Encouraging Meaningful Parent and Family Participation: A Survey of Parent Involvement Practices in California and Texas.

The purpose of this study was to find out what middle school principals and teachers were doing to increase parental participation. The inLerview survey method was used and the instrument included questions eliciting demographic data about the schools and open-ended questions to identify methods used by the schools to increase parental support and participation. Twenty urban, suburban, and rural middle school sites in Northern California and Western Texas were studied. No inner city schools were included in the sample. The school sizes were varied, ranging from a low of 120 students with a faculty of 7, to a high of 1,080 students with a faculty of 60. Students were from wide socioeconomic levels and from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Results showed that parent participation is encouraged by improving the communication through various methods like parent teacher organizations, school councils or boards, special events, parent conferences, voice-mail, homework hotlines, and newsletters. Most principals perceived that parenting skills programs were not successful in encouraging parental involvement. The study results showed that parents had some indirect influence on school governance. It can be implied from the study results that parents are involved when their children are part of the activity. A list of 15 references and the interview questionnaire are included. (WP) AA: Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. * * *********************************************************************** TACaLW?' U S DFPARTMENT OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER E MC; )(Th.. ,,,,, )1.,. boon toproduwed pir401 (Pi,(4.10 /.11t. .1.,.0,1.)