An Action Research Study Examining the Impact of Academic Parent-Teacher Teams on Title I Middle Schools Parents’ Self-Efficacy on Home to School Engagement

Monet C. Reed

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

Department

Educational Administration

Date of Award

Spring 2020

Abstract

The researcher focused on Texas suburban Mountain Vista Independent School District (MVISD; pseudonym) with a student enrollment of approximately 10,000 students. The district offered a multitude of opportunities for engaging parents, but parent engagement remained a challenge for MVISD' s and campuses' leaders. The middle schools had no established procedures or strategies in place for effective parent-teacher conferences. A research-based parent-teacher conference model was piloted with middle school teachers to enable them to remove barriers to involvement and provide opportunities to improve two-way communication, parent engagement, and parents' self-efficacy for helping children with school, therefore improving professional practice. The purpose of this action research study was to improve practitioner practice of parent-teacher conferences at three Texas suburban Title I middle schools. The researcher explored the impact of an academic parent-teacher team (APTT) pilot program on middle school parent self-efficacy of home-to-school engagement. The researcher used the data to examine parental capacity building via an APTT pilot program to promote effective home-to-school engagement and parent self-efficacy for helping their children academically. The data were both qualitative (interviews, observations, and artifacts) and quantitative (surveys) and collected to answer a total of 12 research questions. Only two middle schools and a total of five teachers participated. The parent participation was too low for assessing hypotheses on the APTT, with data from 11 pre-APTT survey and seven post-APTT survey participants. The four qualitative research questions were addressed primarily through interviews of six parents and three debriefings with each of the five teachers. The series of themes appear in Chapter 3. The seven quantitative research questions were addressed by analyzing the frequencies for the responses on the parent surveys and assessments. The item-by-item analysis showed little variation between the pre-APTT and post-APTT survey participants' responses. The singular mixed-method research question was answered by reviewing the themes from the interviews, the outcomes of the quantitative analysis, and a review of MVISD' s existing data and artifacts. Through action research, the researcher produced a new understanding of parents' beliefs about school engagement and how to build parent self-efficacy in order to identify better ways to generate successful home-to-school relationships in middle schools.

Advisor

Kriss Kemp-Graham

Subject Categories

Education | Educational Administration and Supervision

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