Boosting Parental Involvement:Results from a National Survey of Parents

Conducted by Public Agenda for Communicating for Social Change with support from the GE Foundation

January 2012

Who We Are

Public AgendaNon-profit, non-partisan opinion research and engagement organization with extensive work in K-12 education

Communicating for Social ChangeUtilizing democratic problem-solving to build momentum and reflect citizen values

GE FoundationSupports U.S. and international efforts to develop higher standards of health, education, and environmental awareness around the globe.

Methodology

• Goal: Learn more about how parents define and think about their involvement with their child’s education and school

• Telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 846 parents of children in public school

• Interviews conducted from May 31 – July 3, 2011, in English and Spanish

• Included landline and cell phone samples

• Full results, plus additional analysis of most involved, knowledgeable parents versus least involved, knowledgeable parents

• In 2012, Communicating for Social Change will conduct research aimed at finding strategies to help least engaged parents become more involved

Most parents worry about the quality of the U.S. education system

Half say that U.S. education is falling behind the rest of the world

Only half are confident that local high school graduates have skills for college

Q: When it comes to education, do you think the United States is getting ahead of the rest of the world, just keeping up, or is it falling behind?

Q: When students graduate from your local high schools, would you say that most graduate with the skills to succeed in college, or do you think that most of them do not have the skills to succeed in college?

But most are optimistic about their own child’s schooling

• 88% are very or somewhat confident their child’s school is doing “a good job teaching them what they need to know to be ready for next year”.

• 68% say their child’s academic performance in the past school year was "excellent" (35%) or "very good” (33%).

• 37% give their child’s school an “A” rating, and 38% give their child’s school a “B” rating

• 24% give their child’s school a rating of “C” or below

Criticism of schools generally, but high approval rates for child’s school is a long-term pattern in polling on education

However, many parents are poorly informed in key areas Nearly half admit minimal knowledge about how their child’s school stacks up academically

And few know much about local school leadership

• 28% say they know “a lot” about the qualifications of their child's principal

• 23% say they know “a lot” about what the superintendent is actually responsible for.

Q: How much would you say you know about how your child’s school ranks academically compared to others in your area?

Many parents don’t know what their children should be learning, or what their education options are

Fewer than 4 in 10 know a lot about other school options

Only 22% could name an academic milestone—such as learning the times table—that their child had met in the past school year

Q: How much would you say you know about the options you have to send your child to another public or charter school [if you wanted to]?

Key to other answers

Many parents question the need for more challenging academics

My child works hard enough as is, the school does not need to make classes more difficult

I would like my child’s school to have more

difficult classes, even if it means my child will have

to work much harder to get the same grades they

have been getting

Don’t knowRefused

It is very important that my child

goes to the best college they can

get into

Parents are also split on the importance of their child attending a top college

As long as my child goes to a college that he/she likes, it doesn’t really matter to me which he/she goes to

It’s fine if my child does not want to go to college,

that is their choice

Q: Which of these three statements comes closest to your view?

Most parents question the wisdom of too much academic pressure

• 78% say the statement “as long as children try hard, they shouldn't feel bad about poor grades in school” is close to their own view – 47% say it is “very close”

• 8 in 10 agree that “as much as parents try to help, children’s academic success still has a lot to do with their natural abilities”.

Parents agree that parental involvement is crucial -and that most schools welcome it

65% say they “wish [they] could be doing more” about their involvement in their children’s education (vs. only 34% who are “satisfied with the way things are”)

68% say that the quality of their local schools is “one of the main reasons” they live in their current neighborhood

6 in 10 say that in their household, homework almost always gets done at a regular, set time (about 4 in 10 say it “depends on the day”)

60% say their child’s school “goes out of its way to encourage and welcome parents to get involved”

–33% say their school “mostly leaves it up to parents”, and only 6% say their school “seems to discourage” parents

Most common forms of parental involvement At least once

this school year3-10 times

this school year

Attend a scheduled parent teacher conference 80% 42%

Contact your child’s teachers, either in person, by phone or online OUTSIDE OF parent-teacher conferences

77% 52%

Attend a sporting event, play or other extracurricular activity that your child participated in

77% 45%

Take your child to a concert, art exhibit or other cultural event

70% 59%

Attend a PTA meeting 32% 50%

Attend a public hearing or meeting about your school 30% 34%

Most parents see less need for involvement in the later grades

Q: Parents are often less involved in their children’s academic work in later grades. Which of these statements comes closer to your feeling about parental involvement as children get older?

It is natural to be less involved– it is a sign the

student is learning to be independent and to

manage school on their own

Less parental involvement in later grades probably means a student’s academic work will suffer

Don’t know

Refused

“Major reasons” why parental involvement declines in later grades - according to parents with children in grades 6-12

47% Schoolwork becomes more difficult for parents to help with

31% Parents don’t always know the right questions to ask their children about how they are doing in school

31% Older kids have independent schedules so it is harder to find time to really talk to them about school

22% Teachers don’t really want parents interfering with their classes

21% There are so many teachers in later grades that it is hard to keep in contact with them

So what would help?

%responding

“very effective”

%responding“somewhat

effective”

% responding

“not too effective”

E-mail, phone or in person conversations four times a year with all of your child’s teachers about how your child is doing academically in school

67% 24% 6%

Knowing more about what benchmarks and skills your child should be mastering at the end of every school year

58% 33% 4%

Offering morning, evening and weekend appointments with teachers and school officials for parents who work

55% 34% 7%

Requiring the parents of failing students to attend programs that teach them how to help their kids learn

45% 34% 12%

Having a public ranking of how teachers do each year according to their students’ test scores made available

34% 35% 16%

Having more charter schools available in your area 25% 26% 22%

A closer look: The most involved and least involved parents

• Most involved parents—based on their responses to the survey– More likely to be mothers– More likely to be college-educated– No clear racial or ethnic differences– No clear differences between single-parent and

two-parent families

Key differences between most and least involved parents

Most Involved Least Involved

54% say they are “very involved” both at school and in child’s academic work (at home)

21% say they are “very involved” both at school and in child’s academic work (at home)

81% say they know “a lot” about “specific academic milestones” child should have met in past year

37% say they know “a lot” about specific academic milestones child should have met in past year

64% say they know “a lot” about other schools their children could attend—either public or charter

14% say they know “a lot” about other schools their children could attend—either public or charter

More key differences between most and least involved parents

Most Involved Least Involved

98%: Contacted a teacher outside of parent-teacher conferences at least once during past school year

55%: Contacted a teacher outside of parent-teacher conferences at least once during past school year

71%: Quarterly talks with teachers would be very effective in improving parent involvement.

58%: Quarterly conversations with teachers would be very effective in improving parent

71%: Knowing more about child’s academic benchmarks would be “very effective” way to improve parent involvement

55%: Knowing more about child’s academic benchmarks would be “very effective” way to improve parent involvement

51%: BA or higher 53%: High school diploma or less

Possible Strategies to Improve Parental Involvement

• Insure that scheduled meetings include information about benchmarks

• Make key information available at other school events—sports, plays, etc.

• Focus on the need for families to stay involved in later grades

• Find ways to increase communication between teachers and parents—the most

trusted and important contact point

• Find ways to adapt to schedules of working parents

• Focus more on non-academic areas—student motivation, teaching persistence,

responsibility

• More research, more innovation

Want to Learn More?

For complete survey results, visit Public Agenda online: www.publicagenda.org/pages/engaging_parents

Join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter (@PublicAgenda)

Also see Public Agenda’s related studies:

Are We Beginning to See the Light? Five key trends in public opinion on science, technology, engineering and math education in public schools (2010)

What's Trust Got to Do With It? A Communications and Engagement Guide for School Leaders Tackling the Problem of Persistently Failing Schools (2011)

A Time to Learn, A Time to Grow: California Parents Talk About Summertime and Summer Programs (2010)