Goldenberg, Et Al. (2001), and Titled \"Cause

¶ … Goldenberg, et al. (2001), and titled "Cause or effect? A longitudinal study of immigrant Latino parents' aspirations and expectations of their children's school performance." (p. 547). The authors collected data using the longitudinal study from randomly selected immigrant Latino families whose children were mostly born in the United States. The research used the mixed method combining both quantitative and qualitative research, and the authors tracked N= 121 families of schools children in two Los Angeles school area districts, and the families of the children were tracked from "kindergarten to sixth grade." (Goldenberg, et al. 2001, p 547),

The procedures used in the research are by randomly selecting N= 32 families for the case study and the interviews were conducted for the families "10 times between the time their children were admitted into kindergarten and completed 6th grade." (Goldenberg, et al. 2001 p 554). The interviews were conducted within three years and the authors were able to establish relationship of trusts with the selected families especially the families in the subset case study. The researchers visited the selected families at home for "12 additional occasions for the interviews to explore the parents schooling cultural models and their generally views about educational systems." (Goldenberg, et al. 2001, p 554). Between 1989 and 1995, the researchers paid home visit to all families to complete extended interviews of two hours. (Goldenberg, et al. 2001).

Research Design

In the study, variety of research design and methods were used which include random assignment, case study, descriptive research and correlation studies. The descriptive statistics are to provide the simple summary of the entire data, which form the basis of quantitative data analysis. The longitudinal study is conducted to collect data on children and parents between 1989 and 1985. Using the school records, teachers' rating and parent interview, the researcher used the descriptive statistics for the longitudinal assessment. The variables used in the descriptive statistics are:

Fall Kindergarten 1989

Grade 1: 1990-1991

Grade 2: 1991-1992

Grade 3: 1992-1993

Grade 4: 1993-1994

Grade 5: 1994-1995

Grade 6: fall 1995

The authors assess the achievement of the kindergarten using a literacy language assessment tool because the Spanish is the primary language of all participants. The authors administered the assessment over 2 days within 30-minutes section. Subsequent estimates were used to evaluate the achievement using the national standard reading and math score, and the authors obtained scores using instruments such as "SABE (Spanish Assessment of Basic Education), CTBS (Comprehensive Test for basic Skills), and MAT6 (Metropolitan Achievement Test)."

(Goldenberg, et al. 2001, p 557).

In the descriptive statistics, the authors use the Mean value and the value of the Standard Deviation for all the variables to compare the values of all the variables from Grade 1 through Grade 6. Despite the strategy that the authors employ with the descriptive statistics in summarizing the data in a manageable form, the authors fail to effectively compare the variables from Grade 1 through Grade 6. While the authors present the values of all variables using the Mean and Standard Deviation, however, the authors do not provide the total Mean and total Standard Deviation of each Grade year. Failure to provide the total Mean and Standard Deviation make authors not to provide the avenue to effectively compare the values of the Grade year. The total Mean value will assist the readers to understand which Grade year that parent's aspiration and expectation are higher. (Goldenberg, et al. 2001).

Moreover, the authors use the bivariate statistics to describe the "relationship between two variables that involves parent aspirations and expectation and measure of children achievement." (Goldenberg, et al. 2001, p. 562). The purpose of using bivariate analysis is to examine how the variables are related to one another. Using the bivariate will assist in understanding the association and causality between two or more variables. The authors use bivariate analysis to explore the relationships between parent's expectation and aspiration for their children school performance at elementary schools. (Goldenberg, et al. 2001).

Common form of bivariate is to create percentage table and computing correlation coefficient. The research also uses the multivariate analysis to examine the relationship among multiple variables. In the study, Goldenberg et al. (2001) used the multivariate analysis to provide the correlation among multiple variables.

Results

The authors present the results in tables and percentages to reveal "parent's aspirations and expectation for their children." {Goldenberg et al. 2001, p. 558). The graphical technique is used in presenting the visual presentation of the results, and the results compare the aspiration and "expectation of parents between the time children starts the kindergarten to the time children finishes the 6th Grade." (Goldenberg, et al. 2001, p 547). When children started the education, over 90% of the parents aspire that their children should proceed to the university education, however, the results reveal that aspirations to assist children to enter universities remain low as children proceed in the education. (Goldenberg, et al. 2001).

Despite the results presented by the authors, however, the authors present the overall results using only the quantitative techniques. (Goldenberg, et al. 2001). "Using percentages, graphical presentation, and ANOVA." (p.560). However, the authors collected data using "both quantitative and qualitative techniques." (Goldenberg, et al. 2001, p. 547).

Moreover, the results may be influenced by the educational attainment of parents themselves. The authors did not effectively select participants from the beginning because virtually all participants selected had primary education and "parent's level of education will consequently influence their job opportunities experienced in the United States." (Goldenberg, et al. 2001, p. 549).

Parents with primary educations will have very low level of success compared to parents having university educations. Thus, parents with primary education are likely to have low aspiration and expectation for their children than parents with university education .There is a need for further research using Latino parents with only university education. (Goldenberg, et al. 2001). The results of the study should be compared with the initial study, and the comparison of the two studies will validate whether Latino parents in the United States actually have low educational aspiration and expectations for their children.