Understanding The Family Dynamics, And School Preparation

The fact that African American students lag several years behind their White peers in math and reading continues to be a persistent problem in America’s public schools – a critical issue that should not be ignored in any meaningful discourse on community, literacy and public schools. The wide body of relevant research reveals many causal factors and correlates including race, socioeconomic standing, social class, teacher competence and perceptions, quality of schools, etc. It is also generally acknowledged that there is a direct, positive correlation between greater parental involvement and student academic achievement. The particular focus of this paper is on the question of to what extent parental involvement – or lack thereof- influences the academic performance of African American students. I will argue that African American student underachievement is, to a significant degree, likely to be attributable to lack of active parental guidance and involvement. The variety of factors that impact parental involvement, particularly that of parents of non-dominant backgrounds, will be examined in order to demonstrate the need for schools and teachers to diversify the approach generally taken to collaborating with parents, such that it becomes a more meaningful, inclusive and relevant process for these parents. In closing, I will draw on an interview conducted with the parents of an

Certain parental practices can hinder a child’s academic and behavioral growth. Parents residing in poverty are less likely to participate in in academically supportive *events with their children. From my personal experience, children of lower class parents are not given many choices and are often not offered many chances to be creative or think critically, due to their parents asserting more direct authority over them. I believe this aspect draws a direct line to and serves as the reason for child’s academic dysfunctions or behavior incapacities. There are programs such as education centers and summer programs, but these are utilized by middle class youth and do little for lower class youth.

Family involvement plays a major role when helping students prosper in the school setting. In order for children to be successful, as a teacher, we have to provide support to the parent’s to make an effort in wanting to play apart in that success. Communication plays a major part in the effective relationship between families and school. Giving the parents a sense of idea as to how their child is doing in school is built through the student’s academic needs.

Collective research focusing on family-school partnerships provide an extensive examination of parent involvement. Smith et al., (2011) referred to parent involvement as school, family, and community partnerships for the purpose of shared expectations, responsibilities, interests, and correlating influences of family, school, and community. Epstein’s (2008) framework of parent involvement approached parent involvement typologies from an institutional perspective; the framework for this literature review was conducted with a parental perspective that may positively affect academic achievement among students in 6th – 12th grades attending high poverty, rural schools. An explanation of Epstein’s six categories of parent involvement follows:

Most parents of black students do not regularly attend teacher/ parent conferences. These conferences are held usually between the sixth and eight week of school and during these meetings parents get a chance to voice any concerns they might have as well as the teachers suggestions. (Cushman 11). One might ask how can a parent send their child to school without ever meeting the teacher? There are several problems associated with black parents and the school system which I discuss in depth later in the paper. Parents just do not place enough emphasis on their child 's education and in turn the child doesn 't either. There is no way that a child could fail if their parents are in continuous communication with his teacher, yes, during these times there is simply not enough hours in the day but if a parent does not care about their child 's future how can expect anyone else to?” Black children are falling farther behind and are victims of an educational system that is failing them.” ( Muhammad 2). If parents do not realize that a teacher alone can not defeat this task alone, that it takes a village to raise a family its sad to say that

A study was done comparing family structure between whites and blacks to determine how important of a role family structure plays in education. Not to my surprise, most of the percentages were higher among whites, but not by very much in any category. More single mothers who were black were more involved in school planning than white mothers. More black mothers told their children what was educationally expected from them; more talked with their kids daily, and checked their schoolwork.

It has been proven by psychologists that education and learning first begins at home through the family. The author’s of this text, Hawley and Nieto, touched ground on this fact while they discussed the racial differences on education for families. They went on to express that like any other family for instance, culturally diverse families value education as well. All families share a similar positive outlook for their children, especially to break the poverty cycle. This idea brought about appeals for value that everyone is equal and deserves fair education so that professional educators may notice that all students want to prosper. However, most ethnic families feel ultimately unwelcome and out of place when it comes to their child’s education, which led to less involvement in the classroom. It is seen here that the school is supposed to be a place

Rendon (1994) points out “students from underrepresented backgrounds often experience isolation, a lack of self-efficacy, and a lack of a sense of belonging in college contexts”(p. 48). Furthermore, one needs to take it one step back and realize that most students of color are much more likely to attend schools where most of their peers are poor or low-income. Therefore, socio economic status (SES) determines the education a person receives throughout K-12. Walpole (2004) also describes how “low SES parents are more likely to define success as a secure full-time job after graduating from high school. College attendance is not an expectation and often means enrolling in a community college or technical school when it does occur” (p. 47). When a student reaches the

After studying the research, I can see that parental involvement is needed for the child to succeed in school, and that starts from childhood. I can also see that most African American students who have no parental involvement and who return from school to harsh conditions are more likely to spend less time in school, drop out, and accumulate a criminal record. Schools can help the parents provide a positive experience for the students, the school or parents shouldn’t have to provide this alone, because the parents have their influence and the schools if all students are treated the same has their influence and according to the research those students have a much experience at home as well as in school. I believe if African American students

The Black students in this study brought with them a diverse combination of family backgrounds, family support, and family values particular to education. Following initial introductions

They emphasize that “parenting styles for African Americans might be direct results of their experiences as a subordinate group in the United States (1349),” which is to say that parental input contributes to students inadequate achievement gap, especially for the black students. A study conducted for controlling parenting styles as well as demographic factors eliminated the achievement gap between White and Black students and found that this is to be the case or one academic outcome –language and literacy skills in ratings. This, they identified was because of the different measures of education, because the study used slightly differing measures for parenting styles, including indicators which reflected the way that parents talk to their children about school experiences, school work, activities among others. Variables such as these, which capture parent-student interaction, contribute to the response of inadequate achievement. In addition, it also helps children from different social backgrounds to develop an orientation towards

This article was a study of parenting styles that are found to be significantly effective in African American adolescence in impoverished neighborhoods. The focus was to determine if demographical circumstances influence parenting styles and adolescent academic success. The researchers want to determine if parenting styles that are common in European American families, yields the same outcome in adolescents in impoverished neighborhoods. The study was constructed to determine the correlation between adolescent outcomes and parenting in a sample of African American girls from high-poverty neighborhoods in the inner city.

The intended audience for this project consists of my instructor, Brian Royce, and other members of this English 111 online course. The levels of knowledge will vary when it comes to this article’s topic. Some people may have knowledge on this subject due to their upbringing and some may have never thought about it before. This topic has great relevance today as higher education is more readily available. Still many low-income parents don’t take their children’s education seriously. I believe many educators and parents can relate to this topic as a majority of U.S. public school students come from low-income families (Layton, 2014, para. 1). This article not only has to do with the author’s personal experiences as a student, but also his study of first-generation college students. I found this article to be particularly important to me because I myself am a low-income parent of four boys and certainly hope that the author’s thoughts, coupled with my own, may spur change in many educators’ teaching styles. The medium I am using is a formal academic manuscript.

More recently, the United States Department of Education, by submitting the 1996 proposal for National Education Goals, addressed the issue of parental involvement. The official U.S. government stood by the research of three decades that “parental participation in schooling improves student learning,” (U.S. Department of Education). Based on government research, family involvement programs don’t always need additional money to be successful, but leaders should stretch their own creativity to expand the programs that encourage community and family support. Parental involvement is found to be beneficial through high school, not stopping after elementary school, and parents that evolve as leaders should be encouraged to continue their role in their child’s education. The most successful parent leaders are found to play four roles in their child’s education: those roles are teacher, supporter, advocate and decision maker. The teacher-role supplements the child’s education at home, the supporter contributes his/her skills to the school, the advocate helps children receive fair treatment at home, and the decision maker participates in joint problem-solving with

There has been less work on how factors like parental beliefs such as achievement expectations or efficacy might function as links between socioeconomic status (SES) and achievement outcomes (for an exception, see Halle, Kurtz-Costes, & Mahoney, 1997). The studies that do exist generally examine young children in low-income or at-risk populations and focus on income-related variables as the moderator variables and family stress as a mediator to achievement outcomes (Conger et al., 2002; Mistry et al., 2002). Thus, researchers have very little understanding of how parent education may influence the beliefs and behaviors of parents of school-age children (the age at which decisions about course selection and supplemental education such as tutoring might be beneficial to later college