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A STUDY OF PROMISING PRACTICES IN TWO CALIFORNIA CHARTER
SCHOOLS: USING TECHNOLOGY TO INCREASE PARENT INVOLVEMENT
by
Jan Pittman Vanderpool
______________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
December 2008
Copyright 2008 Jan Pittman Vanderpool
Object Description
| Title | A study of promising practices in two California charter schools: using technology to increase parent involvement |
| Author | Vanderpool, Jan Pittman |
| Author email | jan.vanderpool@usc.edu; janvanderpool@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Education |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Education (Psychology & Technology) |
| School | Rossier School of Education |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-08-28 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2008-09-26 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Wohlstetter, Priscilla |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Brewer, Dominic J. Seli, Helena |
| Abstract | This study explores the promising practice of using technology to increase parent involvement in California charter schools. Charter schools, as laboratories for innovation, are viewed as a response to changes in society along political, racial, socio-economic and cultural lines and as an alternative to failing public school systems. The study was conducted with the guidance of the University of Southern California Center for Educational Governance and will add to its on-line compendium of promising practices.; The research employed a qualitative case study approach in order to fully explore the richness of relevant information uncovered at the school sites. The subjects of the study were two California charter schools, Ivy Academia, Woodland Hills and Literacy First Charter School, El Cajon. The study was bounded by four research questions. These were: 1) How did high-performing charter schools use technology to increase parent involvement? 2) How were the charter school's resources allocated to use technology to increase parent involvement? 3) What challenges did the high-performing charter school face in using technology to increase parent involvement and how were these challenges successfully addressed? 4) What evidence exists that using technology to increase parent involvement resulted in positive educational outcomes? Both schools in the study allocated a significant portion of development funds for technology acquisition and infrastructure improvement.; Among the challenges that confronted the schools was a lack of computer literacy among the parents and a lack of technology access among a significant portion of the parent population. The study found that the use of technology diminished existing barriers to parent involvement by expanding channels of communication and facilitating transparency in the classroom. Stakeholders reported significant positive changes in student behavior which they attributed at least in part to the various technology strategies employed by the schools. Parent involvement levels increased at both schools which stakeholders attributed in part to technology strategies.; There were several issues of importance uncovered in this study that are in need of further investigation: 1) Investigate the effectiveness of these strategies in schools serving less-privileged population. Research demonstrates students living in higher socioeconomic communities generally have parents who are better educated and more likely to be familiar with technology and are more likely to have better access to computers and Internet access at home. While this study did not confirm this, more research is needed in lower SES schools to further test the hypothesis. 2) Evaluation of the effectiveness of different technology education programs for parents. The rapidly evolving field of educational and communication technology prompts the question of how school administrators can stay abreast of these changes and effectively evaluate the emerging products to determine those best suited for their particular school environment. |
| Keyword | parent involvement; technology; education; urban education; charter schools |
| Geographic subject | educational facilities: Ivy Academia; educational facilities: Literacy First Charter School |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Woodland Hills; El Cajon |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1615 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Vanderpool, Jan Pittman |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-vanderpool-1972 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume23/etd-vanderpool-1972.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | A STUDY OF PROMISING PRACTICES IN TWO CALIFORNIA CHARTER SCHOOLS: USING TECHNOLOGY TO INCREASE PARENT INVOLVEMENT by Jan Pittman Vanderpool ______________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION December 2008 Copyright 2008 Jan Pittman Vanderpool |
