Improving Children's Academic Performance through Parent Engagement: Development and Initial Findings from the Your Family, Your Neighborhood Intervention

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . iv CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 Poverty and Poor Educational Outcomes for Children . 1 Child Academic Achievement and Subsidized Housing . 3 Education Increases Social Mobility . 4 Interventions Addressing Parent Involvement and Academic Achievement . 5 Your Family, Your Neighborhood . 5 Chapter Summary . 7 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW . 9 Social Ecological Theory and CRT . 9 Parent Involvement . 14 Epstein’s Model of Parent Involvement . 16 Limitations to the Epstein Model . 18 Parent Involvement: Racial, Ethnic, and Social Class Differences . 19 Racial and Ethnic Differences . 20 Social Class . 21 Engaging Low-income and Parents of Color . 22 Education as a Way out of Poverty . 23 Neighborhoods and Academic Achievement. 24 Subsidized Housing and Child Academic Achievement . 25 Parent Involvement Interventions to Improve Academic Achievement . 27 Gaps in Parent Involvement and Academic Achievement Interventions . 29 Your Family, Your Neighborhood. 29 Supporting Parent Child Bonding . 31 Parent Involvement in, and Navigation of, Child’s Education . 32 Chapter Summary . 34 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS . 36 History of Your Family, Your Neighborhood . 36 Description of the YFYN Intervention. 40 Study Settings . 42 Neighborhood 1 . 43 Neighborhood 2 . 43 vi Neighborhood 3 (Comparison Site) . 44 Intervention Procedures . 44 Embedded Research Design . 46 Sample. 48 Sample Characteristics for the Quantitative Study . 48 Procedures for the Quantitative Study . 50 Procedures for Qualitative Interviews . 51 Design of Interview Protocol . 51 Sampling and Recruitment . 52 Sample Description . 53 Measures . 54 Demographic Variables . 54 Independent Variable . 54 Dependent Variables (Research Question 1) . 54 Dependent Variables (Research Question 2) . 56 Data Analysis . 56 Researcher Positionality. 56 Quantitative Analysis . 57 Qualitative Analysis . 57 Chapter Summary . 58 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS . 60 Comparison of Treatment and Comparison Group at Pre-Test . 60 School-Based Parent Involvement . 63 Home-Based Parent involvement . 63 Research Question 2 . 64 Research Question 3: Guiding Qualitative Research Questions . 65 Participant Synopses . 66 Qualitative Question A . 69 Confidence and Finding Their Voice . 69 Improvements in Parent/Child Communication . 72 Social Support . 73 Qualitative Question B:. 77 Established Homework Routines . 77 Volunteered at Their Child’s School . 78 The Important Role Parents Play in Their Child’s Education . 79 Additional Findings: Barriers to Parent Involvement in School . 81 Multiple Children and Primary Caregiver . 81 Undertones of Racism . 83 Language and Communication . 86 Cultural Misinterpretations . 86 Chapter Summary . 89 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION . 90 Parent Involvement . 90 vii YFYN and Parent Involvement . 91 Academic Achievement . 92 YFYN and Academic Achievement . 92 YFYN and the Qualitative Themes . 93 Parent Assessment of Barriers to their Children’s Educational Needs . 94 Lessons Learned. 95 Implications for Practice, Policy, Theory and Research . 96 Practice . 96 Education Policy . 98 Housing Policy . 99 Implications for Theory: Social Ecological, CRT and Parent Involvement Social Ecological Theory . 100 CRT . 100 Parent Involvement Models . 103 Limitations . 104 Future Research . 106 Methodological Approaches . 106 Explore Barriers to Parent Involvement . 107 Multiple Stakeholder Perspectives . 107 Multi-Site Group Randomized Trial . 108 Conclusion .