Draft Action Research Project Progress Report

Initial Draft

Parental Involvement and Support and the Affects on Student Achievement

Tyrance Barnett

            Student academic achievement is critical to the future of our families, communities, and the nation’s economic strength.  It’s a fore gone conclusion that without highly educator leaders, our socio-economic foundation will collapse along with our strong family structure.  I think back to the days of my childhood.  Growing up in poverty was difficult for me, my siblings, and the other children in my neighborhood.  We faced many challenges everyday that could limit our motivation to attend school let alone curtail our academic success. I witnessed the failure of many of my friends just getting past middle school. Their family structure would allow them to just drop out and do nothing. However, the support and parental involvement that my siblings and I received from my mother made it impossible for any of us to give us.  I have taught now in public school for ten years and have built relationships with several students who were and are in my same situation as a young student. So, the inquiry began with regards to parental involvement and support and what it means.  “Although there are numerous definitions of parental involvement in education, we define it as “parents’ interactions with schools and with their children to promote academic success (Hill et al., 2004, p. 1491). This is somewhat broader than the definition articulated in the NCLB, which is “the participation of parents in regular, two-way, and meaningful communication involving student academic learning and other school activities” (No Child Left Behind Act, 2002, §9101)’. Does it really make a difference in student achievement and retention? Are some students just driven to succeed no matter the circumstance?  Many will advocate of parental involvement will say that it is absolutely necessary.  Some will argue the opposite stance. Others will say it is the type of parent involvement that makes the difference. The bottom line is student academic success is our main goal as educators.  This action research will seek to find the some answers to this inquiry and hopefully create hypothesis that will lead to broader research.

The need this action research was determined by me after I became the math facilitator at my campus. I was hired as the math facilitator in June 2012 and immediately began to review the data related the previous 3 years TAKS score and the 2012 EOC score for Algebra 1. In reviewing the data, I found a trend related to our most challenging ethnic group.  We are considered an “At-Risk” campus and were Title I eligible for the past 2 years due to the high population of Hispanic ELL (53%) and African American (27%). As I looked at these student’s attendance and referral records, I realized that they had a very high numbers of absences and tardies.   I formulated conclusions regarding parental involvement based on this data. I was alarmed with the number of students who failed these state standardized tests and local grading cycles. Many of these students had little to no parental support and involvement in their academics.

            The needs assessment initiated my inquiry.  Does parental involvement and support directly affect student achievement and their academic success? There seems to be a possible connection between the two.  The goal of my action research is to try and answer this question or bring forth some continuing research into the inquiry. I will seek to answer the following questions:

·         Do students with a medium to high level of parental support and involvement achieve at higher levels than those who have low level to none parental support?

·         Is parental support and involvement a key factor in student retention? If so why?

·         How does demographics, ethnicity, socio-economic status relate to parental support and involvement?

·         As educators, what can we do to increase parental support and involvement?

·         Does a one or two parent home affect parental support and involvement?

“Parental involvement, according to a comprehensive study by the Southwest Education Development Laboratory, or SEDL, has a positive impact on student achievement at all socioeconomic levels, though involvement is probably more important for low socioeconomic schools, as they are more likely to have lower test scores and graduation rates (Zimmerman, 2013)”. This seems to be consistent with what I have seen in my campus’ data.  However, I must say that the data supports that students with very high levels of parent involvement are achieving at much faster rate than students without. Some have even argues that parental involvement and support only matters at the elementary and primary schools. According to a recent article, “Researchers and teachers agree that parent involvement in school is more important than ever, especially in the primary and elementary levels. The primary and elementary grades are where parental involvement in school matters the most, according to educational research (Hootman, 2013)”. This case is argued because she believes the best type of parental involvement is communication at home rather than the parents coming to school and participating in campus activities.  Obviously, communication would happen more fluidly and frequently with younger elementary or middle school students than it would with high school students.  Parents of high school students, especially in the lower socioeconomic groups, seem to let their student attempt to handle their own issues than get involved.  Usually, this does not lead to a successful end.  Why does this happen? Is it a cultural issue?  I will argue that culture does play a part in why parents let their students take on this adult role.  From experience, I know that many of my low-income friends from my childhood had parents who believed their child needed to grow up quickly so they could face their economic deficits head on. They believed it was part of growing up and maturing and thus they are being involved. “But even observers who are sensitive to issues of class don’t always take a step back to ask what kind of involvement we’re talking about, and to what ends.  As is so often the case, our questions tend to be more quantitative than qualitative, with the result that we focus only on how much parents are involved. There’s something both short-sighted and arrogant about exhorting low-income parents to show up at school events or make sure the homework gets done.  The presumption seems to be that these parents lack interest or commitment — as opposed to spare time, institutional savvy, comfort level, or fluency in English.  Annette Lareau and other sociologists have described how class differences play out in terms of parental advocacy — including why poorer and less-educated parents may be less effective when they do become involved. (Kohn, 2013)”.  The idea of parental involvement is supported by many. This research will continue long past this initial project because a true underlying question needs to be answered outside of this research.  What type of “qualitative” parental involvement will best produce the results that stakeholder’s desire.

             I have presented my action research plan to my peers during our initial campus in-service using handouts and a powerpoint presentation. I have provided background information about the importance of my action research project and shared some of my own personal feelings as to why I believe the research is important for change and school improvement. The handout included this background information as well as directions to access my blog for more information, feedback, and project tracking.    

I organized an Action Research Committee with the help of my site supervisor. Team members were paired and given certain areas of responsibility for data organization, collection, and reporting to the committee. We would then collaborate and discuss the data and how it had a positive or negative affect on our inquiry. The information would be charted and placed in a database sub category (single parent home, two-parent home, other living arrangements, ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic status). We would work diligently to make some type of connection with our inquiry and the data collected. 

The committee chose 20 students (6 -white, 6 – African American, 6 – Hispanic, 2 – Asian) to serve as our sample. We put the students in sub-categories based on grade-level, parental status, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. I created an initial parent survey and provide it to parents either via the school’s website or mail out. The survey was used to access how parents feel about the school’s campus and culture. The committee worked together to collect and analyze student data. Data was collected on all students at the end of each grading period. The student data we collected included progress reports, six-week grades, assessment data, standardized test scores, attendance profiles and tardy reports.  We analyzed these results against the parent data we received from teachers, coaches, sponsors, and administrators. This data included parent contact logs, conferences, attendance at PTA meetings and extra-curricular activities. We charted the data to see how it affected student achievement in the classroom during each grading period. This data was graphed so we can easily disseminate periods were parental support increased or decreased and how it pertains to the students grades.  We now have some tangible information that will help discern if parental support and involvement truly affects student achievement. At the end of the school year, survey questions will be given to all members of the research committee for feedback on the project.          

            The Action Research Committee is meeting monthly to collaborate on the progress of the project. Group norms and expectations were the focus of the initial meeting of the action research committee. We created a template for the meeting agenda’s with these six questions in mind:

1)      What type of data was collected?

2)      Is the data genuine?

3)      How will the data be used?

4)      Can we formulate a conclusion based on the data?

5)      Is more information needed to support the data?

6)      Are there any adjustments to the needs assessment that will increase the value of the data collected?

            This action research project serves the needs of the students with special and exceptional needs and students with diverse backgrounds (cultural, ethnic, economic, or special interest groups) due the fact that each of these students groups have one thing in common and that is parents. These students, no matter what need for services they have, still need the support and involvement of their parents to help them be successful. None of us can go through this academic juggernaut with any level of success without support from someone or something. Why not make parental support and involvement the most important asset. This action research will seek to serve a foundation for knowledge and awareness by our academic institutions that our students need their parents involved just as much as we want them involved.  However, we must reach out and educate our parents on what they can do and ways they can help. This parental involvement and support must be qualitative and not just quantitative.

            In conclusion of my research, I will provide my fellow Action Research Committee members a brief survey to get feedback regarding the research.  I will also reflect on the research and seek to answer the following question, “Is the action research plan providing the directives needed for action change?” Finally, I will meet with my site supervisor to review the goal and purpose of the research project and determine if we met our goal.  We will analyze the feedback that we receive from the survey questions to find ways to improve the project. I will meet with the Action Research Committee to thank them for their participation in the project, share the feedback, and request further assistance in providing ways to improve student achievement through parental support and involvement.

References

Nancy E. Hill and Diana F. Tyson, “Parental Involvement in Middle School: A Meta-Analytic Assessment of the Strategies That Promote Achievement,” Developmental Psychology 45 (2009): 741.

Alfie Kohn,” Is Parent Involvement In School Really Useful?” (The Washington Post, 2013) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/02/06/is-parent-involvement-in-school-really-useful/

Barbara Hootman, “Parent involvement in school more important than ever” (The Citizen-Times, 2013) http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20130227/BLACKMOUNTAINNEWS/302270012/Parent-involvement-school-more-important-than-ever

Jennifer Zimmerman, Deman Media, “Parental Involvement in Low Socioeconomic Schools” (The Global Post, 2013) http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/parental-involvement-low-socioeconomic-schools-2471.html

Update on my Action Research Project

My action research project, Parental Involvement and Support, is moving along as scheduled.  The first phase of the project is creating an action research committee to include teachers, administrators, counselors, and technology staff is almost complete.  I have met with several teachers in the math department during their PLC’s and with campus administrators to discuss participation on the committee.  I have received confirmation of participation from six math teachers (2 from each of the core areas; Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry) and my site supervisor.  My campus principal has also given me confirmation that he will support any of my efforts that are aimed to produce student achievement. I have been unable to get membership from any of the school counselors or the technology staff.  However, the first month of school is always hectic for them with schedule changes, new student arrivals, and equipment issues.  I understand their hesitance to commit to another endeavor at this time.  The group that I have collaborated with has been encouraged by this project.  They all share the same passion that I have for the student population in our school. They want to see the parents get more involved with their student’s academics.  They also know that times have changed and the old way of doing things are non-effective.  As a matter of fact, one new action items that may be implemented is home visits. We all feel that “if you build it, they will come” mentality does not work with parental involvement.  We have to go to the parents. But, we want to make sure that we don’t violate any privacy acts and district policies in making these visits.  Also, our district has implemented a new and improved RTI (Response To Intervention) initiative and I feel like this research will run parallel and in partnership with this initiative.  I plan to meet with the coordinators of this program soon to discuss how my project can work cooperatively with their initiative.

EDLD 5301 Research Class Reflections:

This research course was a very informative course.  I learned a lot of new action research skills that I plan to use throughout my career as an administrator.  What I am mostly excited about is my current action research project and how implementation of these skills will make it very profitable to our students. Even though I foresee some potential challenges due to the broad scope of my project, continued communication will my site supervisor and the ability to fall back on my resources (blogs, discussions, textbook, etc.) should culminate this action plan into one that will move our campus to a higher level of success.  The ability to share ideas was a great tool to use when I was trying to solidify a topic for my action research plan.  Even though I had an idea for my action research, my colleagues helped me to see the high level of importance of it and they encouraged me to stay focused on the goal. The action research blogs and discussion board were great venues for sharing.  From these two resources, I was able to quickly and easily dialog with my colleagues and receive some positive feedback that effectively helped to make my action research plan a success.  Also, the blogs will allow for ongoing discussions and communication after the discussion board is closed.  Reflection is a key for leadership success and absolutely necessary for professional growth.  I received some very good feedback on my assignments and was able to look back and reflect on my assessment of what I had learned. As I reflected about the pros and cons of my action research, I realized the importance of data collection and analysis in a successful research project. I feel these two pieces of the process are the foundation and the research will only be successful if done by following the steps taken in this course.  Aspiring administrators, teachers, and students can use action research to build successful social and academic growth on their campuses.

Site Supervisors Review of my Action Research Plan

I met with Ms. Muzzicato to discuss my action research plan.  She is very excited about my research and is anxious to see the outcomes.  We both feel that student achievement at all levels education and socio-economic status is a direct correlation with parent involvement.  But, the research is going to provide educators and administrators ways improve parent involvement and thus increase student success in the classroom. We discussed my possible challenges (1) assembling the group of members for my action research committee because it’s a busy time for teachers and the possible lack in passion for the project, (2) making sure that we get an equally likely and fair sample of the student population. At this time, we agreed not to make any changes to the initial action research plan until after the campus in-service ends on August 24.  This will give me an opportunity to provide some professional development so that the perspective participants can see the benefit of the research and hopefully buy-in. During this time, I can also discuss the scope and sequence of the project and attain some feedback on ways to scale down the scope if needed. I left the meeting feeling very good about the prospect of the research.  I felt supported by Ms. Muzzicato and this will allow me to press on even when the project becomes difficult or has potential snags.

Week 3 Assignment: Actions Research Plan

Action Planning Template
Goal: Increase student achievement and retention through parental support and involvement.
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Create an Action Research committee composed of teachers, administrators, counselors, and technology support staff.	I will request committee membership with the assistance of my site supervisor and campus principal.	Beginning of Campus In-service activities to be completed by the middle of the 1st grading cycle.	Professional input from site supervisor and principal	Weekly Committee Meetings
Break students into groups based demographics: ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status (At-Risk), grade level, then create sample space	School Counselors	Middle of the 1st cycle to the end of school	Mapper, Student Data Sheets	Weekly Committee Meetings
Survey the sample of students to determine if they live in a one or two parent home	Teachers	Middle of the 1st cycle to the end of school	Survey forms	Weekly Committee Meetings
Make parental contact via phone, email, parent conference Chart student Achievement in the classroom and extra-curricular activities every grading period	Action Research Committee Action Research Committee	Throughout the school year Each grading cycle	Mapper, Student Data Sheets, Student Schedules Progress notices, report cards, standardized test, formal and informal assessments	Weekly Committee Meetings Weekly Committee Meetings
Chart student attendance including absences and tardys	Action Research Committee	Entire school year	Attendance profiles, Tardy station reports	Weekly Committee Meetings
Chart parent contacts: responses to teacher phone calls, emails, attendance to parent conferences, PTA involvement, Extra-curricular activity involvement	Action Research Committee; Classroom Teachers; PTA, Coaches; Activity Sponsors	Entire school year	Teacher contact logs, PTA committee, meetings with coaches and sponsors	Weekly Committee Meetings
Formulate an analysis of the data collectively and broken down by demographics	Action Research Committee, Site Supervisor	End of each grading cycle	Data collected throughout the action research	Weekly Committee Meetings
Create and Action “Change” Plan to increase student achievement through parent support and involvement	Action Research Committee, Administration, Counselors, Support Staff	Entire school year	Parent conference, PTA, Teacher support of the parent, Parent support of teachers, Parent and teacher support of students
Increase student achievement and retention through parent support and involvement	Action Research Committee, Administration, Counselors, Support Staff	Entire school year	All stakeholders	Progress notices, report cards, standardized test, formal and informal assessments
Reflection: Is the action research plan providing the directives needed for action “change”	Myself and Site Supervisor	Endo of 1st Semester; End of school year	Conferences with stakeholders
Determining direction for sustaining improvement	Action Research Committee	End of the school year	The committee will create, copy, and distribute a survey all stakeholders involved in the research	Collect and analyze data received from the surveys. Propose additional action research to improve the research project and implement those improvements for subsequent school years.