Changing the Educational Culture of the Home to Increase Student Success at School

• In Event: 49.060 - The Next Phase in Education Reform in Ontario: Excellence, Equity, Well-Being, and Public Confidence

Abstract

Purpose and Perspective
Launched in 2009, Ontario’s Equity and Inclusive Education (EIE) Strategy supports an inclusive education system in which students, parents and community members are welcomed and respected, and every student can succeed in a culture of high expectations for learning. Parent engagement is an essential component of the Strategy; A Parent Engagement Policy for Ontario Schools (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010) acknowledges the importance of parents as valued partners and active participants in their children’s education.

Evidence suggests that family background accounts for a substantial proportion of the variation in student achievement (Israel, Beaulieu and Hartless, 2001; Urdan, Solek, and Schoenfelder, 2007; Rumberger, Ghatak, Poulos, Ritter and Dornbusch, 1990). Family background is a complex concept that includes some features which are largely unalterable in the short-medium term (e.g. family income, education). Other features, however, are alterable and are often referred to as a family’s “educational culture” (e.g. parenting style, parental expectations for children's work at school).

Some of the most promising strategies for closing achievement gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students involve helping families build productive educational cultures. This paper examines the results of a study aimed at identifying and assessing strategies for building parent engagement to improve student achievement, and providing evidence-based strategies to engage parents who may not feel included and/or who have children who are facing challenges to achievement.

Particular emphasis is placed on the role of school staff in building families' educational cultures and strategies for system leaders to successfully support staff in this work.

Methods and Data
Using a quasi-experimental design, this study draws on research conducted in seven district school boards across Ontario. Participating boards, in collaboration with researchers, identified a common approach including: parent engagement strategies for investigation, selection of treatment and control groups, project tasks, collection and analyses of data, and reporting results.

Three parent engagement strategies were identified as a focus of the study: fostering high expectations among parents for their children’s school success; creating effective parent-child communications; and building the family’s social and intellectual capital.

Each board selected 36 student-parent dyads based on four criteria:
• students struggling academically;
• students less engaged in school than needed for success;
• parents facing significant social and/or economic challenges; and
• parents with low or no explicit expectations for their children's success at school.

Data collection methods include:
• student survey;
• student, parent, staff interviews (at two points); and
• board evidence of student achievement.

Results and Significance
Students who feel welcome and connected to school stay engaged and are more likely to succeed (EIE Strategy, 2009; Osterman, K.F., 2009). In an increasingly diverse Ontario, this means fostering positive learning environments that support all students to feel engaged, included, and respected, and in which students see themselves reflected.

This research is significant in that it provides evidence of successful strategies for parent engagement to assist in overcoming educational disadvantage. The results will inform future decision-making, professional learning, and the development of tools and resources that school staff can use to help build strong family educational cultures.

Authors

• Kenneth A. Leithwood, OISE/University of Toronto

• Penny Patrician, Ontario Ministry of Education