Document Type

Graduate Project

Date of Degree Completion

Summer 1999

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Education

Committee Chair

Steven A. Schmitz

Second Committee Member

James L. DePaepe

Third Committee Member

Osman Alawiye

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to see how parental involvement affected student achievement and how educators could involve parents at the middle grades and junior/senior high levels. American families and our society have changed dramatically over the past twenty-five years. These changes have had exciting effects on educational processes in schools. It has become a challenge to involve parents in the educational process, especially during the middle, junior and senior high school years. Parents are far more involved in their children's early childhood education than in their later years of schooling (Pryor, 1995). Involvement drops off dramatically when children enter the middle and junior/senior high school. Research studied in this project shows that there is a link between parent involvement and student achievement (Ho Sui-Chi, & Williams, 1996). This project explores research relative to decreased parent involvement, and how this phenomenon is impacting many public schools across the United States. It also explores what schools might do to increase parent involvement and student achievement.

Download
COinS