How Far Can the Apple Fall? Differences in Teacher Perceptions of Parental Involvement

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Parental Involvement and Higher Education

Abstract

While a large body of research has shown that parental involvement matters for student outcomes, less work has focused on teacher perceptions of parental involvement. Teacher perceptions of parents are important because they influence teacher practices and relationships with students. Prior research suggests that teacher perceptions of parents vary by children’s family background, but little work has compared teacher perceptions of parents across groups or the impact of such perceptions on different student outcomes. Using the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), we find that even after taking into account parents’ self-reported involvement in their children’s education, teachers are more likely to perceive racial/ethnic minority and immigrant parents as less involved than native-born White parents. Patterns also differ by the subject-matter of teachers. Further, teacher perceptions of parents’ involvement matter for student GPA and teacher recommendations of students.

Authors

• Phoebe Ho, University of Pennsylvania

• Hua-Yu Sebastian Cherng, New York University