Abstract:

The main objective of the study is to examine the effects of school involvement of immigrant parents on their children’s school performance and language acquisition.

There is no doubt that parental involvement is critical in children’s schooling. A large body of research indicates that parental involvement in school is positively associated with children’s success in school. Children whose parents are involved in their child’s schooling show better outcomes in reading and writing (Clair & Jackson, 2006; Fiala & Sheridan, 2003; Reutzal, Fawson, & Smith, 2006), math (Bailey, Silvern, & Brabham, 2004; Yan & Lin, 2005), and behaviour (Domina, 2005; Flouri, 2004; Pearce, Jones, & Schwab-Stone, 2003).

Parental involvement is known to be more critical for children of low-income families or minority children. Involved parents from low income or minority families are more likely to keep a watchful eye on the school activities of their children, thus monitoring and guiding their children towards more successful experiences and outcomes. They can also reinforce the educational values of the school. In addition, low-income or single mothers can learn parenting skills from school as they become involved in school events and their child’s education (Bruckman & Blanton, 2003). While immigrant parents and African-American parents are less likely to initiate attempts to get involved, their children’s academic and social outcomes were improved once they were involved (McWayne, Hamptons, & Fantuzzo, 2004; Sy, 2006; Wong & Hughes, 2006). However, there is not enough research studying the effects of school involvement of parents from diverse cultural and language groups. A few studies in this area did not provide consistent findings. Some of results and conclusions lack validity and generalizability owing to prior studies’ inadequate methodological analyses and overly limited databases in terms of sample size.

This study conducted two types of longitudinal analyses to a US national database, the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS-K), to examine the relationship between parents’ school involvement and children’s academic performance from language minority families. While using academic achievement scores (Item Response Test scale scores) as dependent variables, the study performed a conventional longitudinal multilevel analysis; and using the exit status (dichotomous scores) of English as a second language (ESL) classes as dependent variables, the study conducted a generalized longitudinal multilevel analysis. The five waves of data from kindergarten, first, third, fifth, and eighth grades and three types of parental involvement (parent participation in parent-teacher conferences, parent contact with school, and parent voluntary involvement in school activities) were analysed in the longitudinal models.

The conventional longitudinal multilevel analysis revealed that when immigrant parents participated in parent-teacher conferences frequently, their children tended to have higher performance in school than children with immigrant parents who did not participates frequently. The generalized longitudinal multilevel analysis showed that when parents contacted with school frequently, the probability of their children to get out of their ESL classes was higher than the students with parents who did not attend parent-teacher conferences often. The study has implications for practice.

Keywords:

Immigrant students, large data analysis, longitudinal analysis, parental involvement.