Article Critic

Title : Does Ethnicity and Language to the Degree of Parent Involvement in Schools

Literature review : Many recent studies have indicated that parent involvement can make significant differences to outcomes at schools . Why some parents become involved more than others in their children 's education has been the subject of past studies , and ethnic minority status (especially Black and Hispanic ) have been associated in the past with poor involvement compared to whites . But other studies have shown completely opposite conclusions i .e . parental involvement is higher in ethnic groups than whites (Chavkin

1993

The critique : This questionnaire study of teachers and parents was a multi-dimensional investigation into the role of ethnicity in parental involvement in schooling found that Black parents perceive that they take a more active role in their children 's schooling than any other ethnic group . By contrast the teachers ' perceptions on the issue were drastically opposite - teachers reported much lower levels of alliance with Black parents than White or Hispanic parents . The fact that fewer than 4 of teachers in this study were blacks probably has been a significant factor in this regard . One of the main weaknesses of this study is a lack of verifiability - it was entirely based on questionnaires , without any involvement of students themselves . Secondly the fact that the population consisted entirely of low-performers may have introduced a source of bias in the study . There were also inadequate measures of ruling out the effect of other confounding factors e .g . education level , incomes of households which made it difficult to compare ethnicity properly . Finally , some ethnic groups returned more questionnaire than others , making it difficult to conduct a like for like study

Conclusion : More studies are needed , carried out in a more rigorous method , before the true effect of ethnicity on parental involvement with schools can be established

References

Chavkins NF , Williams DL (1993 ) Minority parents and the elemental school : Attitudes and practices . In F Chavkin (ed ) Families and schools in a pluralistic society (pp 77-83 . Albany : SUNY Press...