| Littisha Bates
Arizona State University
Racial and ethnic differences in educational trajectories: The role of parental involvement, families and schools
FINAL REPORT
Prior research findings show that minority children overall have less academic success than non-Hispanic whites. A number of previous studies point to the importance of family characteristics when predicting children’Äôs educational outcomes, while others suggest that school characteristics are of greater importance for determining children’Äôs educational success. Although the individual effects of families and schools on children’Äôs educational outcomes have been examined, less attention has been paid to the interaction of the two. This dissertation examines the simultaneous effects of school and family processes on the educational trajectories of children from kindergarten through fifth grade. The analysis begins by examining the predictors of parental home involvement and moves to parental school involvement. Finally, the affect of both parental home and school involvement in conjunction with family and school characteristics on children’Äôs achievement trajectories are examined.
Using data from four waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, the analysis utilizes three measure of parental home involvement: educational expectations, frequency of reading outside of school and number of children’Äôs books in the home. The findings suggest that there are racial/ethnic differences in parental home involvement, however those differences are reduced once accounting family and school characteristics. The parental school involvement findings point to the importance of family characteristics in predicting parental school involvement. Although the racial/ethnic differences in parental school involvement were reduced they persist net of family and school characteristics.
Parental home and school involvement are both positively associated with children’Äôs reading and math scores in kindergarten and change in those scores over time. The racial/ethnic difference in initial scores persist net of family and school characteristics, with non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic children having lower initial scores as well as slower growth in scores over time compared to their non-Hispanic white counterparts. Family characteristics explained a larger proportion of the variation in between-school difference in children’Äôs scores, suggesting that achievement differences between schools may be a function of the student population not necessarily the schools themselves. The findings provide support for the formulation of early literacy programs as they may be vital in circumventing the achievement racial/ethnic gap.
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