| Stacey Farber
University of Cincinnati
Examining the longitudinal nature of parental engagement, its predictors, and its effects across race and gender in the early grades
With strong evidence to support the effect parental engagement has on student academic achievement (Fan and Chen, 2001; Jeynes, 2005) and with a continued difference in achievement between African American and White students and between African American boys and their female peers (Campbell, Hombo, Mazzeo, 2000; Lee, 2002), attention is refocusing on parents as agents of positive change. Federal policy, such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, calls upon schools to reduce intergroup achievement gaps in part by making parents instruments of their children's success. However, in order to create effective parent involvement policy and in order for schools to fully and effectively engage parents in ways that enhance children's school success and reduce the achievement gap, we must understand better the nature of parental engagement as it is enacted by different groups and over time. Specifically, we must a) further examine and confirm the multidimensional nature of parental engagement and its construct validity across groups and time; b) determine the degree to which parental engagement behaviors positively affect children's school success and how such relationships might vary by group and grade; and c) identify constraints or affordances that affect parents' efforts to be engaged and how these factors may differ by group and over time. This study begins to address these needs using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study - Kindergarten (ECLS-K) Base Year through Fifth Grade data files, structural equation modeling techniques, and four within- and across-grade samples of African American boys, African American girls, White boys, and White girls. This study builds upon this researcher's expertise, including substantial familiarity with the ECLS-K study and data and the set of statistical analyses planned.
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