achievement gap parental involvement

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Running Head: BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 1 Barriers for Parental Involvement and Achievement Gaps for Minorities Lorrynn Bredahl-Kent San Jose State University

BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 2 Barriers for Parental Involvement and Achievement Gaps for Minorities There has been growing research showing a gap between ethnic minority children and white children in education. This gap is not closing but is growing steadily between the groups and is evident when looking at how many ethnic minority children go on to college and higher paying jobs as adults. The United States Census reports that in 2015 minority children under the age of 5 years counted for 50.3% of the population. This means that 50% of our next generation of school age children will be minorities. English language learners are also increasing in our school age population of K-12 grades, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates by 2030 they will make up 40% of the school age population (Shin & Ortman, 2011). If the trend continues with lack of academic learning in our education for minority children, we will be failing most of our children. The achievement gap describes the difference between two subgroups in academic performance when one group outperforms another group. This is often identified in standardized testing such as SATs or overall average grade scores such as GPAs. The achievement gap has been widely studied, especially between African American and Caucasian students in the United States showing that disparities exist between groups and many factors have been found to relate to achievement gaps. Parental involvement is often mentioned by schools as being an important part of student’s success in learning and has been linked to the achievement gap for immigrants and minorities. With the diverse population of families in school we will examine the barriers in parent involvement that contribute to academic achievement. The first portion of the paper will explain different types of parental involvement (school based and home based) and barriers that ethnic minorities face with parental involvement. After examining the barriers that are interfering with parental involvement we will examine concerted cultivation (parent involvement as a whole) to find out how it works for all ethnic groups and if it does relate to the achievement gap.

BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 3 Parental Involvement Studies have shown that parental involvement is a key factor in promoting academic engagement and achievement for children, even after socioeconomic statuses are considered (Epstein, 2001). Parental involvement in their child’s education can be generally defined as how parents’ or caregivers invest in their children’s education and contribute to their learning environment. Activities such as volunteering at school, attending school activities, visiting the classroom, being a guest speaker in a child’s classroom, and taking on roles of leadership or participating in decisions making processes that effect the school are all contemporary functions of parent involvement that help promote a child’s education. Another way of looking at parent involvement is the home base support they can offer their children, helping with homework completion, modeling academic behaviors, placing values on education, and providing extracurricular activities such as music, dance or sports. Home based involvement impacts children’s outcomes by reinforcing classroom instruction, providing encouragement for developing skills, and helping children to develop positive motivational processes and skills (Hill & Taylor, 2004). Barriers for Parental School Involvement Immigrants especially students that are English Language Learners have reported a consistent or slightly widening gap in achievement in reading and mathematics from their native speaking English learners (Polat, Zarecky-Hodge, & Schreiber, 2016). Immigrant families have different barriers than other minorities that pertain to their parental involvement for both parent- school relationship and home-based support. Kristen Turney and Grace Kao (2009) examined the barriers immigrant parents faced with school involvement. Hispanic parents were the most disadvantage when it came to language, 54% reported that they did not speak English compared

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BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 4 to only 5% of the Asian families. When they related language as a barrier to parental involvement Hispanic parents were 5.5 times more likely to report it as a barrier and Asian parents reported it to be 9.7 times more likely to be a barrier. This was not explained as to why, since the initial report showed Asian parents had less of a language barrier, however maybe they felt their English was not very good and found it to be more problematic than Hispanic parents. Language barriers make it difficult for parents to attend parent teacher conferences since the conferences are conducted in English, however the study did report that the majority of parents of all groups (Asian, Hispanic, White, and African American) attended at least one meeting at the school. It did not mention if the students interpreted for the parents or if they had a family member join them to interpret the meeting for them. Another interesting aspect to school involvement was feeling welcomed at the school, Hispanic and Asian parents both reported this as a barrier compared to White parents, along with African American parents. Feeling unwelcomed from school is a problem for both the parents and teachers. Teachers often state that parent participation is an important factor for student’s academic engagement and achievement but when parents are made to feel unwelcomed they tend pull away from participating at their children’s school and can develop negative attitudes for each other (Epstein, 1996). Teacher’s perceptions of parent’s disengagement are that they are not interested, or are indifferent to how their children are performing in school and they are less likely to reach out to these parents and encourage their participation (Bloom, 2001). African American parents are often reported as having relatively lower parental involvement in school (Vaden-Kiernan & McManus, 2005; Trotman, 2001). However, another study found the opposite, revealing that African American parents were more likely to be involved in school related activities than Caucasian parents (Graves & Wright, 2011). Research by Wong and Hughes (2006) may shed

BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 5 some light on these discrepancies. Their research indicated that African Americans where rated higher in communication with their children’s school than other ethnic groups. When teachers were surveyed they reported African American parents to be the least involved at school. These two opposing views could explain the differences other studies have found as we will examine next. When looking at parental involvement at school for African American families and teacher’s perception, cultural history plays and important part. Often teachers are not the same ethnicity as their students, large majority of teachers are Caucasian and lack the same historical background and views of the school setting as African Americans. Lareau and Horvat (1999), found that educators found some parental involvement unacceptable and destructive when it did not meet their standards as positive and supportive. When African American parents directly criticized and tried to intervene on behalf of their children showing concern for their children’s education and wanting the school to celebrate Black heroes such as Martin Luther King, the educators found them to be upsetting and difficult. They also commented on the tone of their voices, expressing that they were loud and accused them of just being angry. These interactions and lack of racial understanding and view points often leave teachers withdrawing from parental interactions instead of trying to understand the parental views and trying to reach an understanding, instead they just label them as difficult. Cultural understanding is needed in the classroom and staff. Teachers that can relate to parents are more likely to listen and try to come to some understanding if a problem occurs. If a school has a large volume of parents with language barriers it would be good to try and find ways to reach out to this population, possibly find interpreters to help bridge this gap. Try and find out what parent’s needs are and make the school more inclusive including holidays. Parents

BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 6 are an excellent source of information and should be included as part of expectations for the needs of the children. Parental involvement comes in many forms and often it is the teachers that need to reach out and make it a priority. Home-based Parental involvement Immigrant families face many obstacles when coming to a new home land and these obstacles can interfere with parental involvement in many ways. Research by Gilbert, Brown, and Mistry (2017), found that financial stress, lack of English language, and depressive symptoms were all associated with risk to home based parental involvement. Hispanic immigrant families that migrate to the United States often are faced with financial challenges. Depressive symptoms were reported higher for immigrants reporting financial hardships and worries than those with less financial problems. Depression was shown to have a significant relationship with parental involvement, parents were less likely to monitor their children’s academics and discuss the importance of educational values. Language again plays an important part of parental involvement in the home. Parents that reported language barriers were less likely to monitor student’s homework and academics as well as showing lower levels of communication about the student’s education with their children. Being able to read and understand a student’s homework is an important part of being able to support a child’s academic achievement and discuss options that they may have in choosing classes, especially in upper grades. With language barriers parent’s often feel less adequate in being a resource for their children in their studies. Children and parents that are trying to learn a new language often find difficulties in how to support their child’s language development. Reading and talking with children has been a key factor in children’s academic reading and language achievement in school. Parents can become confused about which language to use at home, this can often lead to

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BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 7 less communication or if they try to use English instead of their native language (which they have mastered) parents could be doing more damage by provide children with poor English language development skills. Parental Education and Parental Involvement Parental education has been identified to help support children not only socioeconomically but by building critical thinking skills, developing stronger psychosocial capacities, learning how to deal with societal institutions, and learning how to use capital to promote more opportunities (Kingston, Hubbard, Lapp, Schroeder, & Wilson, 2003). The level of education a mother has acquired has shown to relate to more educational teaching at home, more interaction and stimulating cognitive development as well as enrolling their children in extracurricular activities. The concern is that most Latino immigrants have not graduated from high school or even attended high school (Hernandez, 2006). In a study conducted by Crosnoe and Ansari (2016) examined the education of immigrant Latino parents and U.S. born parents of Caucasian and African Americans to find out if their education affected their parental involvement and academic achievement scores for kindergarten and first grade. They found that for ever extra year of parental education equaled 9% standard deviation in school involvement. In other words, more, education a mother had they increased in providing learning materials at home, engagement of extracurricular activities, and involvement at school. This was reported across all groups regardless of where they came from. The findings did show that children that had higher achievement test had mothers that reported higher in parental involvement (educational resources) and education for girls than for boys. Since the study was on mother’s education it

BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 8 may show that mothers that have attained more education put more value on their daughter’s education or equity in education by providing more resources to support their education. Concerted Cultivation Performance in Academic Achievement Concerted cultivation encompasses much of what we have examined as parental involvement for both school and home-based involvement: attending an open house or back to school night, PTA meetings, parent teacher conferences, school or class event, volunteering at school, participating at a school fundraiser, children’s extracurricular activities outside of school, and material resources at home. Socioeconomics takes a role in parent’s abilities to provide concerted cultivation due to being able to fund extracurricular activities such as dance classes, music, or availability of time to give to school functions. With everything we have reviewed so far, and barriers certain groups have in parental involvement lets look at how they relate to academic achievement. Overall concerted cultivation across all groups (Hispanic, African American, and Asian) showed to benefit students especially for entering Kindergarten. Considering that Hispanic and African American children often enter Kindergarten at lower levels than Caucasian and Asian children having parent’s involvement, such as reading to them prior to entering school helps to support their start of education. Cheadle (2008), compared ethnic groups with concerted cultivation, children’s achievement test at entry to school thru third grade, and socioeconomics of the family. Hispanic-white achievement gap at entry to kindergarten was largely accounted for by concerted cultivation and socioeconomic factors. The parents with lower investment and lower socioeconomics showed increased gaps in academics thru third grade for this group. The socioeconomic portion was relatively lower, but it could account for the available funding and time management for concerted cultivation. For kindergarten entry for African American- white

BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 9 gap concerted cultivation reduced the gap to almost nonsignificant, however this did not remain a buffer for children after kindergarten. The study found that they were not able to account for the increased achievement gap with income, family structure, maternal age, parents’ employment, parent’s expectations of education, or parental involvement. This troubling gap of education for this group could be a result of discrimination, teacher differential treatment, or cultural differences between educators and students, either way it would seem to be a within school problem that need to be addressed. One group that faired better and out performed Caucasian students were Asian students. Even prior to entering kindergarten they started off with higher test scores and continued to out perform all groups. This group had relatively similar concerted cultivation as Caucasian families, yet they excelled especially in the summer growth in education. The study did not break down how much extracurricular investments each group did but it would be interesting to see what differences between Asian and Caucasian investments maybe. Another thing about this study is that the Asians in the study were not immigrants and language did not seem to be a factor for this group. Conclusion Parental involvement is an essential component for not only academic achievement but for parent and children’s interactions. This paper has shown that many barriers exist for ethnic minorities and there are even more that were not mentioned, but from literature and studies we focused on the ones that showed the most relevant to academic achievements for children. One of the main factors for parental involvement is to start early, at home. Having an engaged parent that takes an active role in communicating, reading, and working with their children will continue to do so through out school. If that same parent can find a way to get involved early with school and learn to navigate in the school system, they will also continue to be a part of the

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BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 10 school environment. This ability to be involved at a child’s school allows for a parent to communicate with a teacher and work with them to ensure their child is on tract at school, find out important information regarding school and be able to advocate for their children. When facing barriers for immigrants and ethnic minorities schools need to find ways to help support the most disadvantage children. As mentioned in the beginning of the paper the rate of immigrant children entering our school system along with other disadvantage minorities and the rate the achievement gap is growing or at least remaining significant is a topic that needs to be addressed both in school and through policy. Schools can help to shrink the achievement gap through outreach programs to help bring parents in and become part of the school system. They need to identify their student population and discover the needs of the families to help bridge gaps and make them feel welcome. As mentioned in the beginning of the paper the perception of being welcomed and invited at the school is very important to parents. If they feel they are not welcomed they withdraw or can feel the teacher is not being fair to their child, causing tension between staff and parents. This tension can be wrongly perceived by both parties and is very negative for a child’s achievement in school. Having teachers well trained and educated in diversity and cultural practices of the students allows for better understanding for everyone. Having community engagement and finding outside resources for both immigrant Hispanics and finding resources that a cultural for African American families would benefit academic achievements and parental engagement for them. The one difference is that the study by Cheadle revealed that for African American families it may be more school context and problems with in the school holding children back from attaining and shrinking the achievement gap. If the parents are doing everything they can by supporting their children, then we need to

BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 11 look to the school and find the problem. African Americans students represent the largest gap in achievement from other groups and this is continuing to grow. One other interesting component of this is the lack of ethnic teachers in the classroom, maybe we need to try to invest in college students of African American descent to become teachers. Another focus on achievement gap would be to find why some Asian students are out performing other groups. How is their parental involvement different than Caucasian parents? Is the type of extracurricular activities the reason they are increasing the gap? Also, research needs to address different types of Asian communities because other research has shown differences between groups in Asians finding not all are achieving high academic performance and there are differences between them. Overall parental involvement for most groups is beneficial for everyone. References

BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 12 Bloom, L. R. (2001). “I’m poor, I’m single, I’m a mom, and I deserve respect”: Advocating in schools as and with mothers in poverty. Educational Studies, 32 , 300-316 Cheadle, J. E. (2008). Educational Investment, Family Context, and Children's Math and Reading Growth from Kindergarten Through the Third Grade. Sociology of Education , 81 (1), 1-31. Crosnoe, R., Ansari, A., Purtell, K. M., & Wu, N. (2016). Latin American Immigration, Maternal Education, and Approaches to Managing Children's Schooling in the United States. Journal of Marriage & Family , 78 (1), 60-74. doi:10.1111/jomf.12250 Epstein, J. L. (2001). School Family, and Community Partnerships: Preparing Educators and Improving Schools . Boulder, CO: Oxford: Westview Press Epstein, J. L. (1996). Advances in family, community, and school partnerships. New Schools, New Communities, 12 (3), 5-13 Gilbert, L. R., Spears Brown, C., & Mistry, R. S. (2017). Latino immigrant parents' financial stress, depression, and academic involvement predicting child academic success. Psychology in The Schools , 54 (9), 1202-1215. doi:10.1002/pits.22067 Graves Jr., S. L., & Brown Wright, L. (2011). Parent involvement at school entry: A national examination of group differences and achievement. School Psychology International , 32 (1), 35-48. doi:10.1177/0143034310396611 Hernandez, (2006). Young Hispanic children in the U.S.: A demographic portrait based on Census 2000: Tempe, AZ: A report to the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics

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BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 13 Hill, N. E., & Taylor L. C. (2004). Parental School Involvement and Children’s Academic Achievement: Pragmatics and issues. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13 (4), 161-164 Kingston, P. W., Hubbard, R., Lapp, B., Schroeder, P., & Wilson, J. (2003). Why Education Matters. Sociology of Education , 76 (1), 53-70. Lareau, A., & Horvat, E. M. (1999). Moments of Social Inclusion and Exclusion Race, Class, and Cultural Capital in Family-School Relationships. Sociology of Education , 72 (1), 37- 53. Polat, N., Zarecky-Hodge, A., & Schreiber, J. B. (2016). Academic growth trajectories of ELLs in NAEP data: The case of fourth- and eighth-grade ELLs and non-ELLs on mathematics and reading tests. Journal of Educational Research , 109 (5), 541-553. doi:10.1080/00220671.2014.993461 Shin, H. B., & Ortman, J. M. (2011, August). Language projections: 2010-2020. Paper presented at Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, Las Vegas, NV. Trotman, M. F. (2001). Involving the African American parent: Recommendations to increase the level of parent involvement within African American families. Journal of Negro Education, 70 , 275-285 Turney, K., & Kao, G. (2009). Barriers to School Involvement: Are Immigrant Parents Disadvantaged?. Journal of Educational Research , 102 (4), 257-271.

BARRIERS FOR PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS FOR MINORITIES 14 Vaden-Kiernan, N., & McNanus, J. (2005). Parent and family involvement in education: 2002- 03 (NCES 2005-043). US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. Wong, S., & Hughes, J. (2006). Ethnicity and language contributions to dimension of parent involvement. School Psychology Review, 35 , 645-662

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