1 CHAPTER I

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SETTING

Introduction Parents play a vital role in the education of their children . Their involvement and encouragement can help a child excel. Parents want their children to succeed in school, but a parent's role in that success must not be underestimated. In school as in life, consistent support from parents is crucial to sustaining a student's confidence and sense of achievement. Parents play four distinct roles in their child's education: cheerleader, friend, mentor, teacher and enforcer. Meanwhile, parent involvement at both the school and the home are included. Parent involvement at home includes parenting practices and learning activities at home. Parent involvement at school looks at voluntary school involvement such as participation in parent-teacher meetings and talking with parents of children in childs class. Moreover, parent involvement allows parents to monitor school and classroom activities, and to coordinate their efforts with teachers. Teachers of students with highly involved parents tend to give greater attention to those students, and they tend to identify problems that might inhibit student learning at earlier stages. Parent involvement' is a hot topic in education, partly because many parents are not involved enough. Research shows that when parents are more

involved, their children generally do better in school. Involved parents enhance what their children learn in the classroom. Involved parents also tend to be better organized in daily life. Parent involvement also is beneficial for parents. Parents who do something extra for their child, their childs classroom, or their childs school have the satisfaction of seeing benefits and the thanks of smiling faces. Involved parents invariably hear about problems early and are in the best position to take action and to enact good solutions. Involved parents are also frequently in touch with other parents, sharing useful information and working to ensure that their children get a world-class education and a lifetime of good school memories. In Polomolok Central Elementary School, parents involvement is the focused of the school. It encouraged parents to support their children in all school activities since they are the frontlines of their children at home. Their children appreciated their effort and presence.

Thus, this highly motivates the researcher to conduct a study to determine the relationship between the Parents' involvements in school activities to their children's academic performance.

Statement of the Problem The study aims to determine the significant relationship between the Parents' Involvement in School Activities and the Academic Performance in

Makabayan among Grade Five pupils of Polomolok Central Elementary School, S.Y. 2011-2012. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions: 1. What are the Profile of the parents involved in school in terms of: 1.1 Economic Status 1.2 Number of Children in the Family 1.3 Tribe 1.4 Religion 1.5 Gender 1.6 Educational Attainment 2. What is the extent of Parents' Involvement in school activities in terms of; 2.1 Amount spent in child studying period; 2.2 participation in school activities; 2.3 Adherence to school Policy? 3. What is the level of academic performance of grade five pupils in Makabayan for the school year 2011-2012? 4. Is the profile of parents significantly associated with the academic performance of the pupils? 5. Is there significant relationship that exists between the degree of Parents' Involvement and pupils' academic performance?

Significance of the Study

One of the Department of Education (DepEd's) thrusts is to give education for all, to attain quality education and quality outputs. With the partnership of the

DepEd and Parents it produced a first ever special and unique education for students that are fully aligned and relevant to them.

This study will be of help to the following:

To the teachers this study may help them recognize that there differences in the way parents nurture and support their children. Hopefully, this study will stimulate further insights to other researchers on the importance of knowing the teachers and parents involvement in the education of the children. The parents, this study helps them realized that they have the greatest responsibilities over their children. Love and care in the family shall always be cultivated to avoid their children to live astray or even to be one of those who live on streets. The administrators, this study enhances their skills in sharing their talents, knowledge, time and effort in nurturing the parents and students to become valuable and progressive citizen of the community, thus, this study serves as a guide to design an effective program which supports to EFA 2015 goals that all children are in school.

Finally, to the researcher herself, this study will gives her confidence, strength and deeper knowledge as well as specific skills in making specific and valuable programs.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study is confined to Parents and pupils of Polomolok Central Elementary School s.y. 2011-2012. Specifically, this is limited to determine the degree of relationship between parents' involvement in school activities and their pupils' academic performance for this school year 2011-2012.

Further, this study is delimited to the school activities and mean scores of the pupils' achievement test results in Makabayan. Thus, it also delimits on the parents profile of the students, its involvement to the school activities and pupils academic performance.

Definition of Terms

For greater understanding of the study, the following terms are defined operationally. Academic Performance refers to the mean scores obtained by the Grade Five pupils in the Achievement tests in Makabayan. Educational Attainment is the highest degree of education attained by the parents who are the focus of this study which will be categorized into: elementary, secondary and vocational level. Economic Profile refers to the nature or occupation and daily wages of the parents, their capacity to survive and the lifestyles they have. This is the distribution, production and consumption of their services and or income. Grade V Pupils refers to the respondent of the study conducted.

Parents Involvement Operationally defined as actively participating parents to their children in their academic development by going to schools and participating in open houses. Their profile is significantly measured by their involvement in school activities. Personality is operationally defines as the personal characteristics of the parents. Polomolok Central Elementary School refers to the local where the study is conducted. Religion is operationally defines as the faith or belief of the parents. School Activities Operationally defines as the different activities conducted in Polomolok Central Elementary School like PTA meetings, Family Day, Christmas Party and others.

Tribe refers to a family, race, or series of generations of the parents.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter presents the review of related literature and studies that are relevant to the development of the study.

Parents' Involvement Research and reform efforts have both emphasized the role of parents in holding schools accountable (by having the option of school choice or voting with their feet) and in having parents themselves become more responsive (parent involvement at the school and child level) in their childrens education. However, school choice has been widely studied in recent years but usually without the mention of parent involvement. Parent involvement variables are treated either as unobservables or as fixed effects. Zimmer and Buddin (2003), Hanushek, et al (2005), Sass (2004) and Bifulco and Ladd (2004) combine parent involvement variables together with student characteristics as one fixed effect at the student level. The first three studies assume that parent involvement does not vary over time nor with respect to school-supplied inputs. Bifulco and Ladd allow the overall student fixed effects (which includes parent involvement and characteristics) to vary by year and grade. Another example is the study by Hoxby and Rockoff (2005) on the impact of charter schools on student achievement in Chicago. On top of instrumental variables to address selection bias, they included covariates such as race/ethnicity, free lunch, and proxies for ability. Parent involvement, which,

unlike the covariates they included in their models, can change after the child has transferred to a charter school and can bias their results, is not included. In any case, these studies do not explicitly assess the effect of parent involvement on achievement. None of these studies had any information on parental involvement. The California, Texas, Florida, Chicago and North Carolina data are all drawn from school records data that do not record any measure of parental involvement or a variety of other family and student background factors that are likely to affect student achievement. The authors did not discard

information about parental involvementthe information was not available in these studies. The advantage of using school records data is the large volume of records available at almost no cost, but the disadvantage is that the records are not as complete as researchers would like. Instrumental variables, fixed-effects and random-growth models help with some problems, but they are not a panacea, especially since parent behavior can change once the child is in a certain school type.

The parental involvement literature A key factor behind student achievement other than parental school choice is parent involvement. The literature is extensive in showing the relationship between school programs, parent involvement in education and childrens school performance. Parent involvement studies generally fall into three categories (Henderson and Mapp, 2002): (1) studies on the impact of family and community involvement on student 19 achievement; (2) studies on

effective strategies to connect schools, families, and community; and (3) studies on parent and community organizing efforts to improve schools.

Parent involvement and student achievement There are several ways of measuring and understanding parent involvement, as discussed by several authors who have developed various frameworks for such (Chrispeels, 1992, 1996, as cited in Chrispeels & Rivero, 2001; Eccles & Harold, 1996; Epstein, 1992; Grolnick & Slowiaczek, 1994; Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997). Epsteins (1992) measure of parent involvement is one of the most quoted in the literature, and has been adopted by practitioners such as the National Parent Teacher Association (National PTA, 1998). The Harvard Education Letter (1997) summarized the six types of familyschool-community partnerships as follows, based on Epsteins studies: Parenting: Families must provide for the health and safety of children, and maintain a home environment that encourages learning and good behavior in school. Schools provide training and information to help families understand their childrens development and how to support the changes they undergo. Communicating: Schools must reach out to families with information about school programs and student progress. This includes the traditional phone calls, report cards, and parent conferences, as well as new information on topics such as school choice and making the transition from elementary school to higher grades.

10

Volunteering:

Parents can make

significant

contributions to

the

environment and functions of a school. Schools can get the most out of this process by creating flexible schedules, so more parents can participate, and by working to match the talents and interests of parents to the needs of students, teachers, and administrators. Learning at home: With the guidance and support of teachers, family members can supervise and assist their children at home with homework assignments and other school-related activities. Decision-making: Schools can give parents meaningful roles in the school decision making process, and provide parents with training and information so they can make the most of those opportunities. The opportunity should be open to all segments of the community, not just people who have the most time and energy to spend on school affairs. Collaboration with the community: Schools can help families gain access to support services offered by other agencies, such as healthcare, cultural events, tutoring services, and after-school child-care programs. They also can help families and community groups provide services to the community, such as recycling programs and food pantries. Many researchers use some variation of this framework. Ho and Willms (1996) studied the effects of parent involvement on eighth-grade student achievement, using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) based on a sample of 24,599 students and their parents and teachers. They identified 12 parent involvement variables from the NELS that were compressed into four variables using principal components

11

analysis. The four parent variables are: home discussions between parents and child, communication between parents and school, home supervision, and school participation by parents in volunteer activities and PTA meetings. They used hierarchical linear modeling and controlled for family socio-economic status, family structure, whether students were considered by their parents to have learning or behavioral problems, and child gender and ethnicity. They first used parent involvement factors as dependent variables to see how the other variables affected parent behavior. Then they used reading and math standardized scores as dependent variables. They found that the discussion of school-related activities at home had the strongest relationship with academic achievement. Parental participation at school had a moderate effect on reading achievement, but a negligible effect on math achievement. Ho and Willms admit that their study is potentially biased because they do not include prior academic achievement due to data unavailability. There is, however, another potential source of bias which they did not mention: school type of child as well as school-level variables. Catsambis (1998), Shumow and Miller (2001), Fan and Chen (1999) and Desimone (1999) found that parent involvement with homework and parent-initiated contacts with school were

negatively related to student achievement. Parent involvement that is more reactionary than pro-active tend to show a negative relationship with student achievement. Catsambis studied 13,500 families whose children stayed in school through 12th grade. She measured the connection of Epsteins six types of involvement with student achievement in high school. She controlled for

12

race/ethnicity, education of parents, job, income, family size, whether parents were at home or working, language at home and engagement at school. On one hand, she found that parental behavior such as contacting the school, encouraging teens to graduate from high school rather than go to college, and supervising behavior were all associated with lower student achievement. When she controlled for problem behavior, the effects disappeared. On the other hand, she found positive correlations between student achievement when parents express high expectations, discuss going to college, and help students prepare for college. Shumow and Miller used data from a national study of adolescents and looked at a subsample of 60 families to examine the impact of parent involvement during the middle grades. They found that parents of struggling students provide more help at home than parents of successful students. This may be because parents tend to help more with homework when students are not doing well in school. Fan and Chen found a similar pattern in their meta-analysis of data from studies conducted over the past 10 years. These studies suggest that parents are more involved, especially in terms of supervision, as a reaction to their children not doing well in school. Similar to other studies, Fan and Chen found that parents aspirations and expectations have the strongest relationship with achievement. Izzo et al (1999) did a three-year study of 1,200 urban New England children from kindergarten through third grade and looked at the effects of parent involvement on student achievement over time. They had four measures of parent involvement and five measures of student achievement. However, the

13

Izzo et al study has issues on measurement error and respondent bias in the parent involvement variables, because of the way the parent involvement data were collected. The study uses the Teacher-Parent Survey that asks teachers to report on four aspects of parent school involvement: The first aspect is on the number of contacts teachers had with each childs parents during the year. The second aspect is based on answers from two questions that were averaged into a variable reflecting the quality of the teachers interactions with each childs parents. The third aspect is on answers that were averaged from two questions into a variable reflecting teachers perceptions about whether parents participated in school activities, and the final aspect is based on two questions that were averaged into a variable reflecting teachers perceptions about whether parents engaged in activities at home to enhance their childs social and academic development. Students were randomly selected from 341 classrooms in 27 schools. Control variables included gender, grade level, family income and education, and ethnicity. They found that engaging in home activities was the strongest positive predictor for math and reading achievement. The variable they used on parents educational activities at home, however, was a rather vague yes/no binary variable. There was no explicit definition of the educational activities at home in the Izzo et al paper. And most importantly, the data on parent involvement was based on teachers perceptions of involvement, not actual parent involvement. Gutman and Midgley (2000) studied African-American students from 62 families during the transition between grades 5 and 6. The dependent variable is

14

the students grade point averages. They found that parent involvement as a single variable (the definition includes talking to students about school, checking homework, attending events and volunteering) did not appear to be related to student achievement. The insignificant results, however, may be because the components of parent variables used have a mix of negative and positive correlations with student achievement which cancelled each other out.To test the hypothesis that the relationships between particular types of parent involvement and student achievement differ according to the students race/ethnicity and family income level, Desimone (2000) used data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. She found that some parent involvement variables are more effective than others across different subgroups. Since she used crosssectional, nonexperimental data without longitudinal analysis (previous child scores, for example were not included in the model because of unavailability for 8 th graders in her dataset), Desimone herself stated that causal relationships cannot be estimated with any confidence. Desimone ran models (child scores as dependent variable, parental involvement as key independent variables) for each of the race/income subgroups. She looked at the resulting coefficients from the models and compared them across sub-groups (for example, she looked at the coefficient effects of parental volunteering on child scores across blacks, whites, etc.) Desimone found that school-level volunteering was a better predictor for White and middle-income student achievement than for Asian, Black, Hispanic and low-income students. Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) involvement,

15

however, was associated significantly with achievement for the latter group of students. She also found that discussion with parents about school matters was a significantly better predictor for Whites than for Asian, Blacks or Hispanics, and for middle-income students compared with low-income students. Desimone recognizes that prior research has documented a positive relationship between achievement and high parental expectations. She found in her study that parental discussion with students about post high school plans was associated with achievement outcomes for White and middle income students, but not for lowincome, Black and Hispanic students. She also found that parental help with homework was associated negatively with all measures of achievement, for students from all races/ethnicities and income levels. Lee and Bowen (2006) examined the effect of five types of parent involvement on elementary students academic achievement by race/ethnicity, poverty level and parent educational attainment. Their sample comprised of 415 third through fifth graders in a community in southeastern United States. The data was assessed with t tests, chi-square statistics, and HLM. They found that parents with different characteristics acted differently, and the types of involvement shown by parents from dominant groups (white, non-at-risk groups) had the strongest association with achievement. They found positive

associations between achievement and parent involvement at school, and educational expectations had more than twice the effect of school involvement. Homework help had a negative correlation with achievement. This study, however, is only cross-sectional. The sample used is also limited, and the

16

measure of achievement had reliability problems (scores were based on four teacher-report measures). In sum, there seems to be a general positive

relationship between home and school involvement of parents on student achievement, except for direct homework help which has a consistent negative relationship with achievement across studies. However, the results of several studies should be interpreted carefully given that they only look at the correlations between variables; they are not causal. Moreover, the measure of student achievement was usually not reliable, and the sample used limited any inference to external validity. The importance of parent involvement in childrens overall development is largely unquestioned. However, the impact of parent involvement on childrens academic achievement is less certain. One reason for this lack of certainty is that parent involvement can be defined in numerous ways. Parent involvement defines as the active engagement of a parent with their child outside of the school day in an activity which centers on enhancing academic performance.

School type in the parent involvement literature School type is also not considered by studies linking parent involvement and student achievement. For example, studies by Ho and Willams (2001) look at parent involvement and socio-economic status and their effect on student achievement, but there was no mention of school choice. Desimone (2000), while looking at parental involvement effects on student achievement within the subgroups of income and ethnicity, did not consider school type effects in her

17

models. Catsambis (2000), Izzo et al (2001), Fan and Chen (1999) and Shumow and Miller (2001) all did not include school choice effects into their models.

Linking School Activities to Parents' Involvement Though studies are few and results tend to be mixed, there are studies that posit that parents in private schools are more involved than those in public assigned schools (Hausman and Goldring, 2000; Martinez et al., 1996; Wells, 1996). Hausman and Goldring found that parents reasons for school activities (academic, convenience, discipline/safety and values) were generally effective in predicting parent involvement than the parent background factor (such as income). Moreover, those parents who chose schools for values reasons reported greater levels of involvement at the school. Those who chose the schools for reasons of convenience, on average, live much closer to the schools. But this proximity did not result in a significant difference in level of involvement.

Other studies on the relationship between parent involvement and school activities Monitoring your childs education is the cornerstone of parent involvement. Every aspect of parent involvement is geared to providing the best schooling possible for your child, and you cant do this if you dont know whats going on. Yet they know of no topic more difficult to cover than this one, for two reasons. First, parents cannot be everywhere, and they will not know everything that

18

happens to their child. Second, there is no clear consensus about what constitutes a quality education. There are many strongly held, divergent opinions about the most important aspects of a childs educational experience. This is why school choice has become such an important topic. That said, there are several useful ways that parents can gauge whether their young children are receiving a high-quality education. Schools are vital to the communities and the society. While parent involvement directly helps their child, it also strengthens the school. Ideally, at the end of each school year, parents should be able to look back and identify specific things they have done to leave their childs school a better place. Help the school personnel feel appreciated. Every parent can provide thank-you notes, cards for holidays, and individual or class presents (modest, but thoughtful ones are best). Some of the busiest parents make time to volunteer in their childs classroom or school. They can accompany children on a field trip, make phone calls to share important information, come to the classroom and read to children, or help with a special project. Teachers usually make requests to parents about their needs, or ask the teacher how to make something happen. Sharing information is valuable, and it means that more parents are able to cooperate to strengthen their childs school. Parents at some of the countrys premiere schools are the most active in seeking improvement. The traditional PTA (Parent Teacher Association) has been transformed in many places. New names include Parent Teacher Organization or Parent

19

Teacher Student Organization. Some groups have their own names. Some are affiliated with The Newsletter for the Center for Development and Learning Involvement contd. parent participation. Many schools pride themselves in having 100 percent These groups organize and energize parent talent for

schools. They also fulfill an important role of challenging schools, seeking information about whats happening and why, expressing concern about changes that are not optimal (at least on the surface), and lobbying with the school board or state government about important matters. These organizations can be inspirational, bringing in new ideas through a speaker series, a newsletter, or creating a parent resource room at the school. These associations often respond to parents schedules and preferences. Some meet in the evening, others during the day. Some raise money, while others concentrate on a wide range of activities. Most change over the years as school needs and family needs change. Some parents just get parent involvement down pat for the kindergarten class when they encounter a firstgrade teacher with very different rules and expectations. Then along comes a second-grader who ups the ante or changes the parameters again. On the other hand, early childhood professionals and teachers are an important link in the home-school collaboration effort (Brand, 2006) and have the opportunity to enhance childrens education by pursuing collaborative

relationships with parents. Teachers who believe in the importance of parent involvement as a factor in enhancing childrens educational experiences are more likely to act in ways that encourage parents to be involved (Hoover-

20

Dempsey et al., 2002). Understanding teachers attitudes, as well as factors that might impact their beliefs and attitudes, is important. Research on HS teachers has found teacher background, qualifications, and experience to be related to their attitudes and knowledge of early childhood development practices (U.S Department of Health and Human Services, 2003); this may include practices related to parent involvement. It has been posited that parents become involved due to their view of the parental role, the schools atmosphere in encouraging parents participation, and self-efficacy (Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler, 2001). It may be that low income-parents feel inefficacious and believe that they lack the necessary skills to enhance their childs learning, leading to low involvement in their childs schooling. Hoover-Dempsey and colleagues (2002) have noted that efficacious parents regard their childs learning and development as a shared venture between parents and school. Parental involvement can be seen to fall into three types: 1) Behavioral, 2) Intellectual and 3) Personal. The research explores the effect of multidimensional participation of parents and the resulting progress of children in their studies when different parental resources were dedicated to them. Actively participating parents help their children in their academic development by going to schools and participating in open houses. By keenly observing the behavior of their children they can rightly judge the kind of behavior or the allocation of resources required by their children. Such caring parents can also motivate teachers to become more attentive towards a particular student, thus maintaining the cycle of parent-teacher involvement. Encourage Building up cognitive and

21

perception abilities in a child are a major concern in the upbringing of the child. The way the parents involve their children in cognitive learning is by exposing them to different cognitively stimulating activities and materials such as books, electronic media and current events at home. This helps the child to practice all sorts of language comprehending skills at the school. The results show a remarkably positive behavior at the school and with peers. In an effort to describe parental involvement, many researchers use a term Transition(Lombardi, Joan). Transition is used to describe the time period in which children move from home to school, from school to after school activities, from one activity to another within a pre-school, or from pre-school to kindergarten. The untiring endeavors of teachers in the phenomenon of transition cannot be ignored. They prepared the children and their parents to face the problems of adjusting to elementary school programs that had different psychology, teaching styles and structure than the programs offered at the kindergarten level. In the elementary level schools the teachers had to face serious challenges in motivating the parents to take interest in their childrens activities. The teachers adopted different methods to involve the parents in dayto-day classroom and home activities. They used to send notes, invitation of parent-teacher meetings, invitation of parental guidance sessions and training sessions, continuously directing the parents attention towards their children. Patricia Brown Clark suggests that it is very important to keep the line of communication between teachers and parents open, so that the parents can interact with the teachers and get up to date information of their childrens school

22

activities. One way to involve parents is to schedule school events and arranging classroom activities such as volunteering for libraries, acting as classroom aides or efficiently organizing lunch breaks. The teachers also opt for making phone calls at the childrens houses to keep in touch with the parents and getting to know the extent to which they are contributing towards the welfare of their children. Apart from the above activities, the teachers also assign home activities for both the parents and their children so that the parents remain indulged in their children and the children get to study at home. However, it was a bad and disappointing experience for the teachers when many of the parents failed to respond as expected. Many of the parents were so overwhelmed with their official work that they could hardly take out some time for their beloved children. Moreover, for some parents their schoolings were not positive and character-boosting experiences, therefore they preferred to keep a distance from their childrens school as well. This made it really difficult and at times impossible for teachers to bring the parental involvement to the desired level. Nevertheless, the activities of two teachers proved greatly fruitful in making parents involved in their children. They were Carlos Valdez, an art teacher and 8th grade class sponsor, and Mike Hogan, the schools band director. They did it by involving parents in music festivals and other school ceremonies. They proved to be great examples for the future teachers As a result children who received adequate parental concern were found to be much more confident in their academic desires and achievements than those who could not get the right amount of parental concern. The individual involvement of mothers and fathers also plays a

23

vital role in the behavioral development of a child. Students from one-parent household were observed to show less positive attitude towards schools and studies as compared to students from two-parent households. One study aimed at investigating parental concern showed that despite mothers sincere endeavors, the role of fathers could not be ignored and both served as an important foundation for the future progress of the child. This can be proved from the following fact: According to a recent report from the National Center for Educational Statistics (2001), compared to their counterparts, children with involved fathers are more likely to have participated in educational activities with their parents (e.g., to have visited a museum or a historical site with their parents in the past month), and are more likely to have access to multiple types of resources at home as well (as measured by the proportion of parents who belong to community or professional organizations, or regularly volunteer in the community). (Flouri, E. And Buchanan, A, Pg.142). Also, the parental involvement has been discussed and implemented in terms of interventions or prevention programs, which are nothing but safety measures taken to assure healthy and perfect upbringing of the child. The study uses school-based and home-only intervention programs to find out the extent of intellectual capabilities found in children from different family backgrounds. The success of one school-based interventions can be proved from the following fact, which was a part of Education Service Improvement Plan 2001-2005 of Edinburgh:to come.

24

Engaging families in the education of their children at home and at school is increasingly viewed as an important means to support better learning outcomes for children. When schools and families work together, children have higher achievement in school and stay in school longer (Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Jeynes, 2005; Pomerantz, Moorman, & Litwack, 2007; Reynolds & Clements, 2005). Although there has been considerable research on how parents influence children's development, less is known about the specific ways in which parents socialize their children in terms of school-related behaviors. While extensive research indicates that there are important links between parenting and children's academic and behavioral competence at school, there is less research on "academic socialization", which is conceptualized as the variety of parental beliefs and behaviors that influence children's school-related development (Taylor, Clayton, & Rowley, 2004, p. 163). Various definitions of parent involvement have been proposed. It can be defined broadly as parental behavior with, or on behalf of children, at home or at school, as well as the expectations that parents hold for children's future education (Reynolds & Clements, 2005). Ho and Willms (2001) defined parent involvement through four constructs--home discussion, home supervision, school communication and school participation. Dimock, O'Donoghue, and Robb (2006) proposed a range of dimensions that include: school choice (i.e., parents select the education institutions and experiences for their children); involvement in school governance and decision-making (i.e., parents participate in formal school structures); involvement in teaching and learning activities in the classroom and

25

at home (e.g., parents volunteer in the classroom, converse with teachers outside of formal meetings, help with homework and discuss school-related issues with children); and communication between home and school (e.g., parents contact the school and receive communications from the school).

Socio-demographic characteristics of families and parental involvement Variation in levels of parental involvement in children's learning at home and at school is strongly influenced by family socio-economic status (SES) (Boethel, 2003). Parents in families with lower SES often have fewer years of education and, possibly, have had more negative experiences with schools. They may feel unprepared to be involved. Parental involvement may also vary because of differences in ethnic and cultural backgrounds between parents and teachers (Desimone, 2001). Teachers are less likely to know the parents of children who are culturally different from their own background and are more likely to believe that these parents are less interested in their children's schooling (Epstein & Dauber, 2001). Parents' language difficulties may also cause difficulties in understanding participation opportunities. It is unfortunate that parents with low SES and from different ethnic and cultural background than the mainstream culture, whose children would most benefit from parental involvement, are more likely to find it difficult to become and remain involved (Lee & Bowen, 2006). Parents with social and cultural backgrounds different from the dominant social groups in the society may also have quite diverse expectations and

26

interpretations of what it means to be educationally helpful to their children. For example, Vogels (2002; cited in Drissen, Smit, & Sleegers, 2005) distinguished four groups of parents in research conducted in the Netherlands. The first group, partners, were highly active in informal and formal engagement activities, from volunteering to engagement in the formal governance of the school. These parents were more likely to have a high SES. A second group was called participants. They were highly involved in informal activities at the school and had middle to high SES. The third group were delegators, who viewed teachers as the appointed experts and therefore responsible for the education of their children. The fourth group were the invisible parents, who were not engaged or visible to the school. The invisible parents were primarily parents with a low SES.

Parental beliefs and the nature of parental involvement A greater appreciation of the beliefs that underlie parents' decisions about becoming involved in their children's education is needed (Taylor et al., 2004). The way in which parents feel.When a parent gets involved in his child's education, he positively influences his child's chances of success. Kids whose parents are involved in their education tend to perform better than their peers who have uninvolved parents. Some parents may not know how to get involved in their child's education, but once they do, they can make a big difference. Parents and school personnel need to work together to ensure positive parental involvement for every child.

27

There are several types of parental involvement in education. Parents can become involved in their child's education through simple steps such as asking the child about her day or monitoring her homework assignments. Parents can schedule conferences with the teacher or other school leaders to keep updated about the child's progress and they can attend school functions like sporting events and award ceremonies. Another way for parents to stay involved in their child's education is to set expectations for their child. If parents want their children to be successful in school, they need to expect their children to perform at their best effort at all times. According to the Michigan Department of Education, the level of parental involvement in education relies on three main factors. The first is the parents' understanding of what is important or appropriate in terms of their involvement at school. Some parents may believe that they need to monitor every aspect of their child's education while others may believe that their role should be less pronounced. The second factor is the parents' belief that they can have a positive impact on their child's education. Some parents think their child will perform a certain way in school regardless of their involvement, while others understand that if they involve themselves in their child's education it will positively impact their child's educational performance. The third factor is the degree to which the parent feels the child and school want parental involvement. Some parents feel their child wants them to stay away from their education or leave them alone;

28

other parents may not feel welcome at their child's school, keeping them from being more involved in their child's education. "When schools, families, and community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more." That's the conclusion of a recent report from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. The report, a synthesis of research on parent involvement over the past decade, goes on to find that, regardless of family income or background, "students with involved parents are more likely to:

Earn higher grades and test scores, and enroll in higher-level programs; Be promoted, pass their classes, and earn credits; Attend school regularly; Have better social skills, show improved behavior, and adapt well to school; and

Graduate and go on to postsecondary education" (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). But if parents have a central role in influencing their children's progress in school, research has shown that schools in turn have an important part to play in determining levels of parent involvement (Epstein, 2001). Working to include parents is particularly important as students grow older, and in schools with high concentrations of poor and minority students (Rutherford et al., 2007). In developing countries, the support of the local community including the parents, the local government units, and the local industry, is an important

element in sustaining and maintaining the viability of improved learning outcomes. In El Salvador, the success of the Educo program is attributed to

29

parental participation (Jimenez & Sawada, 2001).

In the Compensatory

Education Program in Mexico, empowered parent associations have substantial effect on attendance in school, home follow-up studies, and motivation (Gertler, Patrinos & Rubio-Bodina, 2006). In the Philippines, there is a problem of parents and professionals having different expectations of special education programs as the former remains a largely untapped source of educational assistance (Gaw, 2000; Dela Torre, 1995; Rotor, 1998; Sandoval, 2001). Studies show that the majority of parents want to be involved in their childrens education, but many face barriers that prevent them from doing so. And although educators identify parental involvement as a best practice, schools often dont have the resources or the time to reach out to families who may be reluctant to participate. Afterschool can offer parents a comfortable, flexible

setting in which to engage with their children and become involved in their education. Parents enjoy activities that offer a chance to socialize and discuss concerns with other parents and staff. After school programs are also an

important forum for indentifying and providing resources and services that strengthen families. Creating a program that reflects the ideas and desires of the parents involved leads to program improvements, increased attendance, and greater parental investment (Cotton, 2000). Parents are always concerned about the education and the well being of their children. They send them to good schools with good teachers to prepare them for good jobs. But who is really responsible of the learning of the student?

30

The student himself, the schoolteachers, administrators or the parents? James Coleman (2000), in the classic study of American schools noted that: School brings little influence to bear on a child's learning that is independent of his background and general social context, and the inequalities imposed on children by their home, neighborhood and peer environment are carried along to become the inequalities with which they confront adult life at the end of school. (p. 325)

Supporting this idea, Jencks (2002) wrote that the school itself does not appear to be able to operate independently of the child's immediate social environment. In contrast, Heyneman (2006) and Bibby and Peil (2004) indicated that family factors have a small or random relationship to student learning at least in non industrialized societies. Their position implied that school authorities in non industrialized nations play a very important role in preparing students for academic success, and occupational attainment. The current position of many educators is that the home and school play an independent and significant role on student learning even though the impact may be different. The integration of faith and learning is a deliberate and systematic process of approaching the entire educational enterprise from a biblical perspective. Its objective is to produce students who have internalized biblical values and a view of knowledge, life, and destiny that is Christ-centered, service-oriented, and kingdom-directed. Ellen White says that the efforts of the best teachers must often bear little fruit, if fathers and mothers fail to act their part with faithfulness. (Fundamentals of Education p. 69,70). She is supported by Gaebelein (2001)

31

who indicated that education is more than teachers and courses. Hence the involvement of parents in this process is imperative to achieve this objective. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the home and the school can work together for the effectiveness of the integration of faith and learning in Adventist secondary schools. The role of the parents in their children's learning is not usually limited but it is more visible when their children are day students, which is going to be discussed in this paragraph. Sigel (2008) provided a conceptual framework that includes social and cultural concepts needed for studies of family background. In Sigel's suggested model, referring to studies on environmental factors influencing children's learning, the quality of mother-child interactions, can be seen as the primary influence on children's development of academic competence, supplemented by extended family network, school and church institutions, and cultural norms. "The teacher's work should supplement that of the parents, but is not to take its place." p. 283 Coleman (2008) also developed a theoretical strategy for looking at the environmental variables that affect student learning. According to Coleman, family background can be analytically separated into three components: financial capital, human capital, and social capital. Financial capital is measured by the family's wealth or income; it is the source of physical resources that can aid achievement.

32

Human Capital is measured by parent's education and occupation. It provides the potential for a cognitive environment for the child that aids learning (e.g., the availability of a good home library, a good place to study). Social capital refers to the interrelationships between people who live or work together. It refers to relationships between parents and children, between employers and employees, between teachers and students and between students themselves, etc. Coleman further broke down social capital into three components: obligations, expectations, and trustworthiness of structure; information channels and norms and effective sanctions. As physical and human capital facilitate productive activity, social capital does as well. For example, a group within which there is extensive trustworthiness and trust is able to accomplish more than a comparable group without trustworthiness and trust. Information channels as social capital are the potential for the information that inheres in relation and, as such, are important in providing a basis for action. As Coleman said, information is costly; at a minimum, it requires attention, which is always in scarce supply. In a home, children need parents' attention and a husband and wife need each other's attention to communicate and share information. Concerning norms and effective sanctions, when a social norm exists and is effective, it generally constitutes a form of social capital. Norms in a home or a

33

community that support and provide effective rewards for high achievement in school, greatly facilitate the school's task. If the human capital or financial capital possessed by a parent is employed exclusively at work or elsewhere outside the home and is not complemented by social capital embodied in family relations, it is irrelevant to the child's educational growth that the parents have a good deal or small amount of human or financial capital. For example, a child can belong to a family in which members are well educated, wealthy, and generally capable, but for a variety of reasons (such as divorce, alcohol abuse, more involvement in business activities, or exclusive attention to self development), the resources of the adults are not available to aid the psychological health and the social and educational development of the children. The children are therefore likely to become low achievers if other institutions such as schools and churches do not intervene.

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH LEARNING According to Brophy (2008), schools that elicit strong achievement gains show more of the following characteristics: - Strong leadership (typically, but not necessarily supplied by the principal) that produce consensus on goal priorities and commitment to instructional excellence; - A safe, orderly school climate; - Positive teacher attitudes toward student and positive expectations regarding the student's abilities to master the curriculum;

34

- An emphasis on instruction in allocating classroom time and assigning tasks to students - Careful and frequent monitoring of progress toward goals through student testing and staff evaluation programs; - Strong parent involvement programs; -Consistent emphasis on the importance of academic achievement, including praise and public recognition for students who excel academically. Leone and Richards (2009) reported that increased study time was associated with better academic performance. Concerning parental involvement, they indicated that the homework done with a parent or a family member present was associated with the highest attention levels and better academic performance. Concerning parental involvement on a high school level, Henderson (2001) indicated that the effects of parent-involvement are particularly strong at the early levels but significant benefits can be derived from involving parents in the intermediate and high school years. Strong family and/or strong dormitory leadership will be characterized by trustworthiness between members of the family and a commitment to its cause. According to Ellen White, parents will not criticize and censure the school management, which encourages insubordination in the children, or justify their children in their wrong-doing if they are involved in the training of their children (Education p.284). She added that one of the greatest difficulties with which

35

teachers have had to contend, is the failure on the part of the parents to cooperate in administering the discipline of the college (Testimonies vol. 5, p.89). Helping students do their homework can be extended to help them appreciate and study the word of God including giving bible studies to non-Adventist students in school dormitories. Coleman (2007) indicated that private school educators see themselves as extensions of the family they serve. They have the continuity of values between home and school which reinforces a child educational experience. Ornstein and Levine (2009) indicated that the difference of punishment between the home and the school makes it difficult for many low working-class students to follow rules and procedures when sanctions are not consistent with those imposed at home. According to their findings, one would say that, in a boarding school, investment in social capital has a higher return to students whose home social capital matches the one available at the school. In order to be able to match home and school discipline, teachers and dormitory deans should do their best to know the child's home background. Knowing his/her home will solve many of the discipline problems with students. Parenting style also is a powerful predictor of student achievement as Dornbusch cited by Henderson (2001) found that authoritarian styles are associated with low achievers, permissive styles with the next lowest achievers, and authoritative (firm but open to discussion and negotiation) associated with high achievers. This statement supports Ellen White when she says that:

36 "The teacher must be firm and decided, he should not be too exacting or dictatorial ... the true object of reproof is gained only when the wrongdoer himself is led to see his fault, and his will is enlisted for its correction. None who deal with the youth should be iron-hearted, but affectionate, tender, pitiful, courteous, and companionable; yet they should know that reproofs must be given, and that even rebuke may have to be spoken to cut off some evildoing" (Education p.280 and Fundamentals of Education p. 456, 457).

Mickelson (2000) found that peer-group characteristics predict grades and that the proportion of friends planning to go to College is a powerful predictor of student GPA (grade point average). Walberg (2004) cited by Hanson and Ginsburg (2008) found that parental concern and encouragement were twice as predictive of high school academic learning as was family SES (Socio-economic status). Diprete (2001) also cited by Hanson and Ginsburg (2008) found that students who report that their parents monitor their school work and whose parents almost always know where they are and what they are doing have been found to behave better both in and out of school. Helping students or children choose good friends who will not only help them get good grades but also lead them to Jesus is one of the responsibilities of parents and/or dormitory deans.

Similarly, Fan and Chen (2001) examined multiple measures of parent involvement. Using the methodology of meta-analysis (analyzing multiple research studies), the researchers identified three constructs of parent

37

involvement: (1) communication, (2) supervision, and (3) parental expectations and parenting style. Communication refers to parents' frequent and systematic discussions with their children about schoolwork. Supervision includes monitoring when students return home from school and what they do after school, overseeing time spent on homework and the extent to which children watch television. Parental expectations and parenting style were found to be the most critical of the three. These include the manner and extent to which parents communicate their academic aspirations to their children. Fan and Chen found that high expectations of parents and student perceptions of those expectations are associated with enhanced achievement.

As Fan and Chen (2001) found in their research, parenting styles, as a critical measure of parent involvement, have been linked to student performance. Authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative are three styles of parenting (Baumrind, 1991). Authoritative, identified as the preferred style, includes parental warmth, inductive discipline, no punitive punishment practices, consistency in child rearing, and a clear communication of interest in the day-today lives of children (Rosenau, 2001). According to Rosenau, the authoritative parenting style has a strong correlation with student behavior and classroom management.

Van Voorhis (2003) examined the effects of involving parents in interactive homework assignments (family homework assignments rather than student-inisolation homework assignments) using the Interactive Homework program, a

38

spin-off of the Teachers Involving Parents in School (TIPS) program developed at Johns Hopkins University. TIPS offers parents guidelines for collaborating with their children on homework activities, as well as information about school curricula (Epstein, Simon, & Salinas, 2001). In the evaluation study, in comparison to students engaged in traditional homework assignments, students who participated in the TIPS Interactive Homework program received better scores on homework and on report cards, and parents were more involved with homework.

According to Leah Davies (2002), since parent involvement relates positively to student achievement, parents are encouraged to participate in their children's education in a variety of ways both at home and in school. At home they are asked to read with their child, provide a quiet place for homework, supervise assignments, monitor television and internet use, and promote school attendance. Schools request that parents attend teacher conferences, "open houses" as well as academic, art, drama, and athletic events. Parents are invited to volunteer in classrooms, serve on advisory committees, and support fund raising for special projects. Yet, many parents do not participate.

Education and Parental Involvement in Secondary Schools

Parental involvement is a combination of commitment and active participation on the part of the parent to the school and to the student. There are many problems concerned with involvement. Many secondary schools simply do not know how to deal with the nontraditional family and the areas of concern that

39

it represents. Parents feel unwelcomed at school, lack knowledge and education, and may not feel that education is important. The number of solutions that can be used to improve parental involvement are substantial. The most important of these, however, is for the principal of the school to be totally committed. When these solutions are implemented the effects are great, especially for the student. Improved student achievement is the key objective.

"Parental involvement, in almost any form, produces measurable gains in student achievement" (Dixon, 2002, p. 16). The concept of parental involvement with the student and the school is a vital one and can produce great rewards for all concerned. However, it has been found that schools do not always know what the term parental involvement really means (Vandergrift & Greene, 2002). According to Vandergrift and Greene, there are two key elements that work together to make up the concept of parental involvement. One of these is a level of commitment to parental support. This includes such things as encouraging the student, being sympathetic, reassuring, and understanding. The other element needed is a level of parental activity and participation, such as doing something that is observable. "This combination of level of commitment and active participation is what makes an involved parent" (Vandergrift & Greene, p. 57).

Parent involvement actually declines as students grow older, so that it is less in secondary schools than in elementary (Stouffer, 2002). If parental involvement is so beneficial, why isn't it being used to a greater extent than at present? There are many reasons from the parent and also from the school for

40

this lack of involvement. One of the reasons concerns the lack of understanding of nontraditional families on the part of the school system. The nontraditional family is struggling to deal with many factors that affect every member of the family. These can definitely affect the way that the family is able to be involved in the student's education. More than likely, there is a shortage of time. There just simply are not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything. If there has been a divorce or death in the family, there probably has been a change in the financial standing of the family. By the school not being sensitive to this change, the student/family could be embarrassed. The verynature of the family structure is in a state of change causing confusion and insecurity (Duncan, 2002; Lewis, 2002; Wanat, 2002). The parents may be doing the very best that they can.

"Schools must understand that lack of participation by parents does not necessarily mean they are neglecting their responsibilities. They simply may not have the time, resources, or know-how to help out" (Wanat, p. 47). Parents often do not feel welcomed at school. They feel that what they may have to offer is unimportant and unappreciated. Also, parents may not believe that they have any knowledge that the school is interested in knowing. This is especially true when the parent may not have a great deal of education (Dixon, 2002; Vandergrift & Greene, 2002). It is also possible that the parent does not have a great deal of interest in the school or his child's education. The parent may not feel that education is important (Vandergrift & Greene).

41

Another reason for lack of involvement is embarrassment. The parents may be illiterate or unable to speak English. This could make communication difficult if not impossible. Another source of embarrassment is memories of the parent's failure in school. The parent would not have much desire to return to a place that only served to remind him of his own failures (Brink & Chandler, 2003; Smith, 2001).

There are many things that can be done to improve parental involvement at the secondary level, but the success of any program will be tied directly to the support and encouragement of the principal (Lewis, 2002). "Principals are key contributors to helping parents and other educators understand each other" (Duncan, 2002, p. 13). "Ultimate responsibility for creating harmony between the school and the home rests with the principal" (Campbell, 2002, p. 3). By the school being more aware of the circumstances of nontraditional families, better communications can be established. One thing that the school can do is to let the parents handle parenting responsibilities and the school handle the educational responsibilities. Also, by working with the parents more, the school will have a better idea of what the parents can and cannot do. More realistic expectations for out-of-school projects is an example of this (Wanat, 2002).

Single parents often do not have the time, money, or knowledge to help children with projects. For example, many mothers do not have equipment or skill to plan science fair experiments or construct woodworking projects, and fathers

42

may not be able to help design and sew costumes for the school play (Wanat, 2002, p. 46).

Another important item is communication. More communication between the school and home are needed, but specific types of communication are important. Two-way informal exchanges between teacher/parent are much more effective than one-way communication from the teacher (Wanat). Also, friendly contact should be established with parents early in the year before something has happened that makes it necessary for the teacher to contact the parent (Wherry, 2002).

There are many ways that a school can improve communications. One way is for the school to sponsor a parent/student fund raising. Parents and students working side-by-side gives them a chance to talk, and hopefully the teachers and schools will also be included in this important exchange. Also, parent/teacher organizations can be an avenue to reach parents. Parents who attend parent/teacher meetings are able to get to know their child's teachers better. Another avenue sometimes overlooked is inviting parents to volunteer. By doing this, the school is letting them know that they are wanted, needed, and welcomed at the school. Many parents are more than willing to share their knowledge of occupations, foreign travel, special skills and hobbies. They just want to be asked. Alumni events have been shown to be an excellent way to improve parent/community involvement and a way to raise needed money.

43

Former students may appreciate the opportunity to return something to their school. One popular program is parent classes, which can help parents with parenting ideas/problems, homework/tutoring strategies, drug education, and improving communications skills. These classes can help the parent, student, and school. Invitational events can encourage people to get involved with the school that might not otherwise.

Grandparent day is one such invitational event that has met with success (Loucks, 2002; Stouffer, 2002; Wherry, 2002). An open house program at school can bring in parents, and it is very important to greet these visiting parents faceto-face as quickly as possible. Also, greeting visitors with a sign in their own language can make a big impression. Find out the languages spoken by students and parents and put up a sign with all languages on it. Another way to help parents feel genuinely wanted and welcomed is to establish parent advisory groups.

People like to know that their input is valued. Also, the school could set up a parent center in the school stocked with resources to help parents. This is one way the school can say we care. In addition, the school could recognize what parents are doing to help the students and praise them for their efforts. People like to know that someone takes the time to notice and appreciate what they were doing (Wherry, 2002).

One very important way that parents can become involved in their student's work is through the use of computers. This is a new world opening up

44

for a lot of students as well as their parents. They can learn about this exciting world together. One thing that is necessary is to make sure the programs used are at the correct grade level and that there is a lot of variety (Rickelman & Henk, 2001).

There are several things that have been suggested for populations that are at-risk. These populations have a great number of uneducated people, drug addicts, alcoholics, and child abusers. The ideas already presented may not work for this sector of the population, and they may need special consideration. The first thing the school can do is to meet the parents where they are by assessing the parent's needs and providing programs to meet those needs. Having a workshop on Good Parenting Skills in English simply will not work when offered in a district in which Spanish is the main language spoken. The school will need to make a greater effort to get to know the parents individually. Someone from the school may actually have to go door-to-door to make the invitation as personal as possible so that the parents will feel welcomed. Also, the school should "offer a broad range of activities to encourage support and participation, including nonthreatening, low-commitment opportunities" (Vandergrift & Greene, 2002, p. 59). Making the parents feel as comfortable as possible is an important step.

Results from the Arizona At-Risk Pilot Project suggest that the most effective means to involve parents are ones that (1) establish a personal rapport between someone from the school and the parent and (2) do not initially require

45

high levels of commitment or participation (Vandergrift & Greene, 2002, p. 59). When parents, students, and the school work together, it is possible to accomplish great things at the secondary level. Everyone reaps the benefits! "When both parents and teachers work together, communicate and build a family and school partnership, parents, teachers and children benefit from the outcome" (Gelfer, 2001, p. 167). The main benefit of parental involvement is the improved achievement of the student.

According to Loucks (2002), "Research shows that parents' involvement in the school results in improved student achievement" (p. 19). There it is in a nutshell: if the parent shows concern, it will translate into greater achievement on the part of the student. The more that the parent becomes involved with the teacher, school curriculum, and administration, the better the parent feels about the school. The parent will have an increased sense of pride in the school and the community. The more the parent learns about the way the school functions, the more the parent will understand the educational process and educational decisions. The parents and the school become allies and are able to be of mutual benefit when it comes to dealing with difficult students and situations. The parents are also more supportive of the school with financial support as well as support of bond issues and other leeway levies (Stouffe, 2002). The more the parent becomes involved and learns about the school, the more the parent can help the student. The parents are able to "increase their understanding of child development in areas of physical, social, emotional and cognitive development" (Gelfer, 2001, p. 164). This helps to provide a bond between home experiences

46

and the educational program. When the parents understand how the child develops, they are better able to provide a more positive and exciting home environment. The parents may even want to learn more and possibly attend the parent classes provided by the school. This type of situation can produce a positive spiral of success for the parent, school, and student (Gelfer, 2001).

The important person is the student. Anything that the parent can do to help the student improve is worth doing. "Emphasis should be on effective ways of helping children, families, and schools work together to provide students with the opportunity to put their best efforts forward" (Duncan, 2002, p. 13).

It is very clear that parental involvement is beneficial.

It can definitely

benefit the student in question, but it can also benefit the teachers, the school, the parents themselves, and the community, as well as other children in the family. Everything possible should be done by the school system to encourage the parents to become involved. This is especially true of the principal of the school. He or she is the driving force of the school, and it is his or her leadership that will guide the teachers in the direction of emphasizing the importance of parental involvement.

There has been extensive research done on this subject. However, new ways for increasing parental involvement can always be discovered. Additional research and information in this area can do nothing but help all concerned.

47

Related Studies

Zellman, et al. (2006) investigates the factors associated with high and low reading achievement in twenty elementary schools with a high proportion of poor minority students. Several elements associated with achievement gains were identified, including high levels of contact between parents and school staff. Becher, (2004) reviews research on parent involvement and presents extensive information on the elements of successful parent involvement programs. Identifies research findings regarding the role of the family in determining children's abilities and achievement, the effects of parent education programs on student outcomes, parental practices which promote reading success, and the role and potential of parent involvement in enhancing schoolfamily relations. Coleman and Hoffer, (2007) compares the reading and math achievement of lowincome black and Hispanic students in Catholic high schools with the achievement of such students in public high schools. Attributes the superior performance of Catholic school students to the greater involvement of families and communities in these schools. Collins, et al. (2002) describes 28 parent involvement programs in large American cities and identifies elements which appear responsible for their success. Positive results of involving parents in their children's schooling include improved achievement, reduced absenteeism, improved behavior, and restored confidence among parents in their children's schooling.

48

Cotton and Savard, (2002) reviews 18 studies on the effects of parent involvement in instruction on the achievement, attitudes, and behavior of elementary and secondary students. Found such involvement beneficial, especially when parents receive orientation and training for helping their children. Dornbusch and Ritter, (2008) reports the results of a survey concerning the relationship between parent involvement and student achievement in six San Francisco Bay Area high schools. Students whose parents attended school events and engaged in contacts with teachers had higher achievement than those whose parents were minimally involved or uninvolved. Fehrmann, and Reiners, T. M. (2007) examines the effects of parental influence on time spent by high school students doing homework and time spent watching television. The sample consisted of 28,051 high school seniors from the High School and Beyond longitudinal study. Data from the HSB questionnaire were analyzed. Increased parent involvement was positively related to students' time spent on homework and on their grades. Gillman, R. M.; Schooley, D. E.; and Novak (2007) compares three Michigan elementary school districts involved in state-funded programs to improve reading achievement. The two districts with minimal parent involvement had higher achievement than schools without such involvement, and the district with intensive parent involvement showed the largest achievement gains. Goodson, B. D., and Hess, (2005) examines evaluations of 29 preschool programs to determine relationships between different approaches to parent

49

training and later student achievement. All approaches were associated with gains in children's IQ scores and achievement and with improvements in parents' teaching behaviors. Henderson, A. (2007) reviews 49 studies of parent involvement in children's learning at home, in the instructional program at school, and in supporting the school in general. Concludes that all forms of parent involvement have positive effects on student achievement. Herman, J. L., and Yeh, (2003) investigates the effects of parent involvement on the achievement of second and third graders in 250 California elementary schools. Children of involved parents showed significantly higher achievement than other students. Leler, H. (2003) reviews 48 studies of educational programs with significant parent involvement components. Forms of parent involvement strongly associated with achievement gains included parents helping their children at home after training, tutoring students, and helping in classrooms. Mucha, (2007) examines the effects of mathematics homework games involving parent participation on the mathematics achievement and attitudes of second graders. Posttests indicated positive effects of the home activities on achievement and attitudes (toward math, toward self and toward other game players). Sattes, (2005) reviews literature on parent involvement in the education of students at all levels. The review cites research indicating beneficial effects of

50

parent involvement on student achievement, attendance, motivation, and behavior. Offers research-based guidelines for engaging parent involvement in schools. Moles, (2007) reviews research on the effects of different kinds of parent involvement on student outcomes. Achievement and affective benefits

(attendance, behavior, attitudes) are associated with: parents serving as paid classroom aides, parents working as volunteers, home-school communications, phone contacts, home visits, parent-teacher conferences, homework assistance, home tutoring, and home educational environment. Research is inconclusive about the effects on student achievement of parent involvement in decision making. Waxman,(2000) investigates the effects on student achievement of parent support of learning activities. Parents of students in grades 1-6 in 41 classes in Chicago agreed to cooperate with teachers in supporting their children's learning activities. Children of involved parents made significantly greater academic gains than children of noninvolved parents. Swick, (2003) offers outcomes of a study of the relationships among education, home support, neighborhood support, and children's achievement. Questionnaires completed by the parents of 362 first graders were analyzed in relation to children's achievement test scores. The children of actively supportive parents scored highest, followed by the children of passively involved parents, and then the children of noninvolved parents.

51

Willis, (2007) cites attributes among elementary schools selected as exemplary through the Elementary School Recognition Program in 1985-86. Elements cited relate to the schools' connections with parents and community members. Studies the effects of providing individualized in school instruction to developmentally delayed kindergarten children and the effects of providing such instruction plus parent-delivered home activities. Children whose parents conducted activities with them at home significantly outperformed those receiving only in-school instruction. O'Leary, (2002) identifies a continuum for parent involvement extending from passive, marginally involved, to active and deeply involved. Categories identified on the continuum include: Reporting Progress, Special Events, Parent Education, and Parents Teaching. Williams, (2007) reports the results of a survey of parents and educators in six southern states on parent involvement. Respondents provided views on parent involvement in general, in decision making, parent involvement roles, and parent involvement activities. Clarke-Stewart, (2003) looks at the literature on parent education (training parents to support their children's learning) in order to confirm or challenge several assumptions about the value of parent education programs. Claims that while parent education appears to benefit students, many questions remain unanswered--e.g., which kinds of programs work best.

52

Comer, (2008) discusses parent involvement in the context of social changes in the past 40 years. Discusses projects undertaken in New Haven, Connecticut elementary schools, in which parent involvement activities were largely responsible for dramatic improvements in student achievement. Students in these schools were 99 percent black and from low-income families.

Phi Delta Kappan 67(2006) describes the changing relationships between schools and communities and discusses the critical role of parent involvement in education. Presents detail on parent involvement programs in New Haven, Connecticut elementary schools--programs which resulted in the schools' moving from being extremely low achieving to universally high achieving. Reviews the successes of the SDP over the period 1969-1984. Focuses on the program's major elements, which include (1) the mental health team, which coordinates the other three, (2) the school governance and management body, (3) the parent involvement program, and (4) the curriculum and staff development program. Edge, (2004) describes parent involvement models and provides detail on Project ENRICH in the state of Kentucky, which includes parent involvement in decision making. Offers guidelines for developing parent involvement programs. Epstein, (2005) presents findings from research on the effects of parent involvement programs on student attitude, achievement, and other outcomes. Findings from the author's own research efforts are highlighted. The article includes a discussion of the role of school and home computers in students'

53

education. Provides results of extensive surveys on parent involvement in the state of Maryland. Surveyed were 3,700 first, third, and fifth grade teachers and principals in 600 elementary schools, and 1,200 parents. Recommendations are offered to school administrators based on findings. Gordon, (2009) describes four models of parent-school-community relations and cites research on the long-term effects of parent involvement. The parent impact model is associated with positive changes in student achievement. Ross, (2007) presents survey results on home-school relationships and addresses such topics as barriers to greater home school contact, levels of desired and actual contact, and ways to establish stronger home-school linkages. Ooms, (2006) provides a listing of basic principles for effective familyschool relationships and a discussion of the changing nature of parent involvement as children move through the different grade levels. Keith, T. Z., et al. (2006) reports the findings of a study on the relationship of several variables to student achievement. Parent involvement was found to affect achievement indirectly through parents' influence on the time students spend on homework. Tangri, (2008) reports the results of interviews conducted with junior high school language arts and mathematics teachers and with 60 parents regarding barriers to effective parent involvement. Lack of planning and lack of mutual understanding between teachers and parents appeared to be the greater barriers to collaboration.

54

Moles, (2002) reviews research on parent involvement and provides findings regarding the effects of parent involvement on achievement and attitudes, presents information on the forms parent involvement takes, identifies barriers to home-school collaboration, and presents effective teacher practices for engaging participation. Research overwhelmingly supports parent

involvement in instruction. Cites research on the effects of parent involvement, describes the different forms parent involvement may take, and offers guidelines for engaging parent participation in different aspects of schooling. Revicki, (2001) examines the relationship among various home

background variables and student outcomes, using data from two Parent Education Follow Through Programs on 321 second graders. Active parent involvement was related to increases in the achievement performance and selfconcepts of participating children. Offers, in loose-leaf format, an array of parent involvement resources, including information on training programs, parent involvement programs, networks, organizations, literature, training aids, and other resources. While some of the material relates to parent involvement activities and resources in the Southwest region, much of it is applicable to any area. Swap, (2007) provides in-depth, research-based information on ways to engage and maintain meaningful parent involvement in children's learning and school governance. Provides sample materials and activities for improving parentschool communications.

55

Tennies, (2006) investigates the effects of implementing a parent involvement activity on achievement and other outcomes of students in grades 612. A control group and two groups with different levels of parent involvement were compared. Children of involved parents had higher GPAs than controls. There were no significant differences on other variables. Bausell, (2007) presents results of a study in which 195 parents taught their first graders word recognition skills at home, using materials provided by the school. These students significantly outperformed controls. The article also presents findings from 20 studies on home tutoring. Home tutoring program formats included: (1) professionally supervised tutoring, (2) professionally administered training, (3) televised instruction, and (4) materials only (like the format of the study). All formats were found to be useful, with the materials only format viewed as having the widest feasibility. Yap, (2007) compares the reading achievement scores and reading attitudes of elementary students whose parents worked with them in a parent involvement program to the scores of nonparticipants. Results somewhat favored experimental children. Control children and parents were found to have engaged in activities very similar to those of experimental families. Conceptual Framework According to Anderson and Minke (2007), evidence has shown that educators and parents define involvement in different ways. Some parents consider their involvement are not as more of a community-centric view, while

56

teachers consider involvement mainly as a parental presence at the school. Because the definition of parental involvement is not recognized, it can lead to miscommunication where teachers blame parents for the childs difficulties, which leads to some parents feeling unappreciated. When people try to understand the reasons behind a parents involvement choices, it should be taken into consideration that lower resource families may react differently from families that have greater resources (Anderson, Minke. 2007). The majority of parents that are involved in childrens education are mothers. Parent involvement decreases as their children grow older. Children who come from lower income families have parents who are less likely to be involved than those who have families who may be wealthier and more educated parents. Other variables of less parent involvement include single parenthood (Mattingly, Prislin, McKenzie, 2002). Middle-class parents are considered to have more flexible schedules over working-class parents, allowing the middle-class parents to participate more at their childs school (Anderson, Minke, 2007). A number of studies show parent involvement is connected to higher academic success and better attendance. In addition, it also provides more positive student and parent attitudes directed toward education (Mattingly, et.al. 2002). According to Epstein (2008), there have been confirmed studies that when the parents are more involved, students show an increase in grades in English and math, in addition to an improvement in their reading and writing skills. According to a survey done with secondary school teachers, ninety-seven percent said the biggest challenge they face is working with parents. Schools are

57

developing decision-making activities to encourage parents to voice in their opinions and help develop mission statements. The parents can also help to develop policies of the schools that can have an effect on students and families in a positive way. School principals can improve their schools by sharing the leadership and develop teamwork to help improve programs of their schools, families, and community partnerships. Schools are working with different parts of their communities such as senior citizen groups, churches and other religious organizations, government agencies and other associations to help improve school programs and student development. This helps the students and parents to become more involved in community service or in other projects to help give back to their communities. Examples of this include cultural events, health services, after-school activities, and part-time jobs (Epstein, 2008). In order to support life-long learning, families are strongly encouraged to develop their own knowledge and skills. According to the National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE) , life-long learning can include opportunities to work with schools and help students to learn about job training, continuing their education after high school, child development and parenting education. Schools can also help by providing cultural education for both staff and parents. This helps to give both teachers and parents a better understanding of cultural and community values and practices that are common to students and families.

58

This study is anchored on the concept that in child development, the child often faces different changes, and these changes may influence the development of such individual. Although, there are still strongholds on the belief that the best care for children especially during the developmental stages is maternal, there is still no denying the fact that the current economic and social movement continue to make this difficult for the family units to provide. As with every change that directly affects the family and a child's well-being, the acceptance of child-care, as an alternative to parental care is gradual and tenacious. Thus, parental involvement as an accelerating and motivating factor in the childrens education is a worldwide-accepted fact (UNICEF, 2007). In this study, the parents' involvement in school activities is considered the independent variable for he/she embodies the child's development. The dependent variable is the academic performance of students. The dependent variable of this study is academic achievement of the students, as measured by the Achievement Test results. These are modeled as a function of a student's level of the performance measured. Specifically, the dependent variable will be the Makabayan scores of pupils from Grade V. This study has independent variable the parent's involvement. Figure 1 shows the conceptual paradigm of the study.

59

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

DEPENDENT VARIABLES

Parents' Involvement In School Activities

Academic Performance of Pupils

Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the study

Hypothesis of the Study

The null hypothesis is tested at the 0.05 level of significance.

1. The degree of parents' profile is not significantly related to the academic performance of the pupils.

2. The degree of parents' involvement is not significantly related to the academic performance of the pupils.

60

CHAPTER III

Methodology

This Chapter presents the research design and the respondents of the study. It discusses the data gathering instruments and their validation, the data gathering procedures, and the statistical treatment for data analysis. Research Design This study used the descriptive research design since this sought the significant relationship between Parents Involvement and school academic performance based on the achievement test results among the grade five pupils in Makabayan. The schematic diagram was presented in Figure 2. As in this study, I was its desire to determine the significant relationship between Parents Involvement and school academic performance based on the achievement test results of the first-fourth year student in Mathematics. This study employed a combination of descriptive design which was descriptive-survey and correlation studies.

61

Parents Involvement

Profile

Locale of the Study

*Economic Status *Family Populace *Educational Attainment *Personality *Tribe

*Religion

Respondents *Parents *pupils

Research Instruments Questionnaires Data Processing And Statistical Treatment

Academic Performance of the Pupils In Makabayan

Figure 2. Research Design

62

Locale of the Study The study was conducted at Polomolok Central Elementary School (PCES), Polomolok West District, Division of South Cotabato.

Respondents of the Study The respondents of the study were the Grade V pupils of Polomolok

Central Elementary School S.Y. 2011-2012. They were chosen as respondents because there were 641 enrolled in this school year 2011-2012. Random sampling was done by lottery. Twelve (12) pupils were taken from each section. The names of pupils were written on a piece of paper that was placed to the box. Fifty one (51) parents are chosen as parent-respondent through purposive sampling. The total number of student-respondent was obtained using the Slovins formula. The total number of pupils and parent-respondent assessed the significant relationship of parents involvement in school activities to the academic performance of pupils in Makabayan.

63

Research Instruments and their Validation The researcher developed questionnaires on the parents involvement in Education which was subject for validation. Besides, another instrument used in this study was the Achievement Test Result of the Grade V pupils in Makabayan.

Data Gathering Procedure

A.

Preparation of Survey Questionnaire A survey questionnaire was formulated for the parents to determine their

involvement in the education of their children. Permission from the principal was requested by the researcher to administer the questionnaire to grade five pupils of Polomolok Central Elementary School.

B.

Validation of the Materials The researcher looked into the achievement test results in Mathematics.

Survey questionnaire was formulated for the parents to determine the extent of the parents involvement in school activities and their children's academic performance. It was composed of two (2) parts. Part 1 determines the profile of the parents and their involvement to education. Part 2 determines the academic performance of the grade five pupils in Makabayan. The researcher distributed, collected and tabulated the survey form from the respondents. Validation for the results on its significance relationship the questionnaires were established by looking at the profile of the parents. Before

64

gathering the data, the researcher seeks permission from the Principal of the schools to get the grades of the pupils in Makabayan. When the request was granted, the researcher then gathered all needed data for statistical analysis.

Statistical Instrument In interpreting and analyzing the data, the frequency distribution, the weighted mean, the test for the comparison of the means and correlation analysis were used to determine the results of the study.

1. To determine the parents' profile frequency counts and weighted mean were used. 2. To determine the extent of Parents Involvement to school activities, weighted mean was used. Below is the descriptive rating scale as a basis for the interpretation.

65 Interval 4.20 5.00 3.40 4.19 Description Always Verbal Interpretation Provision and condition are very effective Provision and condition are much effective 2.60 3.39 Sometimes Provision and condition are moderately effective 1.80 2.59 Seldom Provision and condition are less effective 1.00 1.79 Never Provision and condition are least effective

Often

3. To evaluate the significant relationship that exists between the degree of Parents' Involvement and students' academic performance the following scale were used:

Academic Performance in Makabayan

Grade Interval 95 100 90 94 85 89 80 84 75 79

Description Superior Above Average Average Below Average Fair

66

The Pearson Product moment Coefficient Correlation was used to find out the significant relationship between Academic Performance and the Parents involvement in School Activities. To determine the degree of relationship between Academic Performance and Parents involvement in School Activities, the descriptive rating below was used:

Range +/-0.90-+//0.99 +/-0.60-+//0.89 +/-0.30-+//0.59 +/-0.10-+//0.29 +/-0.01-+//0.09

significance were set at 0.05 level.

Description Very strong to perfect relation Strong relation Moderate relation Weak relation Very weak relation
All tests of

67

CHAPTER IV

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF FINDINGS

This chapter presents the various findings of the study and the analysis of the results.

Table 1 Profile of the Respondents Parents According to Sex _________________________________________________________ Gender Frequency Percents _________________________________________________________ 1 Male 18 45 2 Female 22 55 ________________________________________________________ Total 40 100 ________________________________________________________ Table 1 presents the profile of the respondents according to Sex. It is based on the number of pupil-respondents who were involved in the study. It is the summary of male and female parents who were chosen to answer the survey personal data information. Majority of the parents respondents were female comprising 55%, likewise 45% were male to compose a total of 40 respondents

68

Table 2

Profile of the Respondents Parents Children in the Family.

According to Number of

_________________________________________________ Indicators Frequency Percents _________________________________________________ 1 7 and above 19 47.5 2 3 3 -. 6 1 -. 2 19 2 47.5 5

_________________________________________________ Total 40 100 _________________________________________________

On the table, it could be inferred that the parent-respondent profile according to number of children in the family. It is shown in the table that among the forty (40) parent-respondent 19 of them have 7 and above siblings in the family, 19 also have 3 to 6 children both with 47.5 percents and 5 parents have 1 to 2 siblings with 5 percents which completes the 100 percents in the grand total. Table revealed that there are more parents having a number of siblings ranging from 3 and 7 above. This implies that a lot of parents have a lot of children in the family. With this number of siblings in the family, parents may affect their participation in school activities particularly in coming in and out of the school environment that need special time themselves in school activities. to consider in order to involve

69

Table 3 Profile of the Respondents Parents According to Annual Income _________________________________________________ Annual Income Frequency Percents _________________________________________________ 1 301 T and Above 1 2.5 2 3 201T - 300T 101T - 200T 2 6 5 15

4 Below 100T 31 77.5 _________________________________________________ Total 40 100 _________________________________________________ As inflected in the table, the lowest annual income of the parentrespondent is 100T below, it has also the most numbered annual income receive by parent-respondent. Moreover, 6 parents earned 101T-200T, 2 parents earn 201T-300T and only one earns 301T and above. The results revealed that most of the parents are earning below the minimum wage. It also implies that the annual income they have could not suffice to support their family needs with that number of siblings they have in the family.

70

Table 4

Profile of the Respondents Parents Attainment.

According to Educational

_________________________________________________ Education Frequency Percents _________________________________________________ 1 Elementary Level 9 22.5 2 3 High School Level College 24 7 60 17.5

_________________________________________________ Total 40 100 _________________________________________________ Table 4 presents the parent-respondent educational attainment. It could be gleaned on the table that 24 of the respondents from this data, it reflects the 60% of the total respondent- population are high school graduate,. Nine (9) of them were elementary level with 22.5 percent and 7 were college with 17.5 percents which completes the grand total of 40. This level of educational attainment of the parents may affect their participation and understanding of the school activities to which they represents their children.

71

Table 5

Profile of the Respondents Parents Occupation

According to Parents

_________________________________________________ Occupation Frequency Percents _________________________________________________ 1 Employed 19 47.5 2 Self employed 21 52.5 _________________________________________________ Total 40 100

____________________________________________

On the parent-respondent profile on occupation, the table presents 47.5 percents of the total respondent of the study who are employed. These are the 19 parents- respondents. Twenty (21) of them are self-employed. It explained further that most of the parent-respondent are self-employed that means they have more time that would spent in business since self employed individual would mean time is gold and business transaction comes in a very special occasion. The business activities to which the self employed individual is a means that would affect the parents participation in school activities.

72

Table 6.

Summary of Respondents Rating of Parents' Involvement in school activities in Polomolok Central Elementary School on participation in child education. Item/s Mean 3.80 4.42 3.65 Description Effective Very Effective Effective

01. Parents are interested to know their childs teacher. 02. Parents encourage their child to education. 03. Parents are involved in their childs classroom activities. 04. Parents are supportive to their childs academic progress and extra curricular activities. 05. Parents checked their childs regular attendance in school. Section Mean

3.62 3.97 3.89

Effective Effective Effective

Table 6 shows the rating of Parents Involvement in school activities in Polomolok Central Elementary School on participation in child education. On the table, parents are supportive to their childs academic progress and extracurricular activities has the lowest mean of 3.62 describe as Effective while parents participation on childs education, specifically on item 5 parents encourage their child to education which has the highest mean of 3.97 described as very effective. Further the table revealed that parents participation on their childs education is satisfactory as shown in the overall mean of 3.89 described as effective. As reflected here, the result demonstrated that parents play an

73

important role in the education of their children. Their presence mean a lot in the education of their children. Table 7 Summary of Respondents Rating of Parents' Involvement in school activities in Polomolok Central Elementary School on Classroom Activities. Item/s 01 . 02 . 03 . 04 . 05 . Parents attend school PTA meetings and assemblies. Parents participate on family day, school sports activities and parent-contest category. Parents supervise son/daughters during school programs. Parents facilitate their son/daughters homework and classroom task thru constant reminders. Parents follow-up/monitor son/daughters attendance in school. Section Mean Mean 3.82 3.33 3.32 3.65 3.67 3.55 Description Effective Effective Effective Effective Effective Effective

On the parents involvement in school classroom activities it divulge that parents attend school PTA meetings and assemblies as reflected on the item #1 with mean rating of 3.82 described as effective components are also described as effective. The mean of 3.67 shows effective result to pupils classroom activities as their parents monitor/ follow up their school attendance. Thus, the table verified that it has the overall mean of 3.55 and describe as Effective. This result connotes that parents follow-up and frequently monitors their children school activities and do a lot in the school performance of their children. However, there is a need for the parents to supervise their children in while the four other

74

every school activities that the school conducted as it is indicated in the mean of 3.32, the lowest component in table7. Table 8 Summary of Respondents Rating of Parents' Involvement in school activities in Polomolok Central Elementary School on Pupils Study Time.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Item/s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Spending time to follow up your children's study time at home? Spend time in tutoring your child with materials and instructions provided by teachers?
Spend time to talk with your/ children about

Mean 3.65 3.42 3.85 2.82 2.82 3.4 3.42 2.8 3.42 3.87 3.12 3.6 3.4

Description Effective Effective Effective Fairly Effective Fairly Effective Fairly Effective Effective Fairly Effective Effective Effective Fairly Effective Effective Fairly Effective

_________________________________________________________________________________

school in a daily basis? Spend time reading together with children at Home to help improve their reading skills?
Visit the school and observe your child

during classroom activities? Assist your children in classroom activities When needed? Listening or lecturing your children about the Importance of education? Give time to communicate with teacher on a regular basis to see how the child progress. Spend time in appreciating your child

10 Give time to provide materials to help your child/children project done? 11 Give and supply motivational aids and offer suggestion to encourage children's learning? 12 Give time to your children in homework, class project and assignments. 13 Assist your child/children on their assignment Given by teacher to be done at home? Section Mean

_________________________________________________________________________________

3.35

Effective

_________________________________________________________________________________

75

Table 8 shows parents involvement in school activities in Polomolok Central Elementary School on Pupils Study Time. As indicated , the respondents rating on Parents involvement in the study time of grade five pupils indicates that the studying period of their children at home is being supervise by parents as evidenced by the items #1, #2, #3 and #4 with a mean rating ranges from 2.82 3.65 describe as effective spent in by parents involving the study time of their children at home. This follows that parents gives quality time devoting on their children performance in school. It is an innate characteristics of the parents that they give lectures, assistance and other information relevant to the learning and study time of their children in support of their studies to get a better opportunities in the near future. The parent participation in children study time habit is corroborated by items #7, #8, #9, #10 ,#11 and #12 with mean rating ranges from 2.80 3.87 describe as effective spent by parents with their children in study period, this follows that more learning and discussion is taking place for more heads is better than one. When it comes to school environment, the parents involvement towards their children learning behavior in school, parents spent minimal participation for they know where to intervene in the school affairs particularly in classroom instruction and setting. This is evidenced by less time spent of parents visitation on school when it comes to pupils academic performance giving the teachers the lee way for their children formal education in school. This follows that for every periodical examinations, the school has program where it discusses the progress

76

of their children in school through consultation and deliberate matters arising from children performance. The section mean rating of 3.35 indicates that parents involvement in their children study time contains a better working relation among parents and children that resulted to mean a closer family affairs whose main objectives relies on the schooling of the children. Also In Table 8, it is fairly effective on giving time to communicate with teachers on regular basis to see how the child is progressing since it the lowest mean of 2.80. On the other hand, it is effective to give time to provide materials to help the children done their project for it got the highest mean of 3.87. The result inferred that parents involvement on pupils study time is important. These could be reflected on the data presented by the table. Thus, parents are the sole partner of the school in developing and enhancing the childrens attitude towards study time.

77

Table 9

Summary of Respondents Rating of Parents' Involvement in school activities in Polomolok Central Elementary School on Adherence to School Policy

Item/s 01. Parents abide with school rules and regulations. 02. Parents obey school/classroom policy. 03. Parents understand and accept pupil-grade policy 04. Parents support school policy and programs 05. Parents adopts school policy/programs innovation. Section Mean

Mean 3.87 3.33 4.12 3.72 3.85 3.87

Description Effective Effective Effective Effective Effective Effective

Parents Involvement in school activities in adherence to school policy presents the effectiveness of every component posted on the table. In fact, it is effective that parents understands and accept pupil-grade policy which is being reflected in the 4.12, while four other components in relation to school policy receives the means of ( 3.72, 3.85, 3.87 and 3.33) described as respectively. As the table revealed it has the overall mean of 3.87 describe as Effective which proved that parents abide the school policy and that it leads to an effective outcome in the learning process of their children. effective

78

Table

10. Frequency Distribution of the Academic Performance in Makabayan of Grade Six Pupils in Polomolok Elementary School in Polomolok Central District for the School for SY 2011 - 2012 Grade Interval 95 - 100 90 85 80 75 94 89 84 79 Total Mean = 42 82 44 168 81.94 45.00 48.81 26.19 100 % Below Average Frequency Percent Description Superior Above Average Average Below Average Fair

Table 10 manifested the results in the parents involvement in the learning activities of the grade five pupils. It has an over-all mean performance rating of 81.94. As reflected in the foregoing tables, the pupils academic performance has a significance to what the profile of their parents have. Although this manifestation is below average it is an evidence that parents involvement is important in the learning activities of their children, in fact, even slow learner- pupils performed well in classroom activities if they feel the presence, support and encouragement of their pupils. Though it has a mean rating that is below average level of academic performance, the result as reflected in the over-all mean it doesnt mean that the parents are not doing their job as the first teacher at home, it is fair since the

79

respondents came from the 14 sections in grade five which are randomly selected to be part of the study.

Table 11 . Test of Significant Relationship between Parents Involvement in school activities and Pupils Academic Performance in Makabayan.

Indicators Participation in child Education Amount period spent in child studying

r 0.058 0.325 0.243 0.154

Degree of Relation Very Weak Moderate Weak Weak

Interpretation Ns Ns Ns Ns

Participation in school activities Adherence to school Policy

cv = 0.39274 (2-tailed) n = 40

* = significant at .05 alpha

Table 11 shows the test of significant relationship between parents involvement in school activities and pupils academic performance in Makabayan. Based on the table, it shows that the test there is significant relationship between parents involvement in school activities and academic performance in Makabayan. On the table, Participation in child Education got an r value of 0.058 describe as very weak degree of relation. Amount spent in child studying period got an r value of 0.3254 with a moderate degree of relation. Participation in school activities got an r value of 0.2435 with weak degree of relation.

80

Adherence to School Policy got an r value of 0.154 with a weak degree of relation. It could be noted here that parents involvement in school activities varies on the section, level of intelligence of the children, since these children are chosen randomly from the fourteen (14) sections in Grade five. Their Makabayan grade is the evidence to support that parents involvement does a lot in the academic performance of a child. It implies further that the parents involvement in school activities and academic performance in Makabayan has significant difference since the tcomputed values are greater than the tabular values at 0.05 level of significance. The null hypothesis is rejected.

Table 12 Test of Comparison of Means on the Academic Performance of Grade 5 Pupils in Makabayan according to sex _____________________________________________________________ Variables n Mean Std Mean Diff t-value

_____________________________________________________________ 1 2 Male Female 18 22 79.37 79.97 0.54 0.47 0.60 0.826

____________________________________________________________ P > .05 Ns = Not Significant

____________________________________________________________

81

With regards to comparison of academic performance of grade five according to sex, the t computed value is lesser than the tabular value (0.826). This means that sex has no significant difference in the academic performance of the pupils. The result is supported in the study of Velasco (2003), where she stressed that although male is group is lesser than female , sex do not dominates the results. It is revealed further that sex of parents did not significantly affect their children academic performance in Makabayan.

Table 13 Test of Comparison of Means on the Academic Performance of Grade 5 Pupils in Makabayan according to Number of children in the Family. _________________________________________________________ Variables Mean N F-ratio Prob.

_________________________________________________________ 7 and above 1 3 -. 6 2 1 -. 2 3 _________________________________________________________ P > .05 ns = Not Significant 80.25 2 79.56 19 78.68 19 1.617 0.904

_________________________________________________________

82

In the table the F-ratio and probability imply that there is no significant difference between academic performance of grade five pupils in Makabayan and number of children in the family since the computed value is lesser than the tabular value. It could be gleaned on the table that even with more children in the family, this follows that it does not affect the academic performance of the children in school.

Table 14 Test of Comparison of Means on the Academic Performance of Grade 5 Pupils in Makabayan to Parents Educational Qualifications _______________________________________________________ Variables Mean N F-ratio Prob.

______________________________________________________ Elementary Level High School Level College 77.31 78.36 81.07 9 24 7 10.62* 0.014

_______________________________________________________ P < .05 * = Significant

_______________________________________________________

Table 14 shows the comparison of means on the academic performance of grade five pupils in Makabayan to parents educational qualifications.

83

The above table presents the significant results of parents educational qualifications to the academic performance of grade five pupils in Makabayan, the f-ratio of 10.62 and its probability 0.014 shows that the tabular value at 0.05 level of significance is lesser than the computed value ( p<.05). This implies that there was a significant difference on the performance of the grade five pupils in Makabayan, that even though parents educational qualifications were of elementary level still it helps the childrens to perform well. However, parents with higher educational level give more meaning in the academic performance of their children since understanding of school works is being given much attention by those professionals or those with highest educational level for their children to work hard and give credence in their name.

Table 15 Test of Comparison of Means on the Academic Performance of Grade 5 Pupils in Makabayan according to Parents Occupation ___________________________________________________________ Variables N Mean Std Mean Diff t-value

___________________________________________________________ 1 Employed 19 78.79 0.54 2.23 4.813*

2 Self employed 21 82.08 1.47 ___________________________________________________________ P < .05 * = Significant

Table 15 presented the parents occupation and academic performance of grade five pupils in Makabayan, it could be gleaned in the table that there is

84

significant difference between the two components. Parents occupation has a significant effect in the academic performance of the pupils. This meant that their grades and parents occupation has a t computed value of 4.813 which is greater than the tabular value at 0.05 level of significance. For the occupation has something to do with how they guide their children towards a better future.

Table 16 Test of Comparison of Means on the Academic Performance of Grade 5 Pupils in Makabayan to Parents Annual Income _________________________________________________________ Variables Mean N F-ratio Prob.

_________________________________________________________ 1 2 3 4 301 T and Above 201T - 300T 101T - 200T Below 100T 81.12 80.36 79.07 77.05 1 2 6 31 6.72* 0.0317

_________________________________________________________ P < .05 * = Significant

__________________________________________________________

Table 16 shows the mean comparison of academic performance of the grade five pupils in Makabayan and the parents annual income. This table divulge the annual income of parent-respondent and its significant difference to the academic performance of the grade five pupils in Makabayan. The table presents the f-ratio 6.72 which implies that annual income whether 100T or 301T earnings gives difference in the academic performance of the pupils in Makabayan.

85

The foregoing data reveals that the null hypothesis posted in this study is rejected since the computed values were greater than the tabular values at 0.05 level of significance. The significant difference in the parents income would mean that in all activities, the parents with higher income can sustain the needs of their children social and economic endeavor fort hem to let their children work hard to attain their goals in education.

86

CHAPTER V Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations This chapter discusses the findings, conclusions and recommendations. Summary This study aimed to determined the Parents Involvement in school activities and academic performance in Makabayan of Grade five pupils of Polomolok Central Elementary School, Polomolok West Disrtict. Specifically, it sought to find out the significant difference of the Parents Involvement in school activities and academic performance in Makabayan of Grade five pupils of Polomolok Central Elementary School, Polomolok West Disrtict. Descriptive research design was utilized to get the results of the study. The instrument used to gather the data was the survey questionnaires results which was answered by the Grade five parents of Polomolok Central Elementary School, Polomolok West Disrtict. The forty (40) grade Five students of Polomolok Central Elementary School, Polomolok West District and their parents were the respondents of the study. The inquiry was conducted during the school year 2011-2012. There were two instruments use to gather the data the survey questionnaire and academic performance in Makabayan were used to treat the significant difference of the two variables at 0.05 confidence level.

87

Summary of Findings Based on the data gathered and analyzed, the following findings were drawn: 1. The profile of the respondents according to Sex are 18 male comprising the 45 percents of the parent population of the respondent and 22 female with 55 percents, in the number of children, 19 of them have 7 and above siblings in the family, 19 also have 3 to 6 children both with 47.5 percents and 5 parents have 1 to 2 siblings with 5 percents which completes the 100 percents in the grand total. For the annual income of the parent-respondent 100T below, is the most

numbered annual income receive by parent-respondent. 6 parents earned 101T200T, 2 parents earn 201T-300T and only one earns 301T and above. Table 4 presents the parent-respondent educational attainment, it reflects the 60 percents of the respondent- population. Nine (9) of them were elementary level with 22.5 percent and 7 were college with 17.5 percents which completes the grand total of 40 and 100 percents and lastly on the parent-respondent profile on occupation 47.5 (19) percents of the total respondent of the study are employed and twenty (21) of them are self-employed 2. On the parents involvement in school on participation in child education, on classroom activities and school policy were effective, and on pupils study time is effective.
3. The level of academic performance of grade five pupils in Makabayan was

below average.

88

Conclusions In view of the findings of the study, the researcher concluded that 1. There is a significant difference in Parents Involvement in school activities and academic performance of grade five pupils in Makabayan. 2. The academic performance of the grade five pupils in Makabayan has a significant relation with the parents annual income, occupation, and educational qualifications.

Recommendations Findings showed with the conclusions made that the parents involvement in school activities could influence and effective in improving the academic performance of the grade five pupils therefore, it is highly recommended that parents must be active in school activities to encourage pupils academic performance. There must be sufficient budget for parents involvement of school activities to support and prolong the program for the parents and pupils which will lead to better performance of the school. More programs must be implemented to increase parents involvement in school activities and academic performance of the pupils. Parents must support the different school activities that enhance pupils academic performance. Local government as well as barangay as

leading stakeholders of the school must have an organized plan for the parents involvement in the school activities. They are fore runners in the development

89

and progress of the school. From them the school could extend more programs that will uplift its academic performance academically and non academically. In as much as results is concern, similar study be conducted in the school to produce highly competitive pupils. With the resources present in the school, programmed instruction is highly recommended especially to below average, fair and most all superior pupils.

90

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abu, H. & Maher, M. (2000). A structural model of attitudes towards school subjects, academic aspiration and achievement. Educational Psychology, 20, 75-84. Angoff, W.H. (2001). The nature-nurture debate, aptitudes and group differences. American Psychologist 43,713-720 Berger, D. (2003). The Developing Person, Worth Publishers. Armor, D.; Conry-Oseguera, P.; Cox, M.; King, N.; McDonnell, L.; Pascal, A.; Pauly, E.; and Zellman, G. Analysis of the School Preferred Reading Program in Selected Los Angeles Minority Schools. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 2006. (ED 130 243). Becher, R. M. Parent Involvement: A Review of Research and Principles of Successful Practice. Urbana, IL: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education, 2004. (ED 247 032). Bibby, J., and Peil, M. (2004) Secondary education in Ghana; Private enterprise and social selection. Sociology of Education, 47, 399-418. Brink, C., & Chandler, K. (2003, April). Teach the parent; reach the child. Vocational Education Journal, 68(4), 26-28. Brophy, J.E. (2001). Research linking teacher behavior to student achievement: potential implications for instruction of Chapter 1 students. Educational Psychologist, 23, 235-312. Campbell, L. (2002, April). Parents and schools working for student success. NASSP Bulletin, 76(543), 1-4. Coleman, J. B., and Hoffer, T. Public and Private High Schools: The Impact of Communities. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 2007. Coleman, J.S. et al. (2006). Equality of Educational opportunity. Washington, D.C; U.S. Government Printing Office. Coleman, J.S., & Hoffer, T. (2001). Public and Private High School: The impact of Communities. New York: Basic Books. Coleman, J.S. (2001). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, S95-S120.

91

Coleman, J. B., and Hoffer, T. Public and Private High Schools: The Impact of Communities. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 2007. Collins, C. H.; Moles, O. C.; and Cross, M. The HomeSchool Connection: Selected Partnership Programs in Large Cities. Boston, MA: Institute for Responsive Education, 2002. Cotton, K., and Savard, W. G. Parent Involvement in Instruction, K-12: Research Synthesis. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 1982. (ED 235 397) Dixon, A. (2002, April). Parents: Full partners in the decision-making process. NASSP Bulletin, 76(543), 15-18. Dornbusch, S. M., and Ritter, P. L. "Parents of High School Students: A Neglected Resource." Educational Horizons 66(2008): 75-77. Duncan, C. (2002, April). Parental support in schools and the changing family structure. NASSP Bulletin, 76(543), 10-14. Fehrmann, P. G.; Keith, T. Z.; and Reiners, T. M. "Home Influence on School Learning: Direct and Indirect Effects of Parental Involvement on High School Grades." Journal of Educational Research 80(1987): 330-336. Gaebelein, F.E. (2000). The pattern of God's Truth. The Integration of Faith and Learning. BMH Books, Winona Lake, Indiana. Gelfer, J. (2001, Spring). Teacher-parent partnerships: communications. Childhood Education, 67(3), 164-167. Enhancing

Gillman, R. M.; Schooley, D. E.; and Novak, P. D. The Effects of Parental Involvement on Student Achievement in Three Michigan Performance Contracting Programs. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, April 2007. (ED 144 007). Goodson, B. D., and Hess, R. D. Parents as Teachers of Young Children: An Evaluative Review of Some Contemporary Concepts and Programs. Washington, DC: Bureau of Educational Personnel Development, DHEW, May 2005. (ED 136 967). Hanson, S.L. & Ginsburg, A.L. (2001). Gaining ground: values and high school success. American Education Research Journal, 25, 334-365. Henderson, A.T. (2001). Parents are school's best friends. Phi Delta Kappan, 70, 148-153.

92

Henderson, A. The Evidence Continues to Grow: Parent Involvement Improves Student Achievement--An Annotated Bibliography. Columbia, MD: National Committee for Citizens in Education, 2007. Herman, J. L., and Yeh, J. P. "Some Effects of Parent Involvement in Schools." The Urban Review 15(2003): 11-17. Heyneman, S.P. (2006). Influences on academic achievement: A comparison of results from Uganda and more industrialized societies. Sociology of Education, 49, 200-211. Jencks, C., et al. (2002). Inequality: A reassessment of the effect of family and schooling in America. New York: Basic Books. Leler, H. "Parent Education and Involvement in Relation to the Schools and to Parents of School-Aged Children." In Parent Education and Public Policy, edited by R. Haskins and D. Addams. Norwood, NJ: ABLEX Publishing Co., 2003. Leone, C.M., & Richards, M.H. (2001). Classwork and homework in early adolescence: the ecology of achievement. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 18, 531-548. Lewis, J. (2002, April). Death and divorce - helping students cope in singleparent families. NASSP Bulletin, 76(543), 55-59. Loucks, H. (2001, April). Increasing parent/family involvement: Ten ideas that work. NASSP Bulletin, 76(543), 19-23. Mickelson, R.A. (2000). Black attitudes versus black achievement. Phi Delta Kappan, 72, 82. Mucha, L. Attitudes and Achievement Effects of Mathematics Homework Games on Second Grade Students and Their Parents. May 2007. (ED 283 698). Ornstein, A.C. & Levine, D.U. (2009). Social class, race and school achievement: problems and prospects. Journal of Teacher Education, 40, 178-23. Reglin, G.L., & Adams, D.R. (2000). Why Asian-American high school students have higher grade point averages and SAT scores than other high school students. The High School Journal, 73, 143-149. Rickelman, R., & Henk, W. (2001, March). Parents and computers: Partners in helping children learning to read. The Reading Teacher, 44(7), 508-509.

93

Sattes, B. Parent Involvement: A Review of the Literature. Charleston, WV: Appalachia Educational Laboratory, November 2005. Sigel, E.I. (2008). Commentary. Human Development, 31, 384-390. Smith, C. (2001, May). Family literacy: The most important literacy. The Reading Teacher, 44(9), 700-701. Stouffer, B. (2006, April). We can increase parent involvement in secondary schools. NASSP Bulletin, 76(543), 5-9. Tangri, S., and Moles, O. "Parents and the Community." In Educators' Handbook: A Research Perspective, edited by V. Richardson-Koehler. New York/London: Longman Press, 2007. Vandergrift, J., & Greene, A. (2003, September). involvement. Educational Leadership, 50(1), 57-59. Rethinking parent

Wanat, C. (2009, April). Meeting the needs of single-parent children: School and parent views differ. NASSP Bulletin, 76(543), 43-48. Walberg, H. J.; Bole, R. E.; and Waxman, H. C. "School-Based Family Socialization and Reading Achievement in the Inner City." Psychology in the Schools 17(2000): 509-514. Walson, T.; Brown, M.; and Swick, K. J. "The Relationship of Parents' Support to Children's School Achievement." Child Welfare 62(2003): 175-180. White, E.G. (2002): Education. California. Pacific Press White, E.G. Fundamentals of Education. California, Pacific Press. White, E.G. Counsels to Parents, Teachers and Students. California, Pacific Press. Williams, D.L. & Chavkin, N.F. (1989). Essential elements of strong parent involvement programs. Educational Leadership, 47, 18-20. Internet / Websites american-education.org/1486-parent-involvement-in.

www.dailyrecord.com/article/20110907/NJOPINION03/...

94

http://www.inspire.edin.org/pages/paperA.htm Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/76085 www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?... www.edweek.org/topics/parentinvolvement/index.html www.INE.com/cisco_training

95

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

Part I. Please answer all the questions religiously. The contents of this questionnaire are
absolutely confidential. The identity of the respondent will not be disclosed under any circumstances.

I.

RESPONDENTS INFORMATION:

Name: ________________________________________________ ( Optional ) Age _______________ Tribe: _____________ Gender: Female _______ Male _______

Religion: ___________________ ____ ____

Number of the Family Members:

Others (please specify) _______ Parents Occupation: ____ Self employed ___Employee

Others (Please Specify)___________

Parents Highest Educational Attainment

___ Elementary Level

____ Secondary Level

______Short term

______Others (Please Specify)

Family Income: Monthly _____________

96

Part II. Questionnaire on Parents Involvement in Education Direction: Read the Following statement/phrases and choose from the given options by marking each box with a check (/) on to what extent does a parent exhibit his/her involvement using the following rating scale.

Numerical 5 4 3 2 1

Descriptive Always Often Sometimes Seldom Never

Items Rated 1. Parents Involvement with their childs education. a. Parents are interested to know their childs teacher. b. Parents encourage their child to education. c. Parents are involved in their childs classroom activities. d. Parents are supportive to their childs academic progress and extra curricular activities. e. Parents checked their childs regular attendance in school.

Levels of Involvement

5 5 5 5 5

4 4 4 4 4

3 3 3 3 3

2 2 2 2 2

1 1 1 1 1

97

2. Parents involvement on Pupils study time

a. Spending time to follow up your children's study time at home. b. Spend time in tutoring my child with materials and instructions provided by teachers. c. Spend time to talk with my children about school in a daily basis. d. Spend time reading together with children at home to help improve their reading skills. e. Visit the school and observe your child/children during classroom activities. f. Assist my children in classroom activities when needed. g. Listening or lecturing my children about the Importance of education. h. Give time to communicate with teacher on a regular basis to see how the child is progressing. i. Spend time in giving appreciation with my children's accomplishments in school. j. Give time to provide materials to help my child/children project done. k. Give and supply motivational aids and offer suggestion to encourage my children's learning. l. Give time to your children in homework, class project and assignments. m. Assist my child/children on their assignment given by teacher to be done at home.

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

5 5 5 5 5 5

4 4 4 4 4 4

3 3 3 3 3 3

2 2 2 2 2 2

1 1 1 1 1 1

5 5 5

4 4 4

3 3 3

2 2 2

1 1 1

5 5

4 4

3 3

2 2

1 1

98

3. Parents adherence to school/classroom policy a. Parents abide with school rules and regulations. b. Parents obey school/classroom policy. c. Parents understand and accept pupilgrade policy d. Parents support school policy and programs e. Parents adopts school policy/programs innovation.

5 5 5 5 5

4 4 4 4 4

3 3 3 3 3

2 2 2 2 2

1 1 1 1 1