Engagement Optimism: Moving Family Participation in Schools From Events to Engagement

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Increasing Effective Parental Involvement and Family Engagement Strategies in Schools

Abstract

Recent legislation codifies what practitioners know: when schools value families and families can legitimately participate in schools, students flourish. This paper posits that when families judge schools as frequent and open communicators, supportive of the needs of families and students, and responsive to families, then families are likely to reciprocate with involvement. We contribute a new and powerful set of variables that are significantly and positively associated with each other in order to form a single latent construct: Engagement Optimism. This construct, in turn, is positively and significantly associated with parent involvement. This relation is an important one: if schools want to enhance family engagement, they must focus on the ways in which their climates extend to and influence families.

Authors

• Lauren P. Bailes, University of Delaware

• Dilek Eruslu, University of Delaware