Is Parental Involvement Relevant to Academic Achievements - Annotated Bibliography Example

A Discussion on Children’s Academic Successes: Is Parental Involvement Relevant to Academic Achievements? DueDate Introduction It goes without saying that doing well in school can lead to greater opportunities for children to further their education and in the job market overall. However in schools in the United States, and all over the world, some students excel and achieve a great deal, while other students flounder in academic settings and accomplish very little and receive low grades. Why do some students do so well? Why do some do so poorly? These are worthwhile questions that many researchers are invested in exploring further and finding the answers. There are multiple specific contributors that may allow for a child’s success or failure throughout their schooling years. including economic demographics, genetic predispositions, overall intelligence, and social factors, like parental involvement. The latter is a fascinating element. A parent’s active involvement in their children’s schooling can have a profound positive impact. There is however, a balance that needs to be achieved; after all too much parental involvement can be detrimental, depending on how that involvement is applied. The articles reviewed for this discussion allow for a thorough and balanced perspective on the topic. These sources, as a whole, were not particularly difficult to obtain. Google search provided a number of online accessible journal sources, simply, by applying the keywords, “parental involvement and student achievement.” Combined together these sources give a broader area of research and contributes to understanding of the relevant facts and allow for an unbiased viewpoint to answer the applicable questions of this issue. Annotated Bibliography El Nokali, N. E., Bachman, H. J., & Votruba-Drzal, E. (2010). Parent involvement and childrens academic and social development in elementary school. Child Development, 81(3), 988-1005. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2973328/ This article intended to determine how relevant parental involvement, or lack of, truly has on elementary school age children in the 1st, 3rd and 5th grades. The authors propose that, although, the immense amount of research has shown that parental involvement is imperative, hugely impactful, and should be encouraged, most research cannot say with absolutely certainty that involvement effects overall academic achievement.(El Nokali, Bachman & Votruba-Drzal, 2010) There is a definite correlation between less “bad” classroom behavior due to parental involvement and can aid in social development, but not directly on academic achievement. This article is a very interesting source. It is useful in that it approaches the correlation between parental involvement and academic achievement with a skeptical eye. Parental involvement is important and should be recommended, but it may not be a guarantor that it will ensure a higher academic progression. In fact, their study showed that in elementary school children reading scores can actually decrease with reported parental involvement. They find that academic achievement is obtained more commonly because of classroom quality. However, they encourage further research into the specifics of parental involvement, or lack thereof, in their children’s lives. This resource is quite valuable and helps balance the research for the topic. Ferguson, H. B., Bovaird, S., & Mueller, M. P. (2007). The impact of poverty on educational outcomes for children. Pediatrics and Child Health, 12(8), 701-706. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2528798/ This article looks at factors, including parental involvement, that positively or negatively, effects a child’s social development, school behavior, and academic achievements. The research, focused on Canadian school children, determined that it is their conclusion that it is poverty that has immense impacts on children’s development and education. Low-income families struggle financially, these parent’s often work long hours, which limits the amount of parental involvement that might otherwise occur. Children of low-income families, also often face issues in their social development because they are sometimes teased, bullied, or ostracized among their peer groups. They, also, point out that low-income children can have a hard time obtaining ideal education. However, the focus of the article was, ultimately, finding solutions to the problems caused by poverty in young students. They propose early intervention as the ideal approach, but, also, suggest that schools, communities, an government agencies can resolve the issues if they work in unison to do so.(Ferguson, Bovaird & Mueller, 2007) Gonzalez-DeHas, A. R., & Willems, P. P. (2003). Examining the underutilization of parent involvement in the schools. School Community Journal, 85-100. Retrieved from http://www.adi.org/journal/ss03/Gonzalez-DeHass%20&%20Willems.pdf This article attempts to resolve several issues concerning the underutilization of parental involvement. The authors attribute the low parental involvement percentages, including disinterested parents, lack of school encouragement, lack of teacher support, an absence of education, and the necessity of parental involvement in schools.(Gonzalez-DeHas & Willems, 2003) They feel that there is years of verifiable research to support the positive results from active parental involvement in their children’s education. They, also, firmly adhere to the idea that that involvement will have an effect on a child’s overall academic success. This article, from 2003, predates much of the current research and provides a wonderful perspective of the foundational research of the new millennium, as it can be compared with more recent studies for a well-rounded view of the topic. Graves Smith, J. (2006). Parental involvement in education among low- income families: A case study. The School Community Journal, 16(1), 43-60. Retrieved from http://www.adi.org/journal/ss06/SmithSpring2006.pdf This article supports the advantages of parental involvement in their children’s education, particularly, in low income communities, where that involvement is, generally, the lowest. The author discuss, as of 2002, that promoting an educational style that asks parents to be an encourager and active participant in their child’s academic efforts within the home, as well as in school, which supports the teacher’s work within the classroom. The author used several; studies, interviews, and approaches to determine how best to confront the issues they see as incredibly important. Along with better academic attitude and motivation, the majority of results proved that with parental involvement children’s test scores increased and overall academic performance improved. In fact, one teacher directly attributed these increases directly to including parents in the educational process, saying that the school children, “…really see the participation by the parents and they work harder at school.”(Graves Smith, 2006) This article is not only does it offer a beneficial amount of information it, also, can provide me with suggestions for other resources. Hong, S., & Ho, H. (2005). Direct and indirect longitudinal effects of parental involvement on student achievement: Second-order latent growth modeling across ethnic group. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97(1), 32-42. Retrieved from http://edukate.uncc.edu/eist/summer09/hlee66/eportfolio2009/readings/4.pdf This article offers a unique perspective in that it presents relevant data relating to children’s social, developmental, and academic success can be heavily affected by ethnicity and culture. The writers propose that many of the students whose parents do not participate in the children’s education are, often, low-income, immigrant minorities.(Hong & Ho, 2005) For this reason, there can be a number of reasons that these statistics exist in high numbers. Immigrant families sometimes suffer from language barriers that can affect their ability to participate in their children’s education. Also, the academic level of their parents can have an effect on their own cultural perspectives on how they perceive the importance of education; there is a link between certain cultures where education is perceived of high importance, and others where it is not. This article is beneficial to the research on this topic because to offers an interesting perspective and presents some of the under-acknowledged influence of multiculturalism on school children’s overall successes and some of the barriers that may prevent parental involvement. Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. M. (1995). Parental involvement in childrens education: Why does it make a difference?. Teachers College Record, 97(2), 311-330. Retrieved from http://www.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/family-school/papers/childrens_education.pdf This article supports positive influence of parental involvement on their children’s academic experience and promotes that in the majority of studies confirming that once parents become involved the academic success of their children clearly increases. This article, focuses on the willing participation of parents who have chosen to play a prominent role in their children’s education, with a far less focus upon parents who do not participate due to socioeconomic issues, for example. They believe that the greatest focus of study on this topic should be more on how actively the parents participate and if the children’s academic success, whether the school and teachers are encouraging of the process of parent involvement, and the reasons why the children’s attitude, behaviors, and grades appear to improve.(Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1995) This article offers some interesting perspectives and looks pointedly at the parents, specifically, and the nature and levels of involvement that breeds these perceived positive results. Lee, J., & Bowen, N. K. (2006). Parent involvement, cultural capital, and the achievement gap among elementary school children. American Education Research Journal, 43(2), 193-218. Retrieved from http://bfi.uchicago.edu/humcap/wp/papers/AERJSummer2006LeeBowen.pdf This article focuses n the specific types and levels of involvement, some of which actually shows genuine positive results from their involvement in their children’s education. The study focused on five specific types of involvement to make the determinations, taking into consideration, socioeconomic status, societal demographics, and parental education levels, along with ethnicity, culture, and minority status, all of which showed varying results. Certain levels and style are apparently more effective than others.. The authors found that there is an “achievement gap” between dominate ethnic groups and non-dominate ethnic groups in the levels, styles, and frequency of parental involvement. However, they stand firm that the link between positive academic outcomes share greater congruence than incongruence.(Lee & Bowen, 2006) This article offers some interesting perspectives and balances well with hthe research that opposes some of its assumptions. Theodorou, E. (2007). Reading between the lines: exploring the assumptions and implications of parental involvement . International Journal about Parents in Education, 1, 90-96. Retrieved from http://www.ernape.net/ejournal/index.php/IJPE/article/viewFile/29/19 In this article the author explains that, although, the term “parental involvement” is offered up as an educational necessity, the term is not clearly defined. What constitutes the correct levels of involvement? The greatest issue with school-parent, “home-school partnerships” as they are, often, called, may require a level of involvement that not all parents can commit to.(Theodorou, 2007) Socioeconomic and ethnic concerns cannot be disregarded. Low-income and minority parents may not be able to be as involved as they might like. These individuals, their children, and families can be marginalized, while the parents are stigmatized as not being involved enough. The author suggests that a reform of school policies should definitely be considered, however, fears that by placing more of the responsibility of education upon parents it may only contribute to an imbalance in educational opportunities and creating a greater academic achievement gap among children. He does however, support parental involvement in its most traditional form, class volunteerism. This form of involvemnt encourages parents to participate in the same way and inadvertently may encourage multiculturalism. Topar, T. R., Keane, K. P., Shelton , T. L., & Calkin, S. D. (2010). Parent involvement and student academic performance: A multiple mediational analysis. Journal of Prevention & intervention in the Community, 38(3), 183-197. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020099/ This article views the phenomena of positive parental involvement, focusing on a study performed in 2010, with 158 seven-year-olds, their parents, and their teachers. The study attempted to correlate parental involvement , child performance, and the teacher’s perception of the child, parent, and process. The findings proved interesting. Children do tend to do better academically, due to a greater eagerness to participate based on the value their parents must have based on level of participation. The teacher perceives better academic progress for this reason. The research showed that parental involvement does have certain positive aspects, it is a combination of factors, however, that wholly contribute to a child’s academic achievement. The suggestions made by the authors focus on improving the frequency between meetings between parents, students, and teachers; in hopes that they will function as an educational team to maximize the student’s potential academic successes.(Topar, Keane, Shelton & Calkin, 2010) This article provides solid, current, research, that acknowledges that there are any number of factors, contributing to academic success, many of which cannot be calculated, but it is certainly a multifaceted occurrence. Shute, V. J., Hansen, E. G., Underwood, J. S., & Razzouk, R. (2011). A review of the relationship between parental involvement and secondary school students’ academic achievement. Education Research Institute, 1-10. Retrieved from http://www.hindawi.com/journals/edu/2011/915326/ This article focuses on the value of parental involvement on students at the junior high and high school levels. Generally, there is far less encouragement in secondary schooling for parental involvement in comparison with how it is promoted at the elementary school level. The research discussed attempted to determine if regular conversations between parents and students, parental interest and heightened expectations, and employing authoritative parenting styles will result in positive academic success.(Shute, Hansen, Underwood & Razzouk, 2011) The overall conclusion showed, again, that parental involvement has a certain amount of positive outcomes academically, however, the same can be said of the children’s peers. However, the levels of the contributions are much more modest than previous studies conducted indicated. This article is incredibly useful in providing a well-rounded perspective on this topic. It directly speaks to a lesser contribution of parents at the secondary school level as opposed to the increases seen in academic achievement in elementary school students. Conclusion It is clear that this issue is a complex one, with differing opinions and approaches to determine what the causes, effects, and outcomes actually are in relation to parental involvement. As stated previously, the sources reviewed for this discussion have a broad range of balanced information. These resources combine the concerns of economics, genetic, and social factors that can affect how well a child performs and how much they achieve academically. There is, also, a strong focus on all of the things that can prevent parents from being as involved in their child’s education; for example, a single parent whose work schedule, simply, does not allow the time in their schedule to actively participate as much as they may like. The research is specific and covers the years over more than a decade and grants a multiple perspectives and plausible, multiple, theories as to where the problems stem and, in some cases how to encourage “more” parental involvement where applicable. As a whole, the sources are independently valid and when combine provide a strong foundation for more in-depth, detailed, and relevant discussion. This topic is worthy of continuing research. Further research may prove to contribute to finding solutions; giving all children a greater opportunity to achieve academically and live up to all of their potentials. Reference El Nokali, N. E., Bachman, H. J., & Votruba-Drzal, E. (2010). Parent involvement and childrens academic and social development in elementary school. Child Development, 81(3), 988-1005. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2973328/ Ferguson, H. B., Bovaird, S., & Mueller, M. P. (2007). The impact of poverty on educational outcomes for children. Pediatrics and Child Health, 12(8), 701-706. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2528798/ Gonzalez-DeHas, A. R., & Willems, P. P. (2003). Examining the underutilization of parent involvement in the schools. School Community Journal, 85-100. Retrieved from http://www.adi.org/journal/ss03/Gonzalez-DeHass%20&%20Willems.pdf Graves Smith, J. (2006). Parental involvement in education among low- income families: A case study. The School Community Journal, 16(1), 43-60. Retrieved from http://www.adi.org/journal/ss06/SmithSpring2006.pdf Hong, S., & Ho, H. (2005). Direct and indirect longitudinal effects of parental involvement on student achievement: Second-order latent growth modeling across ethnic group. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97(1), 32-42. Retrieved from http://edukate.uncc.edu/eist/summer09/hlee66/eportfolio2009/readings/4.pdf Hoover-Dempsey, K. V., & Sandler, H. M. (1995). Parental involvement in childrens education: Why does it make a difference?. Teachers College Record, 97(2), 311-330. Retrieved from http://www.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/family-school/papers/childrens_education.pdf Lee, J., & Bowen, N. K. (2006). Parent involvement, cultural capital, and the achievement gap among elementary school children. American Education Research Journal, 43(2), 193-218. Retrieved from http://bfi.uchicago.edu/humcap/wp/papers/AERJSummer2006LeeBowen.pdf Theodorou, E. (2007). Reading between the lines: exploring the assumptions and implications of parental involvement . International Journal about Parents in Education, 1, 90-96. Retrieved from http://www.ernape.net/ejournal/index.php/IJPE/article/viewFile/29/19 Topar, T. R., Keane, K. P., Shelton , T. L., & Calkin, S. D. (2010). Parent involvement and student academic performance: A multiple mediational analysis. Journal of Prevention & intervention in the Community, 38(3), 183-197. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020099/ Shute, V. J., Hansen, E. G., Underwood, J. S., & Razzouk, R. (2011). A review of the relationship between parental involvement and secondary school students’ academic achievement. Education Research Institute, 1-10. Retrieved from http://www.hindawi.com/journals/edu/2011/915326/ Read More