Home-School Connections in Charter Schools and Traditional

Public Schools

Daniela TorreUCEA Graduate Student Summit

November 15, 2012

Background• Parental involvement matters • There are obstacles to strong home-school relationships: • Cultural disconnect (Epstein & Dauber, 1991).

• Teachers see parents as a nuisance (Dodd and Konal 2000) or as a threat to their authority (Lazar & Slostad, 1999).

• Parents are intimidated by school or do not feel they have adequate skills to be involved (Eccles & Harold, 1993).

• Conflicting norms between home and schools(Delgado-Gaitan, 1991).

Parenting Communicating

Volunteering

Learning at Home

Decision Making

Collaborating with

Community

• Teachers can influence the level of parent involvement in school (Epstein & Dauber, 1991)

Charter schools:public schools that are granted a specific amount of autonomy, determined by state law or the specific charter, to make decisions concerning the organizational structure, curriculum, and educational emphasis of their school.

Supporters claim that charter schools will increase • Innovation• Accountability to parents• Achievement

Charter Schools

1. What is the relationship between school type and teacher’s use of parent engagement strategies?

2. What is the relationship between teacher characteristics/organizational features and teacher’s use of parent engagement strategies in each school type?

3. Does the relationship between teacher characteristics/organizational features and teacher’s use of parent engagement strategies differ between traditional public schools and charter schools?

Research Questions

Data and Sample• Data collected from What Makes Schools Work (WMSW) survey at

Vanderbilt University

• Matched sample includes charter schools matched to traditional public schools within 20 miles.

• Includes 59 traditional and 59 charter schools; 2315 teachers.

• Schools matched using information obtained from the CCD. Matching variables included location, grade range, racial/ethnic composition, socio-economic status, and size.

Parent Engagement Strategies• Scale created from Likert-type question

Parenting Communicating

Volunteering

Learning at Home

Decision Making

Collaborating with Community

• Encourage parents to call anytime on personal cell phone

• Contact parents regarding academics

• Contact parents about participating in school events.

• Send homework for parents to complete with their child

• Contact parents and successfully schedule face-to-face meetings

School Type Organizational features

Teacher Characteristics

• Dummy variable with 1=Charter School & 0= Traditional Public School

• School requires parents to volunteer

• School requires parents to sign a contract

• School provides transportation

• Enrolment (log)• Parent influence

• Years of experience• Highest degree earned• Gender• School level:

elementary, middle, or high school

• Student teacher ratio• Race

Independent Variables

What is the relationship between school type and teacher’s use of parent engagement strategies?

Results: RQ 1

  Model1

Model 2

Model 3

Charter 

0.14***

(0.03)0.13***

(0.03)0.07*

(0.03)Teacher Characteristics

No Yes Yes

Organizational Features

No No Yes

- Teachers in charter schools are significantly more likely to use parent involvement strategies.

- Adding teacher level controls does not substantially change the coefficient on charter.

- Adding organizational level variables substantially reduces the coefficient on charter

Results: RQ 2What is the relationship between teacher characteristics and

teacher’s use of parent engagement strategies in each school type?Charter Schools Traditional Public Schools

Charter Schools Traditional Public Schools

Results: RQ 2What is the relationship between organizational features and teacher’s use of parent engagement strategies in each school

type?

Results: RQ3Does the relationship between

teacher characteristics/organizational features and teacher’s use of parent engagement strategies differ between traditional public schools and charter schools?

- Enrollment- Parent influence- Student Teacher Ratio

Discussion

• Model 1 suggests that much of the differences in charter schools and TPS is due to how these schools are organized, as opposed to the sorts of teachers they employ.

• The decreased in contact between parents and teachers may occur later in charter schools and traditional public schools.

• Strongest individual predictor of the dependent variable across school type is the level of parent influence.

• Requiring parents to sign a contract significantly predicts teacher use of parent engagement strategies in TPS, but not charter schools.

• Indicative of stronger vision?

Limitations

• Dependent variable limited by survey measure• Cross-sectional analysis• Not designed to show any effects on student

achievement• Possibility of unobserved variables

– Parent motivation, teacher motivation, teacher commitment to parent engagement

Future Research

• Relationship between experience and parent involvement differs between the charter school and traditional public school setting.

• The relationship between parent influence and school

organization

• Relationship between enrollment and teacher use of parent engagement strategies.

Thank You

Daniela TorreVanderbilt University

daniela.torre@vanderbilt.edu

Parent Influence