Understanding Parents’ Use of Technology to Communicate with Schools

• In Event: Parents and Communities

Abstract

Using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, this study conducted five hierarchical logistic regression to predict parents use of computer-based technology to communicate with teachers and administrators via e-mail, find out about school events and activities, express concern over school practices and policies, let school staff know about their course preferences for their child, and find out about school assignments. The findings showed that the more often a parent contacted the school in general and the more involved the parent was with the school, the more likely the parent used the computer to communicate with the school. The results also indicated that race/ethnicity and parents’ native language did not consistently predict the different types of computer-based family-school communication.

Authors

• Tamara V. Young, North Carolina State University

• Wenjin Wang, North Carolina State University