Improving home-school relations for Spanish speaking families

Abstract

Parental involvement in the education of their children has been a widely popular area of study in the past. There is general consensus among many scholars as to the importance and potential positive outcomes of effective parental involvement. Educational researchers such as Lee and Bowen (2006), Marschall (2006), and Jeynes (2007) agree that high levels of parental involvement can result in the improvement of students' academic achievement and improve their attitudes toward education. This area of educational research can be especially impactful among typically lower achieving subgroups of students, such as students of low socioeconomic status (SES) or English Language Learners (ELLs). That makes this issue particularly important for researchers studying English Language Learners or related fields, because parental involvement could have the potential to help diminish the achievement gap for them. The purpose of this research study is to investigate parental attitudes to and perceptions of their involvement in their child's education in a middle school setting in a small city school district in Western New York. It also seeks to delineate specific factors that parents at this school perceive to positively or negatively impact their involvement at the middle school level, specifically those related to language or cultural differences. The goal of this study is to determine specific ways this school can improve parental involvement and home-school relationships for Spanish-speaking parents' based on their own perceptions, in turn, improving the educational outcomes of their children. [from author's abstract]