Parent Perspectives on Home-School Relationships

Background: Parent involvement (PI) has been promoted as a way to improve academic outcomes, and social workers often lead efforts to encourage PI. Research on PI tends to focus on what educators expect from parents, and the characteristics of parents that prevent them from meeting those expectations. Additional research is needed that describes what parents expect from schools, and the characteristics of schools that encourage parents to be involved in their child’s education. This study is designed to address this gap in the literature by describing parents’ perspectives on their relationships with schools.

Methods: A random sample was drawn from all parents who registered to participate in a parent involvement program. Seventy-three parents registered for the program. Forty-two percent spoke Spanish as their primary language; all others spoke English. A stratified sampling strategy was used, with the goal of recruiting 10 English-speaking and 5 Spanish-speaking participants. Of 19 parents contacted, 13 parents (68%) agreed to participate. Eight families were English-speaking African American, and five spoke Spanish. Respondents’ children ranged from 6 to 18 years old.

Semi-structured in-person interviews were conducted with parent participants twice in a five-month period. All parents were asked the same open-ended questions about their relationship with their children’s schools. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed.

Transcripts were coded by the author with the help of Atlas.ti software. Throughout coding, memos were written to document emerging themes. The method of constant comparison was used to ensure consistency in coding. Once coding was completed, tentative conclusions were compared against coded text for supporting and disconfirming evidence, to ensure that conclusions were firmly grounded in the data.

Results: Parents described three characteristics of ideal relationships with schools: informative, responsive, and collaborative. Parents wanted schools to keep them informed about their students’ struggles and successes, and they wanted schools to be responsive when they expressed concerns. Additionally, parents wanted to work in collaboration with schools to ensure student success. Schools failed to meet these expectations when they were dismissive of parents’ concerns and excluded parents from important decisions, such as whether to screen a child for a learning disability.

                Home-school relationships had important consequences for parents and students. When relationships were strong, parents and students felt confident that the school would support them, and students felt positively about school. When relationships were strained, parents and students were discouraged. Parents began to doubt that PI was an effective way to meet their child’s needs, and students felt ignored by school staff. Parents also began to condone student misbehavior, such as fighting with bullies when the school failed to address the issue.

Implications/Conclusions: This study provides guidance for incorporating parent concerns and expectations into future PI research and programming. Efforts aimed at increasing PI have a better chance of succeeding if they are responsive to parent needs and promote positive, long-term home-school relationships. School social workers can apply these findings to their work with families and educators, in order to strengthen the bonds between home and school.