Parent involvement in a statewide preschool program for children at-risk for academic failure

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Parent involvement in a statewide preschool
program for children at-risk for academic failure

• Investigators
• Yash Bhagwanji, Ph.D.
• Maria Vasquez, Ph.D.
• Elena Webb, B.S.
• College of Education

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• Importance of topic
• Theoretical support
• Identified as best practice
• Endorsed through policy
• Statement of problem
• Anecdotal reports
• Challenges in research
• Top-down decisions

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Research Questions

• Family demographics
• Direct / indirect
• relationships
• Main interaction effects
• Parent
• involvement
• Academic readiness

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Method

• Subjects all preschool children enrolled at a
  state program all deemed at risk for academic
  failure from FY 2003/04 through FY 2005/06
• Settings public schools across a Midwest state

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Method, continued

• Instrument Teacher completed student records
• Procedures archival data obtained with
  permission from state officials
• Analysis SPSS various statistical analysis

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Independent and dependent variables

• Dependent variables
• P-T conferences
• Enrichment activities at home
• Classroom activities
• Field trips
• Parent education
• Other activities
• Kindergarten readiness

• Independent variables
• Family income
• Family structure
• Family ethnicity
• Primary language at home
• Health of child
• Age of child
• Gender of child

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Some preliminary findings Significant main
effects

• Consistent findings
• The higher the family income ? the higher the
  involvement in parent-teacher conferences,
  classroom activities, and field trips
• Compared to two-parent families, single-parent
  families were less involved in all opportunities

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Significant main effects, continued

• Families who primarily spoke a non-English
  language at home were less involved in field
  trips
• Families who primarily spoke Spanish at home were
  more involved in parent education activities

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Significant main effects, continued

• All non-White families were less involved in
  parent-teacher conferences and field trips
  compared to White families
• Compared to boys, families of girls were less
  involved in P-T conferences, at an odds ratio
  between .840 and .918

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Next steps

• Continue with main effects
• Investigate interaction effects
• Examine relationship among family demographics,
  parent involvement, and kindergarten readiness

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Interpretation of data

• Differences and arbitrariness of parent
  involvement opportunities provided by schools
• Multicultural, cross-cultural communication, and
  other perspectives
• What does this mean for needed changes?

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Implications

• Policy
• Schools
• Communities
• Future research

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Thank you