Responding to the Challenges of Disadvantaged Populations: Engaging Families to Promote School Success

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium presents findings on the design, implementation, and effects of a program intended to engage parents and promote children’s success in schools with high proportions of low-income families of Latino origin. The research draws on mixed-methods data, with interviews, focus groups, and observations embedded in a large-scale randomized trial involving 52 schools and over 3,000 first graders and their families. The intervention operates by strengthening relationships between parents and children, among parents, and between families and school staff. Papers focus on the challenges of designing a culturally-sensitive randomized trial, elevating parent involvement in Title I schools, reducing rates of student mobility across schools, and reducing retention in first grade.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Section 5: Social Context of Research on Schools and Communities

Chair

• Fabienne Doucet, New York University

Papers

• A Culturally Sensitive Approach to Engaging in Research With Latino Families - David Enrique Rangel, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Carmen Valdez, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Promoting Latino Parent Involvement in Title I Schools - Hannah K. Miller, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Lynn McDonald, Middlesex University

• Engaging Families in a High-Mobility Context - Jeremy Fiel, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Anna R. Haskins, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Ruth Lopez Turley, Rice University

• Family-School Intervention Effects on Grade Retention - Adam Gamoran, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Alyn M. Turner, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Megan Shoji, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Discussant

• Aaron Pallas, Teachers College, Columbia University