Parent Involvement in Junior High Schools: A Failure to Communicate.

ABSTRACT Although the nature of parent involvement changes as children get older and varies from family to family, junior high school teachers and the families they serve recognize the value of parent involvement in young adolescents' education. Teachers, parents, and students, however, are often uncertain about how to initiate parent involvement in their schools. The results of this case study suggest that one difficulty in the initiation of parent involvement is that teachers and parents perceive communicative efforts differently. While teachers tend to employ institutional communicative methods, parents prefer more personal, individual invitations for involvement. Consequently, teachers and parents become discouraged by the mismatch of communication preferences. Teachers' and parents' perceptions of communicative methods are explored and suggestions for improving communication between schools and families are given. A call for parent involvement in children's education has been made nationwide. Parent involvement in junior high schools is no exception. Unfortunately, however, parent involvement declines as children progress from elementary to secondary schools (Brough & Irvin, 2001; Dauber & Epstein, 1993). Despite this decline, studies have shown that parents want involvement in their children's education (Epstein, 1986; Fagnano, 1994; Goodman, Sutton, & Harkavy, 1995). Teachers, however, do not always perceive that parents are willing to become involved (Dauber & Epstein, 1993; Epstein & Dauber, 1991), and parents report they have fewer opportunities for involvement as their children get older (Chavkin & Williams, 1985; Davies, 1987). These studies reveal that misperceptions of parents' desires for involvement exist between schools and families. Many teachers feel that parents are not willing to become involved in their children's education, and many parents are not aware of opportunities for involvement. It seems misperceptions abound when teachers and parents believe that neither group is willing to engage in parent involvement. OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY The purpose of this instrumental case study (Stake, 1995) was to explore teachers', parents', and students' perceptions of parent involvement in the education of young adolescents. Participants included eight teachers, twenty parents, and nineteen young adolescents in grades six-eight at Redwood Junior High School (RJHS). About 470 students attend RJHS, which is located in a small farming community in west Texas. Redwood Independent School District (RISD) recently initiated a program called Volunteer Initiative Program (VIP) to increase community and parent involvement in their schools. Teachers were strongly encouraged to actively involve community and parent volunteers in various capacities at the district's schools. Data were collected using a series of interviews, participant observation, and document collection. The school principal suggested initial participants, and each participant subsequently recommended additional parents or teachers who encouraged parent involvement at the school. Those individuals who were repeatedly recommended became key informants for the study (Patton, 1990). Interviews and observations spanned seven months of the school year. Observation opportunities varied greatly and included traditional parent involvement events such as fundraisers, social functions, athletic events, and school parties, as well as informal contacts between parents and teachers when parents delivered their children in the morning to the school. I held the role of participant-observer as described by Merriam (1998). Although my primary interest was to collect data, if I remained an observer in some instances, participants might have been reluctant to share with me. For example, remaining an observer on the night of the 8th-grade overnight party would probably have been viewed as laziness on my part because there was work to be done. …