Spring, 2001, No. 10 National Network of Partnership Schools
Interactive Science Homework Promotes Student Success
High School Partnership Programs Increase Family Involvement and Student Success
Interactive Science Homework Promotes Student Success
Homework is an everyday part of school life. Studies show that middle and high school students who spend more time on homework and complete their assignments tend to earn higher grades. Despite this fact, all parties involved express concerns. Students complain that they are assigned too much homework. Parents report that they want to help their children with homework, but feel unprepared to do so and need more guidance from the school. Teachers say that many students do not complete homework assignments.
TIPS Science Homework
Developed and TestedScience teachers at Pikesville Middle School in Baltimore County, Maryland, developed weekly science TIPS (Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork) assignments to address these concerns. TIPS differs from traditional homework because assignments require students to conduct interactions with a family partner. TIPS activities are assigned weekly or twice monthly, and students have several days to complete the assignments. Students are guided in how to involve family partners in conversations, experiments, or discussions that take students about 30 minutes to complete. Parents provide feedback to teachers in a section for home-to-school communications.
To assess the effectiveness of TIPS science, a study of 253 sixth and eighth grade students in 10 classrooms was conducted during the first two marking periods of the 1999-2000 school year. Six classes received weekly TIPS activities with specific guidelines for students to interact with family partners. The remaining classes received the same weekly homework, but without guidelines for family involvement (ATIPS).
Involvement and Skills Improved
TIPS students reported higher family involvement in science homework than students in ATIPS classes. Specifically, 80% of TIPS students reported that families were sometimes, frequently, or always involved in science homework, while about 80% of ATIPS students reported that families were never, rarely, or sometimes involved. TIPS students also earned higher science report card grades, even after taking into account students’ prior science abilities, family background, and the amount of homework completed.
Over 85% of TIPS students and families reported on surveys that TIPS homework helped parents see what students were learning in science, and that students were able to talk about their work in science with a family partner. One TIPS parent commented, “They are a great way for us to work together and stay informed about what is going on in science class.”
TIPS Resources Available
Visit the NNPS website,www.partnershipschools.org, for more information and materials on the TIPS interactive homework process. (Or, Click for more information about the TIPS process.)Pikesville Middle School is featured on a 15-minute video about the TIPS process, produced by ASCD. To order, go to www.ascd.org. Click on the “Online Store,” choose “Videos,” and look for “How to Make Homework More Meaningful by Involving Parents.”
From: Van Voorhis, F. L. (2000). The effects of TIPS interactive and non-interactive homework on science achievement and family involvement of middle grade students. Dissertation in Developmental Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville.
High School Partnership Programs Increase Family Involvement and Student Success
Although researchers have conducted many studies to understand school, family, and community partnerships in the elementary and middle grades, less is known about partnerships in high school. What do high school, family, and community partnerships look like? How do partnerships influence high school student success? Can high schools reach out to involve families? To address these questions, this study looked at longitudinal data from over 11,000 high school students, their parents, and more than 1,000 high school principals in the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988. Partnership activities from the six types of involvement were analyzed.
Partnerships Affect Academic and Behavioral Results
The bottom line in most education reform is student achievement. We all want to know: How do partnerships affect student success?
This study showed that, after taking into account teens’ socioeconomic status, family structure, gender, race/ethnicity, and the powerful influence of students’ prior achievement, various parenting, volunteering, learning at home, and decision making activities positively influenced students’ English and math report card grades, course credits completed, attendance, good behavior, and how well-prepared students were when they came to class.
When parents attended college-planning workshops or when parents and teens talked about college, teens earned higher grades and completed more course credits. When parents attended school activities with their teens, students had better attendance and behavior. Additionally, the more time that parents and teens spent together, the better behaved students were and the more prepared students were for class.
High School Outreach Increases Family Involvement
This study also tested how high schools’ outreach influenced fourteen different family-school partnership indicators. According to parents of high school seniors, when high schools reached out, parents were more involved. For example:
When high school staff contacted parents about teens’ plans after high school, parents were more likely to attend postsecondary planning workshops and talked more frequently with their teens about college.
When high school staff gave information to parents about how to help teens study, parents worked more often with their teens on homework.
When high school staff contacted parents about teens’ academic programs, course selections, and plans after high school, parents talked with their teens more often about school.
High schools have the capacity to change the way that families support teens’ school success. When high schools reach out to involve families, families are more likely to be involved in ways that support teens’ success through the last year of high school.
From: Simon, B. S. (2000). Predictors of high school and family partnerships and the influence of partnerships on student success. Dissertation in Sociology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
