Assessing parents' involvement in their children's schooling

This paper examines two dimensions of parental involvement with their children's schooling: (I) parent-child interaction with homework in the home and (2) parent-school staff interactions with meetings in the school. The data are drawn from an urban school district of 17,000 students, demographically reflecting many Northern central cities. The random sample consisted of 322 households with one or more children attending grades K-12 in the public schools. The data indicate a significant difference between the two dimensions as well as their relationship to demographic variables, parental attitudes, and school performance. The design allows separate analysis of these variables for siblings. The authors discuss the various definitions of parental involvement and their implications for policy discussions and offer some conclusions regarding the role of central city parents in the schooling of their children.