Parent Involvement:
The Value of Small Schools in Missouri
National research[1]
shows that:
1)
Parent participation in
their child’s education is positively and significantly related to student
achievement
2)
Greater parental
involvement generally exists in small schools
Missouri-specific
research
Missouri’s Parents as
Teachers Program and Practical Parenting Partnerships are model programs which
increase parent involvement across the state, but in spite of the significant
impact of these programs, parent involvement is not uniform across Missouri’s
school districts.
A 1998 study[2]
conducted by Education Week in their Quality
Counts series found that Missouri does not rank high in terms of parent
involvement. Overall, Missouri ranks:
<
30th among 40
states in percent of schools reporting that more than half of parents attend
open house or back-to-school night
<
20th among 40
states in number of schools reporting that more than half of parents attend
parent-teacher conferences
Data from the same
Education Week study shows, however, that size of school impacts parent
involvement rates:
<
In states (like
Missouri) with a greater percentage of smaller elementary schools, e.g., more
than half of its elementary schools under 350 enrollment:
o
Parent attendance at
open house and back-to-school nights is higher
o
Parent attendance at
parent-teacher conferences is higher
<
In states (like
Missouri) with a greater percentage of smaller high schools, e.g., more than
half of its high schools under 900 enrollment[3]
o
No difference is seen in
parent attendance at open house and back-to-school nights
o
Parent attendance at
parent-teacher conferences is higher
A 1993 study[4]
conducted by the University of Missouri-Columbia and based on 56,935 parent
responses from 296 schools completing the Missouri School Improvement Program
Parent Questionnaire found that:
<
Single parents, minority
parents, and families with more children tend to have less involvement in their children’s school.
<
Parents with higher
income levels have higher levels of
parent involvement in their children’s school.
<
Parental involvement in
school activities decreases with
children’s age. As students get older,
parent involvement goes down.
<
Holding all of these
factors constant, however, Missouri parents whose children go to
non-metropolitan rural schools are significantly
more involved in their children’s school than are other Missouri parents,
in spite of the greater negative effect of socioeconomic status on parent
involvement in rural schools.
The full study, “Missouri’s
Smaller School Districts Counter The Harmful Effects of Poverty on Student
Achievement”, can be found at http://www.moare.com
or at http://www.ruraledu.org