Nada Alamaddine

Parental Engagement and Students’ Academic Growth

August 27, 2014

What influences students’ learning?

School Home

Student

Beliefs

Students’ academic growth

and success have been tied

in many studies to parental

involvement in school

academic activities, such as

parents’ meetings (Jeynes, 2005).

Studies

Earlier studies indicated

that parental involvement

influenced the academic

achievements of the

students as early as

preschool (Chang, Park, Singh, & Youngji,

2009).

HypothesisDo students whose parents are

engaged in their schooling show more

growth than students whose parents

are not engaged?

Population Selection

All students who attended Maples

Elementary for the whole 2013-2014

school year and fell in the DRA

Categories of Below and Meeting were

selected in this study. The population

consisted of 435 students.

Data CollectionA spread sheet was created at the

beginning of the 2013-2014 school

year where all the students’ data was

entered along with the parents’

participation in the Parental

Educational Meetings.

Data CollectionA total of 11 Parental Educational

Meetings were facilitated throughout

the 2013-2014 school year.

Parents were asked to sign when they

attended these meetings. A check

mark was added to the spread sheet

when parents attended any of the

meetings.

Two-Groups Comparison

Significant parental

Engagement

N0n-Significant parental

Engagement

Engagement was considered

significant if parents attended 6 or more of the 11 total meetings

throughout the school year.

Engagement was considered

non- significant if parents attended 5

or less of the 11 total meetings throughout the

school year.

Tools

• DRA2 (Developmental Reading Assessment)

Categories were used to represent students’ growth.

• The spring DRA Categories (Below, Approaching, and

Meeting) were compared to the fall DRA Categories.

• Students were considered showing growth if their

DRA Category has moved up one category or more

from the fall of 2013 to the spring of 2014.

Groups Comparison

Students who did not show any growth in

DRA Categories were selected and divided

into two groups:

•Students with significant parental

engagement.

•Students with non-significant parental

engagement.

Results

Significant Parental

Engagement

Non-significant Parental

Engagement

Students not Showing Growth

76%

24%

Explanation

A total of 197 students did not show growth

in DRA Category from the fall of 2013 to the

spring of 2014. The parents of 149 of these

students did not have significant parental

engagement. While only 48 students of

these students their parents showed

significant parental engagement.

Digging Deeper

Looking deeper into the data to

understand the significance of parental

engagements on each of the students in

the selected categories showed that

students who belonged to the Below and

Meeting Categories were influenced the

most when it comes to Parental

Engagement.

Below Students

Students who fell in the Below Category

were divided into two groups: Students

who showed academic growth at the end of

the school year and students who did not

show any growth.

The two Below groups were also divided

into groups with significant parental

engagement and groups with non-

significant parental engagement.

Results

64% of the Below students who showed

growth, their parents were significantly

engaged. While 59% of the Below students

who did not show growth, their parents

were not significantly engaged in the

school.

Below Category Results

Students not Showing Growth

Students Showing Growth

Non-significant Parental

Engagement41%

significant Parental

Engagement36%

64%

59%

Meeting Students

Students who fall in the Meeting Category

were divided into two groups: Students

who showed academic growth at the end of

the school year and students who did not

show any growth.

The two Below groups were also divided

into groups with significant parental

engagement and groups with non-

significant parental engagement.

Results

63% of the Meeting students who showed

growth, their parents were significantly

engaged. While 49% of the Meeting

students who did not show growth, their

parents were not significantly engaged in

the school.

Meeting Category Results

Students not Showing Growth

Students Showing Growth

Non-significant Parental

Engagement51%

significant Parental

Engagement38%

63%

49%

Findings

The findings of this study shows that parental

engagement made a significant difference when

it came to the students who were not showing

any growth. Most of the students who did not

show growth throughout the school year, their

parents were not significantly engaged in the

school. There could definitely be other factors

but looking at only this factor, there was a

significant difference between those whose

parents were engaged and those who were not.

Conclusion

Parental Engagement is important

for all students but it is extremely

important for the students who are

achieving below grade level and

those who are finding it difficult to

move up in DRA Categories.

Recommendations

Targeted Parent Meetings should be

facilitated often for parents whose

children are performing below grade

level to get them engaged in their

children’s education. Parents should be

provided with tools and resources to help

their children.

Recommendations

Targeted Parent Meetings should also be

facilitated often for parents whose

children are not growing enough to move

up in categories.

Even though these students might be

improving throughout the school year,

their parents need to understand that

they are not moving high enough to

belong to the higher category.