results of the research clearly establish a positive correlation between a child's performance at school and the degree to which his or her parents are involved at schooling activities. It was noticed that many parents, especially those from high income groups did not feel the need to participate in their ward's schooling activities and they saw it as a sign of violation of independence of both theirs and their child (Rothstein, 1993). They neglected their child to the extent of being completely oblivion of their activities and felt all right about it. The research also showed that many teachers have little knowledge about psychological and social factors that can play an important role on a child's mental grooming and performance and that each child is unique and needs to be dealt in his own way. The research clearly justified the notion that the parental involvement in schools is declining with the passage of time.