In the U.S. educational system, many Latinos are educationally disadvantaged. Compared to non-Hispanic White students, Hispanic students enter kindergarten with lower math and reading skills. Among Hispanic subgroups, Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Central American students’ disadvantages persist at least through third grade.
Dr. Claudia Galindo, Postdoctoral Research Scientist with NNPS, used a national database (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten or ECLS-K) to study whether parental involvement and family-school partnerships helped reduce Latino students’ educational disadvantages in kindergarten. She analyzed Hispanic parents’ patterns of parental involvement and family and school partnerships and their effects on math learning for 14,297 students, including 2,858 Latino students. Variables included: parental involvement at school, parental involvement in educational activities at home, parents’ educational expectations for their children, and parents’ perception of school outreach efforts.
Patterns of Parents’ Involvement and Family–School Partnerships
Galindo found important differences among racial/ethnic groups. On average, Latino parents had higher educational expectations for their children and more positive perceptions of school outreach than did White parents, but lower levels of involvement in educational activities at home and at school.
Also, there were statistically significant differences among Hispanic subgroups. Cuban parents and South American parents had the highest educational expectations for their children, more positive perceptions of school outreach, and the highest levels of involvement. By contrast, Central American parents had the lowest ratings on these indicators.
Influence of Involvement
on Math Achievement
All parental involvement variables, except educational activities at home, were related to students’ math scores. Students had higher math test scores if their parents reported more positive school outreach efforts, higher levels of involvement at school, and higher educational expectations.
The lack of association between involvement at home and math achievement could be due to the nature of the measures in the ECSL-K data base. The measures were reading-related (i.e., read books to child, look at picture books outside of school, and child reads or pretend to reads). The survey did not refer to math-related involvement activities at home. As Epstein (2001) showed in previous studies, positive effects on student learning are most likely to result from subject-specific and content-related involvement activities. Thus, future studies should include family involvement activities in math for questions about math outcomes.
Linking Results to Practice
Using a national sample, Galindo’s study identifies the importance of parental involvement, in general, on achievement even in kindergarten. Second, it points out important variations in patterns of parents’ perceptions and involvement across racial and ethnic groups and among Hispanic subgroups. Third, because school outreach and parental responses seem to enhance student learning in math, it suggests that educators involve families with students on math activities at home to reinforce math teaching, taking into account the needs of different groups of Latino students and families.
From: Galindo, C. L. (2007). Latino Students’ Parental Involvement and Family and School Partnerships: Effects on Math Achievement in Kindergarten. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Association, Chicago.