Improving the school-home connection for poor and minority urban students

Investigating parental roles in students’ learning of mathematics from a cross-national perspective

“…Although previous researchers have described many different types of parental involvement in students' education (Anderson, 1997;Ascher, 1988;Hoover Dempsey, Bassler, & Burow, 1995;Sigel, McGillicuddyDeLisi, & Goodnow, 1992), their descriptions can be grouped into two categories: (1) school involvement parent participation in a range of school activities aimed at strengthening the overall school program and (2)home involvement assisting one's own child at home in informal and in school directed learning tasks. Until now, most researchers have focused mainly on the first type of involvement, parent school collaboration.…”

Preparing Teachers to Work with Families: A National Survey of Teacher Education Programs

“…Differing expectations held by teachers, administrators, and parents (Griffith & Smith, 1990;Pennekamp & Freeman, 1988;Sigel, 1983) about what constitutes parent involvement, coupled with negative attitudes toward partnership by teachers, administrators, and parents (Burton, 1992;Lareau, 1989 3. Changing demographic and employment patterns that contribute to cultural divergence between parents and teachers (Ascher, 1988;Marburger, 1990;Murphy, 1991;Schlossman, 1978;Sigel, 1983) 4. Lack of time and training together with a predominant institutional culture that places little value on views and participation of family members-a view due, in part, to the traditional student-centered (rather than child-centered) focus evident in U.S. schools (Burton, 1992;Swap, 1990;Swick & McKnight, 1989) Of these barriers, the first is, perhaps, the most important because attention to teacher training could begin to alleviate the other three.…”

Parent’s Commitment is the Gateway to a Child’s Academic Success

“…Underlying such comments is the assumption that poor, illiterate and minority parents do not care about supporting their children's academic progress. Many teachers tend to believe that parents in those communities neither value education highly nor provide their children with the intellectual and motivational prerequisites for learning in school (Ascher, 1988). This assumption is narrow and largely inaccurate.…”