Parental Involvement & African American Students

Legal Demands for Parental Involvement in School

Desimone (2002) reviewed literature related to parent involvement in schools and reported that school improvement efforts now consider the importance of this involvement. Desimone stated that for the last two decades, the United States has attempted to reform schools and increase education quality and academic performance. For example, initial efforts in the 1980s led to research literature, which identified parent involvement as an important characteristic that is linked to successful schools. In 1997 congress enacted the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program, which provided funds for Title I schools. These schools became subject to accountability; the law mandated that schools meet CSRD program criteria for parent and community involvement (Desimone, 2002). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act also strengthens the role of the parents in schooling, since parental consent must be sought for special education evaluation and reevaluation. Trotman (2001) further noted t

. . .
achers and parents need to be understood. Drummond and Stipek (2004) conducted individual telephone interviews with 234 low income African-American, Caucasian, and Latino parents to determine their views of the importance of helping their children with reading, math, and homework, and the importance of understanding what their children are learning. These children were second and third-graders. Open-ended questions determined the type of help that these parents viewed as appropriate. Low income was a factor studied since this is related to poor lower achievement levels and ethnicity was studied since perceptions of parent involvement can vary by culture. For example, studies have shown that: Latino parents value morals and believe moral learning to be the foundation for all learning and Latino parents express concern for showing respect to authority figures and may not become involved out of fear of showing disrespect. Anglo-American parents rate cognitive traits most important, followed by motivation, self-management, and social skills. Findings showed that parents rated helping their child with academic work as very important; parents of second graders related this higher than parents of third graders. Parents believe
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
African American, Kasprow Fendrich, Longitudinal Study, Pelletier Brent, Involvement Pryor, California Teachers, Pacini-Ketchabaw Villanueva, Caucasian Latino, Kessler-Sklar Baker, Research Improvement, parent involvement, parental involvement, african american, et al, involvement school, child's education, middle school, parent involvement schools, parents teachers, involvement schools, elementary school, involvement child's education, african american parental, american parental involvement, views parent involvement,
Approximate Word count = 6436
Approximate Pages = 26 (250 words per page)