This study investigates the critical elements of parent involvement as related to children's improved academic achievement. Survey data were collected from 220 parents whose children attend three Chicago public elementary schools. The schools serve largely minority, low-income populations and score in the top third of the Illinois State Achievement Tests. Using Epstein's framework of parent involvement, we found that participants indicated a stronger tendency to participate in two of Epstein's typologies: Type I (Parenting) and Type IV (Learning at Home). Results suggest that schools struggling with unsatisfactory student achievement may benefit from focusing parent involvement efforts on building parenting capacity and encouraging learning-at-home activities.
Throughout the history of the Chicago Public School System (CPS), reports and surveys have been published, and legislation has been passed in an attempt to improve the system by changing the governance structure, including the role and the powers of the superintendent, the school board, the city council, and the mayor. In 1988, the Chicago School Reform Act was passed, dramatically changing the governance structure of CPS. Policy makers, school reform advocates, parents, community activists, and so forth believed that the implementation of this act would be the panacea for reforming CPS. Why did the Illinois General Assembly legislate another major change in the governance structure of CPS in 1995? This article addresses this question through Kingdon’s work on the first two phases of the policy cycle, agenda setting, and policy formulation.
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