A Cross-Context Analysis of More Than 11,000 School-Based Parental Involvement Initiatives

• In Event: Parent Involvement and Educational Achievement

Abstract

Ontario’s Parents Reaching Out Grants program allows parents serving on school councils to apply for funding to implement an initiative that addresses a local barrier to parental involvement. This study examines these school-based parental involvement initiatives (N = 11,171), representing approximately $10 million of funding from 2009 to 2014. To determine how the initiatives vary across contexts, we first classify the initiatives by type and conduct multinomial logistic regression. Our results show only large significant differences between primary and secondary schools in the types of initiatives undertaken. We then evaluate Epstein’s parental involvement typology, finding that the initiatives are disproportionately categorized as learning at home, parenting, and communicating. We present a model for school-based parental involvement.

Authors

• Daniel Hamlin, University of Toronto - OISE

• Joseph J. Flessa, University of Toronto - OISE