School programs and teacher practices of parent involvement in inner-city elementary and middle schools

Abstract

This study uses data from 171 teachers in eight inner-city elementary and middle schools to examine the connections between school programs of parent involvement, teachers’ attitudes, and the practices that teachers use to involve parents of their own students. Patterns are examined at two levels of schooling (elementary and middle), in different academic subjects, under various classroom organizations (self-contained, semi-departmentalized, departmentalized), and under different levels of shared support for parent involvement by the teachers and significant other groups. Each of these variables has important implications for the types and strengths of school programs and teachers’ practices of parent involvement. The results add to the validation of Epstein’s five types of school and family connections. The data used in this study were collected in a three-year action research process with the sampled schools. The process is outlined in terms that any school can follow to improve programs and practices of parent involvement.