James Griffith

Relation of parental involvement, empowerment, and school traits to student academic performance

Abstract School-level data on parent perceptions and structural characteristics of 42 elementary schools were used to examine the relation of parental involvement and empowerment to student academic performance. Results showed that measures of parental involvement and empowerment could be reliably predicted. Multiple regression analyses showed that parental involvement and empowerment accounted for substantial variance in student standardized test performance (lowest R 2 = 25% and 5%, respectively). Positive relations of parental involvement to student test performance were largely unaffected by school characteristics or the socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic composition of the student population.

Principal leadership of parent involvement

Strategies to increase parent involvement and its beneficial effects, in particular, among parents whose children traditionally have low academic achievement, abound in the educational literature. Yet, conspicuously absent is an empirical examination of the relation of principal behaviors on parent involvement. The present study analyzed survey data from principals regarding their behaviors and the relation of their behavior to survey data from parents regarding involvement in their children’s education. Among schools having higher concentrations of socioeconomically‐disadvantaged and non‐English‐speaking students, the roles of master teacher and missionary were associated with higher levels of parent involvement and the role of the gamesman with lower levels of parent involvement. Results suggest that the effectiveness of principal roles is dependent on the needs and life circumstances of socioeconomically‐disadvantaged school populations.

School Climate as “Social Order” and “Social Action”: A Multi-Level Analysis of Public Elementary School Student Perceptions

The present study employed a sample of 25,087 students enrolled in 117 elementary schools to test whether student perceptions obtained in a general survey of school learning and social environment conformed to the dimensions of Stockard and Mayberrys (1992) conceptual framework for school climate, and whether data could be summarized as grouped (school) or non-grouped (individual) data. A confirmatory factor analysis showed that the proposed framework adequately fits student perceptions of school climate. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses showed between-school differences. Although school membership accounted for a small amount of variance in school climate measures, school climate means showed relatively high reliability. School climate dimensions most immediate to the student (Action-Instrumental support and Action-Expressive support) showed the strongest relations to both student self-reported academic performance and student satisfaction, and these relations were generally the same across the schools. As predicted, expressive support as opposed to instrumental support was more beneficial (in terms of self-reported academic performance) to students in schools having proportionally more socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Implications of results for educational research and educational practice regarding school climate are discussed.

Test of a Model of the Organizational Antecedents of Parent Involvement and Satisfaction with Public Education

Researchers have speculated on the nature of relations among parental satisfaction, school climate, and other variables. However, few empirical studies have examined relations among these variables in a causal framework, even when rhetoric of organizational change and its positive effects on parents, students, and teachers is abundant. The purpose of this study was to test a causal model incorporating school climate, school-parent communication, and parent empowerment and their effects on parental involvement and satisfaction. The present study employed a 71.2% sample of 42,818 parents (or 33,244 responding parents) from 122 elementary schools. Parent-school communication and school climate showed the strongest direct effects on parental satisfaction, followed by empowerment. The strongest indirect path to parental satisfaction was from school climate through informing parents. Other paths that showed weaker relations to parental satisfaction were: School climate-empowerment-informed; school climate-empowerment; and school climate-involvement. Parental involvement contributed little variance to parental satisfaction. Nonetheless, interaction terms (parent reports of individual-level school involvement x school-level parent perceptions of school climate, x being informed, x being empowered, x involved) showed that the relation of parental involvement to satisfaction was moderated by how well parents were informed, empowered and involved by the school, and their perceptions of positive school climate.

The Relation of Organizational Process Orientation to Effectiveness and Efficiency in Elementary Public Schools

Organizational psychology has identified four recurrent organizational models (rational goal, open systems, human relations, and internal processes), each placing different emphases on internal and external organizational processes. Using a sample of 122 elementary schools in a large suburban school district located outside a metropolitan area, the present study examined the relation of school emphases on internal and external processes to school effectiveness and efficiency. Consistent with hypotheses, inefficient schools (lower-than-average student achievement test scores, adjusted by the percentage of students enrolled in the free and reduced-price meal program and per-pupil expenditures) were identified by the human relations model or as inward-directed with emphasis on the quality of student-school staff interpersonal relationships, by higher levels of student enjoyment, and by smaller student enrollments and smaller student-faculty ratios. Contrary to expectation, results showed that effective schools (higher-than-average student achievement test scores) were best described in terms of the rational goal model or as outward-directed, with emphasis on involving and empowering parents and on internal structure, control, and inflexibility (i.e., more school order and discipline). Results are discussed in terms of the broader organizational literature, specifically, competing organizational value orientations, effects of organizational structure and member characteristics on organizational process orientation, and the use of organizational process orientation as means to achieve organizational effectiveness and efficiency.