U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

NCES 2018-063 APRIL 2018

Services to Support 

Parent Involvement

by Community Type, Sector, 

and School Classification

The Principal Questionnaire was administered as part of the 2011–12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), which is a nationally representative 

sample survey of public and private K–12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The selected samples 

include about 11,000 traditional and charter public schools and public school principals, and 3,000 private schools and their principals. This Data 

Point examines the relationship between services to support parent involvement, and community type, school sector, and school classification.1

What is the relationship 

between community type and 

availability of services to 

support parent involvement? 

Public and private school principals were 

asked to report whether their school had a 

staff member assigned to work on parent 

involvement; workshops or courses for 

parents or guardians; services to support 

parent participation such as providing child 

care or transportation; or a parent drop-in 

center or lounge. 

Overall, higher percentages of principals 

reported having a staff member assigned 

to work on parent involvement (51 percent) and workshops available for parents 

(53 percent) than on drop-in centers for 

parents (17 percent) (figure 1). 

Higher percentages of principals in city 

schools reported having a staff member 

assigned to work on parent involvement 

(63 percent), workshops for parents 

(67 percent), services to support parent 

involvement (51 percent), and drop-in 

centers for parents (26 percent) than 

other community types.

Compared to suburban schools, rural 

schools had lower percentages of 

principals who reported assigning a 

staff member to parent involvement 

(51 and 44 percent, respectively), 

having services for parents (42 and 31 

percent), and offering a drop-in center 

for parents (17 and 11 percent). 

There were differences across all 

community types in reports of 

workshops. The largest percentage of 

principals to report offering workshops 

for parents were those from city schools

(67 percent), followed by principals 

from suburban schools (59 percent), 

town schools (46 percent), and rural 

schools (40 percent). 

FIGURE 1. Services to support parent involvement, by community type: 2011–2012 

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), “Public School Principal and Private School Principal Data 

Files,” 2011–12. 

Data in this report are from the 2011–12 Schools and Staffing Survey. To learn more, visit 

www.nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass. For questions about content or to download additional copies, go to 

http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch.

51

63

51

45 44

53

67

59

46

40 40

51

42

36

31

17

26

17

11 11

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Total City Suburb Town Rural

Percent

Community Type

School has staff member assigned to work on parent 

involvement

School holds workshops for parents

School offers services for parents to support parent 

involvement

School has drop-in center for parents
Services to Support Parent Involvement by Community Type, Sector, and School Classification

FIGURE 2. Services to Support Parent Involvement, by School Sector and Classification: 

! Interpret data with caution. Estimate is unstable due to high coefficient of variation.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), “Public School Principal and Private School Principal Data 

Files,” 2011–12. 

What is the relationship between school classification 

by sector and services to 

support parent involvement? 

Overall, higher percentages of all public 

school principals reported having a staff 

member assigned to work on parent 

involvement (55 percent), workshops for 

parents (57 percent), and a drop-in 

center for parents (18 percent) than all 

private school principals (38, 40, and 

12 percent, respectively) (figure 2).

A higher percentage of charter school 

principals reported having a staff 

member assigned to work on parent 

involvement (68 percent) than principals 

at traditional public schools (54 

percent).

Comparing across types of private 

schools, higher percentages of 

principals in nonsectarian schools 

reported having a staff member for 

parent involvement (49 percent), 

workshops (56 percent), and drop-in 

centers (19 percent) than principals 

in Catholic or other religious schools 

(33 and 35 percent, 44 and 29 percent, 

and 5 and 11 percent, respectively).

A lower percentage of principals in 

Catholic schools (5 percent) reported 

having drop-in centers than principals 

at other religious schools (11 percent), 

while a higher percentage reported 

having workshops available to parents 

(44 and 29 percent, respectively).

Endnotes 

1 Community type is defined by the urbancentric school locale code based on the 2010 

Decennial Census data, collapsed into four 

categories: city, suburban, town, and rural.

School sector refers to whether a school is a 

public school or a private school. School 

classification refers to characteristics within a 

sector, in particular, whether a public school is 

a traditional public school or a charter school, or 

whether a private school is a Catholic school, 

affiliated with another religion, or nonsectarian.

51

55

68

54

38

33 35

49

53

57

61

57

40

44

29

56

40 40 43 40 40 43

35

46

17 18 21 18

12

5

11

19

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Total Total Charter school Traditional

public

Total Catholic Other religious Nonsectarian

School Classification by Sector

School has staff member assigned to work on parent involvement

School holds workshops for parents

School offers services for parents to support parent involvement

School has drop-in center for parents

Percent

!

This National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Data Point presents 

information on education topics of current interest. It was authored by Abigail 

Quirk of the American Institutes for Research. Estimates based on samples are 

subject to sampling variability, and apparent differences may not be statistically 

significant. All stated differences are statistically significant at the .05 level. In 

the design, conduct, and data processing of NCES surveys, efforts are made to 

minimize effects of nonsampling errors, such as item response, measurement 

error, data processing error, or other systematic error.