Poster #88 - What is Parent Engagement in Early Childhood Education? Depends Who You Ask

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

Introduction: It is well documented that parent engagement in young children’s education is essential for their school success. This is underscored by the fact that parent engagement is a core component of Title I of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act which requires Title I schools to have a parental involvement policy and establish school-family compacts delineating how the two groups will collaborate to promote student achievement. Many urban districts across the nation recognize the importance of parent engagement to student success and have invested their finite resources in offices dedicated to promoting parent engagement. Despite such investments, many districts struggle with low parent engagement raising questions about whether these investments are worthwhile. A primary barrier to promoting parent engagement is the absence of a shared understanding of what constitutes meaningful parent engagement. Using a qualitative descriptive design, this study explores definitions and defining characteristics of parent engagement from the perspective of multiple Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) stakeholders: parents, teachers, principals, early childhood staff, district leaders, and community leaders.

Methods: BCPS is a large urban district serving a predominantly African American (79%) and low-income (55%) population. To maximize variability in perspectives on parent engagement in early childhood education, we intentionally recruited BCPS personnel and parents from schools differing on geography, percent of students identified as fully ready on the annual Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA), and percent of parents responding to the annual school climate survey. We also purposively sampled parents with unique circumstances that could affect engagement (e.g., monolingual Spanish-speaking parents, homeless parents, parent recently released from prison). Altogether, 63 parents of preK and kindergarten students, school staff, district leaders, and community leaders were individually interviewed. Table 1 summarizes the sampling distribution by stakeholder group, KRA scores, and school survey response rates.
During qualitative interviews, stakeholders were asked how they define parent engagement in early childhood education, what behaviors indicate a parent is engaged in their child’s education, and what factors support and hinder parent’s engagement in their child’s education. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed to gain a deep understanding of parent engagement in early childhood education.

Results: Content analysis yielded 39 codes representing 10 overarching themes including definitions of parent engagement, 19 sub-codes relevant to home-based engagement (e.g., reading with your child, checking school materials), 8 sub-codes related to school-based engagement (e.g., volunteering in the classroom, attending parent-teacher conferences), parental knowledge of what happens in child’s school, 5 sub-codes related to parent-teacher-school communication (e.g., content of communication, direction of communication), trust of the school and the affective quality of the parent-teacher-school relationship, parents understanding of their impact on their child’s learning, barriers and facilitators to parent engagement, and effective and ineffective strategies for engaging parents. Comparisons of themes revealed key differences in perspective across stakeholders on what constituted meaningful parent engagement. Table 2 presents thematic similarities and differences between stakeholder groups on the types of parent engagement behaviors most frequently endorsed. Results have implications for efforts to measure and promote parent engagement in early childhood education.

Authors

• Amie Bettencourt, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
  Presenting Author

• Deborah Gross, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathryn Taylor, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lucine Francis, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelly Bower, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
  Non-Presenting Author