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Low-socioeconomic status families: the role of parental involvement and its association with early childhood academic achievement trajectories

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Low-socioeconomic status families: the role of parental involvement and its association with early childhood academic achievement trajectories

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LOW-SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS FAMILIES: THE ROLE OF PARENTAL
INVOLVEMENT AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH EARLY CHILDHOOD ACADEMIC
ACHIEVEMENT TRAJECTORIES

by

Judith L. Perrigo, MSW, LCSW, IFECHMHS-RPF II

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
SOCIAL WORK

May 2020

Copyright 2020 Judith Lorena Perrigo
ii
Dedication

I dedicate this dissertation to my husband Scott, son Jacob, and daughter Sarah.

Love, your unwavering support and enthusiasm got me through the Ph.D. program. You were
my rock and offered plenty of celebratory, as well as comforting, hugs throughout this process.
Every day I am amazed by your selflessness, kindness, and calmness. My love, we did it!

Jacob, you are my favorite boy in the whole wide world and Sarah, you are my favorite girl in
the whole wide world. You are both smart, full of passion, thoughtful, gorgeous, and most
importantly, you are both incredibly kind. You can both do anything you want in this world and
I will always be your number one supporter. My wish is that you continue to explore your
passions, pose ideas, and always ask questions. Jacob and Sarah: Of all that I have done in my
life, I am most proud to be your mother. I love you both dearly and deeply.

I also dedicate this dissertation to my mother and sisters.
“I can tell by the look in your eyes
You’ve been hurtin’
You know I’ll never let you down, oh no…”

AND

“No controles mi forma de vestir porque es total
No controles mi forma de pensar porque es total
No controles mis vestidos
No controles mis sentidos…”

Mamí, Karla, y Vero: Las amo con todo mi corazón.
iii
Acknowledgments

As I write this, humanity is in the midst of a global pandemic. Although I have dreamt of
obtaining my Ph.D. for years, in the current context, it feels like a rather small feat.
Individualistic. However, that could not be further from the truth, as many have supported,
guided, and mentored me along the way:

My dearest party of 14, which include my mom, Coco, the Howells (my sister Karla, Jon,
Bronson, Isabella), the Omars (my sister Veronica, Solyman, Emily, Sophia), and the Perrigos,
which include my husband Scott, my son Jacob, and my daughter Sarah. Our frequent
gatherings, parties, celebrations, vacations, triple date nights, and cultural traditions fulfill me
more than I will ever be able to express. Table for 14, please!

Mi querida mamí. Gracias por todo lo que ha hecho por mí y mis hermanas. Su amor y
sacrificios son lindos y increíbles. Gracias por mostrarme cómo tener fe en Dios, la naturaleza,
la lógica, y la sabiduría interna. Sería imposible estar donde estoy hoy sin usted. La amo con
todo mi corazón. Y mi querida Coco, gracias por no renunciar. La quiero muchísimo.
Veronica and Karla – what a life we have lived! It has been an absolute adventure and I am
honored to be your sister. Thank you for all of the support, love, laughs, and memories. I love
you both dearly.

All of my friends who have joined me on this journey, and especially my MFP family. Tania,
Tyrone, Sameena, Susan, and Anne – y’all were truly a lifeline. The endless group text
iv
messages, vacations, concerts, broken bread, conversations, heated debates, academic resources,
and encouragement got me through this program. Scholars of color!

Without the guidance of my mentors, this would have been impossible. Drs. Marian Williams
and Jose Salazar mentored me before doctoral studies. You both believed in me and trusted me
with important clinical work, while encouraging me to pursue my passion for research. Dr.
Victoria Cortessis, your class was an intellectual transformation for me, but the ultimate gift was
your friendship. Thank you for empowering me to express my scholarly and feminist voice.
There are too many to name at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work but know that I
am a proud social worker and Trojan because of our many interactions. A special
acknowledgement to Drs. Omar Lopez, Concepcion Barrio, Jordan Davis, Julie Cederbaum,
Ferol Mennen, Jacquelyn McCroskey, and many, many more.

My distinguished and exceptional dissertation committee – Drs. Anya Samek, Dorian Traube,
Lawrence Palinkas, Daniel Hackman, and Michael Hurlburt – thank you. Anya, during our very
first meeting, you took a chance on me and I will never be able to express my full appreciation. I
am proud to call you a colleague and friend, and I look forward to the research projects ahead of
us. Dorian, throughout our research collaborations (from my tutorial to the El Salvador project),
you demonstrated the utmost scientific rigor. You have been someone that I’ve admired from
the very beginning; thank you for being my teacher and colleague. Larry, I wish I met you
earlier. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of our interactions, conversations, and collaborations. You
are a profound blessing in my life. Daniel, I think our work is just beginning. I look forward to
learning (more) from you and collaborating with you. Each of you have invested a significant
v
amount of time in my development and I am forever grateful. I am just down the street and look
forward to our future collaborations.

Most importantly, my committee chair, academic advisor, mentor, and friend – Dr. Michael
Hurlburt. Words will never capture the gratitude that I feel towards you. Your mentorship has
forever changed me and enhanced my life for the better. I deeply appreciate your patience,
kindness, authenticity, curiosity, optimism, and professional rigor. During our meetings, you
constantly helped me learn and unlearn. I appreciate that you never gave me a simple yes-or-no
answer. Instead, you gently used thoughtful questions to guide our conversations and, Mike,
your questions were like directions to the truth, my truths. At the end of this journey, I am a
confident and independent scholar because of you. ¡Mil Gracias!

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the CHECC parents who participated in my dissertation. I
am grateful for your trust and I will use your stories to advocate for change. I am accountable to
you and your children. Finalmente, me gustaría agradecer a los padres de CHECC que
participaron en mi disertación. Le agradezco su confianza y utilizaré sus historias para lograr
un cambio. Soy responsable ante ustedes y sus hijos.

To all the children in the world, particularly vulnerable children, I commit my professional
career to you. I believe in your beauty, individualism, and potential. I will work every day to
create, disseminate, preserve, and apply knowledge for the collective betterment of a just global
society that takes care of its youngest.

vi
Table of Contents

Dedication ........................................................................................................................................ ii
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... iii
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ix
Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
Review of the Literature ...................................................................................................... 3
Historical Context .................................................................................................... 3
High and Low Socioeconomic Families .................................................................. 3
Defining Parental Involvement ................................................................................ 5
Measuring Parental Involvement ............................................................................. 7
Early Childhood ....................................................................................................... 7
Conceptual Framework ....................................................................................................... 8
Significance ......................................................................................................................... 9
Specific Aims ................................................................................................................... 10
Chapter 2: Research Methods ........................................................................................................ 12
Chicago Heights Early Childhood Center (CHECC) Study .............................................. 12
Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Research Design ............................................... 13
Study Procedures and Participants .................................................................................... 14
Recruitment ........................................................................................................... 15
Focus Groups ............................................................................................. 15
Individual Interviews ................................................................................. 16
Protection of Human Subjects ................................................................... 17
Measurements .................................................................................................................... 18
Academic Achievement ......................................................................................... 18
Qualitative Focus Group Semi-Structured Instrument Guide ............................... 19
Focus Group Pre- and Post-Surveys ...................................................................... 20
Qualitative Individual Interview Semi-Structured Instrument Guide ................... 21
Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 22
Quantitative ........................................................................................................... 22
Qualitative ............................................................................................................. 22
Chapter 3: Results .......................................................................................................................... 25
Quantitative Findings ........................................................................................................ 25
Full Sample Descriptives ....................................................................................... 25
Five Academic Achievement Trajectories ............................................................ 27
Focus Groups and Individual Interviews Sample Descriptives ......................................... 28
Qualitative Focus Group Themes ...................................................................................... 30
Across All Five Academic Achievement Trajectories .......................................... 30
Sibling Role ............................................................................................... 32
Parent-Teacher Communication ................................................................ 35
vii
Parental Strategies ..................................................................................... 39
Limited Time ............................................................................................. 42
Poor Parental Proficiency .......................................................................... 44
Proficient and Closing the Gap Academic Achievement Trajectories .................. 46
Screen Time as a Facilitator ...................................................................... 46
Spanish-Speaking Parents ...................................................................................... 49
Parent-Centered Approach ........................................................................ 50
Educación .................................................................................................. 52
Language Barrier ....................................................................................... 53
Qualitative Individual Interview Themes .......................................................................... 57
Across All Five Academic Achievement Trajectories .......................................... 57
Sibling Role ............................................................................................... 57
Parent-Teacher Communication ................................................................ 60
No Problems; No Communication ............................................................ 63
Enrichment Activities ................................................................................ 65
Single-Parent Involvement ........................................................................ 66
Dynamic Parental Involvement ................................................................. 68
Barriers ...................................................................................................... 71
Managing Barriers ..................................................................................... 78
Spanish-Speaking Parents ...................................................................................... 84
Generational Improvements ...................................................................... 84
Summary and Integrated Mixed Findings ......................................................................... 87
Study Aim 1: Defining Parental Involvement ....................................................... 87
Study Aim 2: Parental Involvement in Closing the Gap and Proficient Groups ... 88
Study Aim 3: Parental Involvement for Spanish-Speaking Parents ...................... 90
Beyond Parental Involvement ............................................................................... 91
Chapter 4: Discussion .................................................................................................................... 96
Study Implications ............................................................................................................. 96
Low Socioeconomic Status Families (Study Aim 1) ............................................. 98
Proficient and Closing the Gap Trajectory Groups (Study Aim 2) ..................... 104
Spanish-Speaking Families (Study Aim 3) ......................................................... 105
Study Limitations ............................................................................................................ 108
Recommendations ........................................................................................................... 109
Study Participants’ Recommendations ................................................................ 111
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 112
References ................................................................................................................................... 114
Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 127
Appendix A: Bilingual Flyer ........................................................................................... 127
Appendix B: Bilingual Telephone Script ........................................................................ 129
Appendix C: Figure 1. Recruitment Efforts and Outcomes ............................................ 130
Appendix D: Focus Group Semi-Structured Instrument Guide ...................................... 131
Appendix E: Ranked Factors Contributing to Children’s Academic Achievement ........ 133
Appendix F: Focus Group Pre- and Post-Surveys ........................................................... 134
viii
Appendix G: Individual Interview Semi-Structured Instrument Guide .......................... 136
Appendix H: Coding Trees .............................................................................................. 138
Appendix I: Sensitivity Test: Latent Class Analysis ....................................................... 140
Appendix J: Additional Quotes from the Qualitative Themes ........................................ 141

ix
Abstract

Background and Purpose
Education-related parental involvement is a significant factor in student academic achievement,
with higher levels of parental involvement resulting in higher levels of academic achievement.
However, there is a well-documented parental involvement disparity between low- and high-SES
families, which potentially contributes to the persistent academic achievement gap between
children from low- and high-SES families. Little is known about how low-SES families, both
English- and Spanish-speaking, define and practice education-related parental involvement.
Additionally, most studies exploring the role of parental involvement in student academic
achievement have focused on older children, sixth grade or older. Thus, the current study’s
objective was to explore how parents of young children (preschool through third grade) with
low-SES and diverse linguistic backgrounds define and practice education-related parental
involvement.
Methods
The study employed a three-phase explanatory sequential mixed methods approach, utilizing
quantitative methods to prepare for qualitative interviews. Participants (n = 1,408) were a
subsample of young students (preschool – third grade) from the Chicago Heights Early
Childhood Center (CHECC), longitudinal and randomized controlled trial study. The first phase
involved the use of longitudinal growth curve models to identify unique children’s academic
achievement trajectories. Academic achievement was measured with the Peabody Picture
Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Woodcock Johnson III (WJ-III). The second and third phases
included both qualitative focus groups (n = 10) and individual interviews (n = 23) with parents or
x
primary caretakers of CHECC students. Focus groups and individual interviews were divided
into groups stratified by academic trajectories that were determined in the first phase. Systematic
inductive (e.g., grounded theory) and deductive (e.g., thematic content analysis) methods were
used to identify qualitative themes.
Results
A little over 50% of the students were female and 45% and 44% of families identified as Black
and Hispanic, respectively. The families demonstrated an index of low-socioeconomic status
characteristics. Two-thirds of families reported an annual household income of less than
$36,000; 16.4% of mothers and 22.2% of fathers did not have a high school diploma; and 44.4%
of mothers and 16.7% of fathers were unemployed at baseline. Several households received
federal aid, such as Medicaid 63%, foodstamps 48.8%, and WIC 41.8%. Longitudinal growth
curve models identified five latent classes of young students’ academic achievement trajectories:
“continuous risk” (n = 233), “moderate improvements” (n = 391), “regressing” (n = 94),
“proficient” (n = 425), and “closing the gap” (n = 265). Qualitative focus groups and individual
interviews identified several themes that low-SES parents considered vital as part of how they
defined education-related parental involvement, such as parent-teacher communication, mostly
during the parent-teacher conferences; expanding the definition of parental involvement to
include the role of siblings; parental strategies, such as identifying enrichment activities for their
children; single-parent involvement, despite being married or having a domestic partner; and
evolving or dynamic parental involvement that changes over time. Parents also endorsed two
prominent barriers to their education-related parental involvement: limited time and poor
parental proficiency. A subset of Spanish-speaking parents endorsed three additional themes and
one barrier that defined the way they understood parental involvement. Those themes included a
xi
parent, versus child-centered approach; attitudes about what the school teaches versus what
parents teach; and aspiring for generational improvements. Difficulties with the host language
(i.e., English) were identified as a barrier to parental involvement in their children’s academic
lives.
Conclusions and Implications
The parental involvement construct is predominately driven by a middle- and high-SES
definition. It assumes that parental involvement is equally feasible among all families, but
inequalities exist on various levels, particularly for vulnerable populations such as low-SES
and/or Spanish-speaking families in the United States. The current dissertation emphasizes the
need to conceptualize parental involvement differently as part of supporting broader closure of
the continuing academic achievement gap by families from diverse SES backgrounds.

1

Chapter 1: Introduction
A significant academic achievement gap continues to increase between children from
low- and high-socioeconomic status (SES) families (Hanushek et al., 2020; Reardon, 2011). The
low-/high-SES academic achievement gap can negatively impact more than 15 million
(McFarland et al., 2017) low-SES children’s opportunities for immediate academic achievement
(a broad domain of children’s school-related functioning, which include reading and math
proficiencies) (Duncan & Murnane, 2011), college attendance (Haimovich, 2015; Ou &
Reynolds, 2014), health outcomes (Belfield & Kelly, 2013; Cohen et al., 2013; Hayward et al.,
2015; Langford et al., 2014; Schepis et al., 2018) and future labor market earnings (Haimovich,
2015; Knudsen et al., 2006). Collectively, these outcomes constitute a public health concern and
underscore the need to both better understand and reduce the educational achievement disparities
between low- and high-SES students.
Previous studies have identified parental involvement as a key component in academic
achievement, with higher levels of parental involvement associated in higher levels of academic
achievement (Alhosani et al., 2017; Barger et al., 2019; Castro et al., 2015; Hill & Tyson, 2009;
Jeynes, 2017; Liu & White, 2017; Oswald et al., 2018). For example, higher levels of parental
involvement in the form of expressing explicit academic expectations have been correlated with
higher levels of students’ mathematics test scores (Neuenschwander et al., 2007).
Most studies that have examined the role of parental involvement and student academic
achievement have used quantitative methods. In general, quantitative empirical evidence has
defined parental involvement as the time and energy parents dedicate to fostering their children’s
academic identity in the home (Degol et al., 2017; Denner et al., 2018; Duppong et al., 2017;
Hakyemez-Paul et al., 2018; Han et al., 2017; Hill et al., 2018; Oswald et al., 2018; Sikiö et al.,
2
2018; Wang et al., 2018; Wong et al., 2018); school (Degol et al., 2017; Duppong et al., 2017;
Goldrich et al., 2018; Hill et al., 2018; Oswald et al., 2018; Sebastian et al., 2017; Wong et al.,
2018); and local environment (Duppong et al., 2017; Hart & Risley, 1995; Oswald et al., 2018;
Reardon & Galindo, 2009). This can include time spent helping students with homework,
attending parent-teacher conferences at the school, reading to or with children, visiting a local
museum, and other activities related to children’s education. However, there is a well-
documented parental involvement disparity between low- and high-SES families (Duncan &
Murnane, 2011; Hart & Risley, 1995). Under existing definitions of parental involvement, high-
SES mothers typically demonstrate higher levels of parental involvement, averaging 1.8 hours
per week compared to 1.4 hours per week from their low-SES counterparts (House, 2014).
Fathers have demonstrated a similar trend, with high-SES fathers averaging 1.3 hours per week
compared to 0.8 hours per week from their low-SES counterparts (House, 2014).
In addition, most studies that have examined parental involvement have used secondary
school (sixth grade and older) student samples (Duppong et al., 2017; Hill & Tyson, 2009).
However, it is crucial to understand education-related parental involvement during the early
years, when children are first exposed to academic settings, such as preschool or kindergarten
(Nimetz, 1994; Payne, 2015). That is, when young children are forming their ideas, expectations,
and attitudes towards school that they may carry throughout their academic lives.
A better understanding of the mechanisms or contexts behind quantitative trends, as well
as learning how low-SES parents of young children define and practice education-related
parental involvement, may contribute to scientific advances. Improved scientific knowledge can
inform early childhood interventions, reducing educational disparities and resulting in more
significant, sustained, and positive academic outcomes for low-SES students.
3
Review of the Literature
Historical Context
Economic inequality has a long history in the United States (Duncan & Murnane, 2011),
with a high-quality school education traditionally viewed as serving as a powerful catalyst to end
the cycle of poverty and decrease the likelihood of adverse outcomes in adulthood (Belfield &
Kelly, 2013; Haimovich, 2015; Knudsen et al., 2006; Langford et al., 2014; Ou & Reynolds,
2014). However, due to an evolving social landscape, including an increase in single-parent
households and increased neighborhood segregation between low- and high-SES families,
economic inequalities grew significantly larger between the top and bottom quintiles between
1978 and 2008 (Duncan & Murnane, 2011). The long-held notion that schools serve as an
equalizer, providing equal opportunities for all children, is no longer true.
High and Low Socioeconomic Families
The disparity in educational achievement between students from low- and high-SES
families has widened by approximately 35% since 1977 (Duncan & Murnane, 2011). For
instance, low-SES children are 1.3 standard deviations behind their high-SES peers in math skills
and nearly two-thirds of a standard deviation below in attention skills, such as self-regulation and
executive functioning (Duncan & Murnane, 2011). Studies have also found that high-SES
schools have higher standardized test scores when compared to low-SES schools (Shore et al.,
2020).
The primary mechanism for the low/high-SES academic achievement gap is not due to
the rise in economic inequality alone. Rather, economic prosperity has generated an average
increase in parental involvement in children’s academic futures among higher-SES families, and
that appears to be the principal driver explaining educational inequalities (Reardon, 2011). Fifty
4
years ago, low-income families spent approximately $989 (in 2020 dollars) on child enrichment
expenditures, while higher-income families spent $4,158 (Duncan & Murnane, 2014). Four
decades later, low-income families increased their expenditures to approximately $1,573 (in
2020 dollars), while higher-income families increased theirs to $10,450 per child (Duncan &
Murnane, 2014). The large difference between low- and high-SES families, as well as the
difference over time, is largely due to activities such as music lessons, travel, and summer
camps. High-SES families are, more than ever before, using their resources (financial and others)
to bolster their children’s cognitive and social development (Lareau, 2000; Schaub, 2010). High-
SES families tap into their social advantages, such as high status jobs, formal educational
knowledge, prestigious networks, and organizational skills to help their children succeed in
school (Lareau, 2000).
Also, according to national trends in 2016, parents with a graduate/professional degree
attended more school or class events (93%) and more often volunteered or served on a
committee at their children’s school (65%) when compared to parents with less than a high
school degree (54% and 25%, respectively) (McQuiggan & Megra, 2017). A similar trend was
observed when considering poverty status, with poor parents attending fewer school or class
events (62%) and volunteering or serving less often on committees (27%) when compared to
affluent parents (93% and 47%, respectively) (Watson & Swanberg, 2013).
Low-SES parents are as motivated and ardent as high-SES parents about providing
opportunities for their children to succeed. However, low-SES parents are bound by their
primary role as providing for their children’s basic needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter,
rather than their intellectual or emotional development (Lareau, 2011). In the book Unequal
Childhoods, a research team lead by sociologist Annette Lareau followed fourth graders for three
5
weeks (with daily visits) and once when they reached adulthood. The researchers highlighted that
middle- and high-SES children were often treated by their caregivers as a project to be
developed, whereas poor children were given boundaries for their behavior and were then
allowed to grow independently (Lareau, 2011). Further research is needed to better understand
the unique needs and practices of low-SES families, particularly the role of parental involvement
in student school functioning.
Defining Parental Involvement
The vast majority of empirical studies have identified parental involvement as a
significant factor that influences academic achievement outcomes (Blair & Raver, 2012; Castro
et al., 2015; Duncan & Murnane, 2011; Friedman-Krauss et al., 2016; Hill & Tyson, 2009;
Jeynes, 2007). These outcomes include increased grade point averages (Camacho-Thompson et
al., 2019; Henderson & Mapp, 2002; James et al., 2019); enhanced reading and literacy skills
(Campbell, 2008; Smith-Adcock et al., 2019; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002; Zambrana et al., 2019);
increased mathematics achievement (Izzo et al., 1999; McCormick et al., 2020; Starkey & Klein,
2000; Zhang et al., 2020); lower drop-out rates (Barnard, 2004); and increased time spent on
homework (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Researchers have also examined whether the role of
parental involvement, which carries social and cultural capital in school settings, decreases the
overuse of exclusionary discipline for Black children. One study found that Black children
continued to be marginalized despite higher levels of parental involvement; however, higher
levels of parental involvement resulted in lower levels of exclusionary discipline (Marcucci,
2020).
Although most studies have identified parental involvement as a significant factor that
enhances student school functioning, there are some mixed findings in the extant literature. Some
6
studies did not find a relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement
(Makofske, 2010), whereas other studies reported an inverse relationship, with higher levels of
parental involvement, at times, resulting in lower levels of academic achievement (Holod, 2012).
Mixed findings may be attributed to inconsistent definitions of parental involvement.
Quantitatively, research has broadly conceptualized parental involvement as the time and
energy invested by parents in their children’s education-related activities in three primary
settings: home (e.g., help with homework), school (e.g., parent-teacher meetings), and local
environment (e.g., enrichment visits to a local library). Educators and parents tend to weigh
aspects of parental involvement in different ways. Educators value school-based activities, such
as volunteering and parent-teacher conference attendance, whereas parents value their role in the
home, such as helping with homework assignments and setting academic expectations (Myers,
2015).
Mixed findings may also be attributed to integrating groups of people – such as high- and
low-SES families, families with children in primary and secondary schools, or English- and
Spanish-speaking families – in study samples that may have distinct parental involvement
practices. For example, in one qualitative study, Spanish-speaking Hispanic immigrants defined
parental involvement as helping their children to be well-behaved and respectful, rather than
helping with academic material, such as reading proficiency or math acquisition (Johnson et al.,
2016). Current trends demonstrate that Spanish-speaking families, compared to English-speaking
families, have lower rates of attending school meetings, parent-teacher conferences, and school
or class events, in addition to lower rates of volunteering or serving on a school committee
(McQuiggan & Megra, 2017). It is believed that Spanish-speaking parents may feel
uncomfortable interacting with school personnel due to inability, or limited ability, to
7
communicate with school staff (Tarasawa & Waggoner, 2015). More research is needed to better
understand the unique needs of Spanish-speaking families.
Measuring Parental Involvement
Consensus around a best-practice instrument to measure education-related parental
involvement is lacking. Some instruments are intended for school staff, whereas other
instruments are aimed at parents or adolescent students. For example, the Parental Self-Efficacy
Scale (PSES) is designed to better understand parental involvement facilitators, as well as
perceived parental influence on children’s school activities (Bachicha, 1998). The Parent-
Teacher Involvement Questionnaire has both a parent and teacher version. This questionnaire
evaluates the amount and quality of parents’ involvement with their children’s education at home
and school (Miller-Johnson et al., 1995). An instrument that has been adopted across some
school districts is the Family Engagement Survey, which allows schools to better understand the
parents’ perceptions of their education-related involvement, school engagement, and comfort
with school staff (Groff, 2015). Other studies have used administrative data, such as tallying
attendance at parent-teacher conferences, volunteer hours, or Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)
involvement. The wide choices on how to measure parental involvement may in part be due to
the diverse definitions of parental involvement, as well as divergent needs for different
populations, e.g., young children versus adolescents or immigrant vs native born families.
Early Childhood
Little attention has been given to parental involvement during the preschool and
kindergarten years, which is a critical time when many children experience school for the first
time and begin to form their academic identity (Ryan et al., 1994; Taylor et al., 2004). Although
some studies examining the role of parental involvement in children's academic achievement
8
have focused on younger children (kindergarten through fifth grade) (Castro et al., 2015; Jeynes,
2017), most studies have focused on secondary school students (i.e., 6
th
grade and older)
(Duppong et al., 2017; Hill & Tyson, 2009; Jeynes, 2007). Given that preschool and kindergarten
are nested within the first five years in a child’s life, when the most rapid and fundamental brain
development occurs (Applegate & Shapiro, 2005; Cacioppo et al., 2007; Perry et al., 1995;
Phillips & Shonkoff, 2000), it is crucial to better understand the role of parental involvement
during the early school years and address this gap in the literature on parental involvement and
young children’s academic achievement. Finally, in his seminal work on reasons why society
should invest in young children, Heckman argued that higher investments in one period (e.g.,
preschool) can lead to greater productivity in consecutive periods (e.g., kindergarten, primary
school, and secondary school) (Heckman & Masterov, 2007). In fact, previous meta-analyses of
six longitudinal studies demonstrated that early academic ability – in other words, kindergarten
entry skills – was the best predictor of later academic achievement (Duncan et al., 2007). For
these reasons, the current study focuses on parental involvement during the early school years,
from preschool through third grade. A better understanding of how low-SES parents involve
themselves in their children’s educational development during the early school years could offer
targeted points of intervention to set young children on positive academic achievement
trajectories that can result in larger societal benefits.
Conceptual Framework
The current study used a risk and resilience framework to understand how parental
involvement may contribute to young students’ educational development (i.e., academic
achievement). Consistent with a social work perspective, a risk and resilience framework focuses
on characteristics and behaviors of an individual or family that contribute to both risks and the
9
ability to withstand or rebound from adversity (Walsh, 1996). Research often highlights the risks
associated with low-SES families, such as low levels of income, formal education, or
employment rates. However, the risk and resilience framework provides a more balanced and
realistic understanding of how parents manage their education-related involvement by exploring
not only their risks and barriers, but also their resiliency despite socioeconomic limitations.
Drawing from this perspective, the current study assumed that low socioeconomic parents
have both risk and protective factors that influence their capacity to invest time and energy in
their children’s education-related activities. Qualitative questions and probes, in both the focus
groups and individual interviews, were guided by this framework. For example, parents were
specifically asked about how they manage parental involvement, despite socioeconomic
limitations. Parents were also encouraged to share the creative ways that they engaged in their
children’s education-related activities. In addition to sharing aspects related to the dedicated time
in the home, school, or local environment to nurture school functioning, parents were encouraged
to share potential emotional messages; unique attention to and reframing of challenging school
experiences; parental role modeling and scaffolding; educational socialization and expectations;
and other behaviors and interactions related to school functioning.
Significance
A social work perspective emphasizes examining problems holistically and with a
strengths-based lens. Much of the existing research related to parental involvement in early
childhood education has focused on quantitative research methods with risk and deficit
frameworks. A mixed methods research design will illuminate protective factors and resilience
processes demonstrated by parents from low-SES families. In addition, the current study
10
contributes to the scientific community and our understanding of educational disparities in that
it:
(a) examined a critical and persistent economic, social, and educational issue in the
United States and is therefore of high interest to citizens and policymakers alike;
(b) was one of the first longitudinal studies to explore the role of parental involvement
with young children who are closing the achievement gap within the context of economic
adversity;
(c) used an explanatory sequential mixed methods research design to gain a more in-
depth understanding of parental involvement from the perspectives and lived experiences of low-
SES parents, as well as Spanish-speaking parents; and
(d) was conducted within a transdisciplinary scientific team, including social work,
economics, developmental psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience scholars.
Specific Aims
The overarching goal of the current study was to explore the relationship between
parental involvement and student achievement trajectories in the context of socioeconomic
adversity. Specifically, the goal was to support longitudinal and early intervention research by
identifying mechanisms associated with long-term academic and school functioning of low-SES
children. In fulfillment of this goal, there were three specific aims:
Aim 1: Holistically explore and define “parental involvement” as it was understood by
low-SES parents who had young children attending school.
Aim 2: Explore parental involvement practices of caregivers with young children who
were closing the low/high-SES academic achievement gap, in the context of
socioeconomic disadvantage.
11
Aim 3: Analyze potential parental involvement qualitative differences between English-
and Spanish-speaking low-SES families.
The overarching aims were to provide a holistic understanding of how low-SES parents,
as well as Spanish-speaking parents, marshalled their resources to support their children’s school
functioning. A focus on parental involvement, particularly through qualitative research methods,
aimed to highlight possible key components that, if strengthened, could improve early childhood
education interventions that target vulnerable, low-SES students, including Spanish-speaking
populations.

12
Chapter 2: Research Methods
Chicago Heights Early Childhood Center (CHECC) Study
The current study enhances the parental engagement prong of an existing longitudinal
and randomized controlled trial (RCT) study: the Chicago Heights Early Childhood Center
(CHECC; PI: Samek; R01DK114238). Researchers from the University of Chicago and Harvard
University implemented CHECC from 2010 to 2014. CHECC was designed to examine
mechanisms in preschool education using enhanced curricula, including Literacy Express and
Tools of the Mind (Fryer et al., 2015). These curricula were considered to be highly promising, as
they were informed by research linking early academic and executive function skills to longer-
term academic functioning.
A total of 2,185 children (three and four year-olds) were randomized to one of five study
conditions in the CHECC study (see Table 1). A curriculum focused on both student executive
function and academic achievement underpinned the “parent academy” program, which taught
parents how to be their children’s first teacher without any direct intervention for the children.
The “combined” program (i.e., both preschool for children and parent academy for parents), as
well as the “preschool” program resulted in modest increases in achievement test scores
(manuscript under review), whereas the “parent academy” program produced modestly increased
self-regulation and executive function test scores (Fryer et al., 2015). The shortened
“kinderprep” program (a two-month combined program over the summer) was initially as
effective as the “combined” program, however the initial effects faded quickly.
13

The current dissertation took advantage of the CHECC longitudinal design, rather than
the RCT design. Specifically, the larger CHECC study found modest treatment effects (as stated
above) and a majority of the participants (i.e., 76% - 83%) in the current dissertation study were
in the control treatment group. The current dissertation used CHECC data, which included
longitudinal academic achievement test scores. Given the emphasis on parental involvement,
only data from the parent, combined, and control groups were used, yielding a subsample of
1,408 students. The current study also took advantage of the unique access to the full CHECC
infrastructure. For example, the CHECC infrastructure allowed for primary qualitative data
collection, which included both focus groups and individual qualitative interviews with CHECC
parents in Chicago, Illinois.
Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Research Design
The current study employed a three-phase explanatory sequential mixed methods
approach, utilizing quantitative methods to prepare for strategic qualitative interviews, i.e., quant
à QUAL à QUAL. The first phase involved the use of longitudinal growth curve models to
identify diverse and unique children’s academic achievement trajectories from preschool through
third grade. The second and third phases included both qualitative focus groups and individual
interviews, which were divided into groups stratified by academic trajectory groups that were
determined in the first phase. The use of both focus groups and individual interviews maximized
14
data collection about families’ lived experiences. Specifically, in the second phase of the study,
focus groups were implemented to allow for consensus building and to engage participants who
might have been hesitant to provide responses in individual interviews (Kruger, 1998; Morgan,
1996). In contrast, individual interviews in the third and final phase were used to confirm some
of the focus group findings through methods of triangulation (Patton, 2002) and address the
individual process of how low-SES parents managed barriers and facilitators related to their
children’s education-related activities.
Quantitative and qualitative methods each have complementary strengths that offset the
weaknesses of the other (Creswell & Clark, 2017). For instance, quantitative data can be used to
evaluate outcomes, whereas qualitative data can be used to evaluate processes and provide depth
of understanding (Palinkas et al., 2011). The quantitative analysis in the current study was useful
for capturing aggregated relationships among variables for the entire CHECC sample (Kline,
2015), and both focus groups and individual interviews were used to understand the mechanisms
behind the quantitative trends. The quantitative and qualitative findings were integrated to allow
for a detailed analysis and depth of understanding.
Study Procedures and Participants
The CHECC study enrolled 2,185 households of young children (ages three and four
years old) and their parents, mostly from racial or ethnic minority groups. Forty-four percent of
the study sample identified as Hispanic and 44.2% identified as African American. Families
were randomized to one of the five study conditions, as shown in Table 1, and child and parent
data were collected multiple times per year. The last wave of data collection was in the Fall of
2019, when the children were between eight and 13 years old. Longitudinal data are particularly
ideal when studying academic achievement trajectories, as they provide a more realistic
15
understanding of how development unfolds over the course of a child’s life (Frankfort-Nachmias
& Nachmias, 2000).
Data collection timepoints included in the current study were:
1. pre-treatment (month 0);
2. mid-treatment (month 4.5);
3. combined post-treatment (month 10) and kindergarten (year 1);
4. first grade (year 2);
5. second grade (year 3); and
6. third grade (year 4)
Recruitment
Focus Groups. From the subsample of 1,408 families, the CHECC research team
provided a list of 395 families who resided in the Chicago Heights School District 170 (SD-170).
The SD-170 was the focus of the current study because it serves historically low-SES families,
characterized by low levels of household income, low levels of parental education, young
maternal age at time of first birth, high levels of unemployment, and high levels of federal aid,
such as foodstamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), supplemental nutrition
program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Medicaid, and unemployment benefits.
The aim was to have two focus groups, one in English and one in Spanish, for each
academic achievement trajectory group identified through the first phase of quantitative analysis.
Participants were invited to one-hour small group discussions at the local elementary school in
Chicago Heights, Illinois, in May and April of 2019. In an effort to foster trust and intimate
group discussions, families were asked to only have one parent per family participate in the focus
groups, which aimed to include three to five participants per group. Parents were informed that
16
the discussions would relate to their experiences raising their children, as well as their
perspectives on what factors influenced their children’s academic-related functioning. Parents
were also informed that the group discussion would be audio-recorded and transcribed at a later
date, and that after the audio recordings were transcribed, they would be destroyed and deleted.
Parents were informed that all identifying information would be removed from the transcripts
and stored in a secure location with password-protected computers. Parents were offered a $20
Wal-Mart gift card for their participation.
Recruitment efforts included four sequential steps. First, bilingual (English and Spanish)
flyers were sent to parents who had an electronic mail (e-mail) address on file (n = 174). A few
of the e-mail addresses were incorrect (n = 18) and most parents did not respond (n = 146).
Second, using a telephone script delivered by a bilingual researcher, parents were invited to
participate in the current study via telephone. Of the 34 live calls with parents, 26 agreed to
participate, yielding a 76% response rate. After using these two initial strategies, eight focus
groups had reached capacity. For the remaining two focus groups, a bilingual flyer was sent to
the parents’ home address (n = 49). In the fourth and final step, a bilingual text message was sent
to the parents (n = 5). After these four sequential phases, all 10 focus groups reached capacity.
See Appendix A for the bilingual flyer sent via e-mail or home address; Appendix B for the
bilingual telephone script; and Appendix C for Figure 1, which illustrates the recruitment efforts
and outcomes.
Individual Interviews. Parents were invited and recruited to participate in the qualitative
individual interviews at the conclusion of the focus groups. In addition to answering brief post-
survey questions, parents were asked if they would like to participate in an individual interview.
If parents indicated that they would be interested in an individual interview, they were asked for
17
a preferred location (in-person, phone call, or virtual), language (English or Spanish), and time
(morning, afternoon, or evening). Parents were informed that the individual interviews would
elaborate on the focus group discussions about their perspectives on what factors contributed to
their children’s academic-related functioning. Similar to the focus groups, parents were informed
that the individual interviews would also be audio-recorded and transcribed at a later date, and
that after the audio recordings were transcribed, they would be destroyed and deleted. Parents
were also informed that all identifying information would be removed from the transcripts and
stored in a secure location with password-protected computers. Parents were offered a $25
Target gift card for their participation.
Of the 41 parents who participated in the focus groups, only one reported that she would
not like to participate in an individual interview. Consistent with previous study samples (Jarrett
& Coba-Rodriguez, 2019), 20 parents were called, invited, and stratified to participate in an
individual interview. All 20 accepted and were scheduled for an in-person or telephone
interview. Three additional parents contacted the lead researcher expressing interest in the
individual interviews. As a result, they were also interviewed, yielding a total of 23 individual
interviews.
Protection of Human Subjects. The Institutional Review Boards at the University of
Chicago and University of Southern California had previously approved the CHECC study. To
include the added data collection for this dissertation study, an amendment application was
submitted and approved by the University of Southern California. The amendment included the
study methods, recruitment materials, and qualitative semi-structured survey instruments for both
the focus groups and individual interviews.

18
Measurements
Academic Achievement
Academic achievement was assessed with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT)
and its Spanish language equivalent, Test de Vocabulario en Imagenes Peabody (TVIP), as well
as the Woodcock Johnson III (WJ-III). The PPVT is a leading measure of receptive vocabulary
and a screening test of verbal ability; it is a norm-referenced standardized assessment that can be
used with individuals aged 2 to 90 years old (Dunn et al., 1965). The WJ-III is also a norm-
referenced standardized assessment that is well-validated and can be used with individuals aged
2 to 80 years old (Woodcock et al., 2001). The WJ-III is a set of tests for measuring general
intellectual ability, specific cognitive abilities, oral language, and academic achievement. The
WJ-III included four tests for the current study:
1. Letter-Word Identification: measures children’s ability to identify letters and words;
2. Spelling: measures ability to write orally presented words correctly;
3. Applied Problems: measures ability to analyze and solve math problems; and
4. Quantitative Concepts: measures knowledge of mathematical concepts, symbols, and
vocabulary.
Previous researchers have administered the WJ-III (Aikens & Barbarin, 2008; Dupere et
al., 2010; Stevens, 2016) and PPVT (Lee & Jackson, 2017; Lohndorf et al., 2018) with families
from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. In this study, both the PPVT and WJ-III were
administered seven times between baseline (preschool age) and third grade with low-SES
children. The raw scores were converted into percentile scores based on a standard sample. An
average of the four WJ-III subtests and the PPVT test was computed, producing a single score at
19
each wave. These repeated scores were used for quantitative longitudinal growth curve models
that identified student academic achievement trajectories.
Qualitative Focus Group Semi-Structured Instrument Guide
Ten focus groups, each with three to six parents of students with diverse academic
achievement trajectories, were conducted to explore and define parental involvement in the
context of socioeconomic adversity. Beyond seeking to understand how parents involved
themselves, interviews sought to understand how parents coped with adversity and strain; how
children received explicit and implicit messages about academics; and how parents identified and
used resources to offset limitations in their socioeconomic status. Guided by the literature, a
series of unique semi-structured questions was designed to elicit information about participants’
perceptions and experiences of parental involvement, as well as other germane factors related to
their children’s academic-related functioning. Questions were sufficiently open-ended to enable
participants to elaborate on issues they considered important or relevant, such as the role of the
school, teachers, and parents. All focus groups were moderated by a bilingual, mixed methods-
trained social work doctoral student with over 15 years of clinical practice experience with low-
SES families (author of the current report). The moderator encouraged authentic responses and
elicited the parents’ opinions of their children’s academic-related functioning. The following
four primary questions were used:
1. What do you think are the most important things that help your children do well in
school?
2. Can you tell me what schools do to improve your children’s educational development?
3. Can you tell me about things that teachers have done to help your children succeed in
school?
20
4. What do you do to help your children succeed in school?
Each question was followed by probes relevant to the participants’ answers and
discussion. For example, the researcher probed for academic achievement barriers and
facilitators, as well as encouraged parents to think holistically about their parental involvement
experiences. See Appendix D for a copy of the focus group semi-structured instrument guide.
Focus Group Pre- and Post-Surveys
Immediately before and after the focus groups, parents were provided with a brief survey.
The pre-survey included demographic questions, such as age, race/ethnicity, educational
attainment, marital status, household income, household composition, and residential stability. In
addition, parents were asked to rate how satisfied they were with their children’s academic
achievement using a 5-point Likert scale, from 1 (not satisfied at all) to 5 (very satisfied). An
additional question asked parents to rank-order factors – school, neighborhood, teachers,
children, parents, or other – in their perceived importance related to their children’s academic
achievement.
The post-survey included three primary questions. First, parents were asked to once again
rank-order the factors of school, neighborhood, teachers, children, parents, or other, in their
perceived importance related to their children’s academic achievement. Although the goal of the
focus groups was not to change parents’ opinions, this question was duplicated to observe any
changes in opinions after parents engaged in a group discussion. For results, see Appendix E.
The second question was a short, open-ended question that asked parents to define parental
involvement in their own words, providing more data to address study Aim 1 (i.e., to holistically
explore and define parental involvement). The third and final question was to recruit parents for
21
the follow-up qualitative individual interviews. Both pre- and post-surveys were provided in the
parents’ preferred language. See Appendix F for a copy of the bilingual pre- and post-survey.
Qualitative Individual Interview Semi-Structured Instrument Guide
The risk and resilience framework, previous empirical studies, and CHECC focus group
findings informed the 10 semi-structured and open-ended qualitative individual interview
questions that were specifically developed for the current dissertation. An initial set of questions
was presented to and tested for clarity with a community advisory board, whose verbal feedback
was used to revise the interview guide. Primary questions included parents’ perceptions of their
children’s academic performance; perceived contributions to children’s education performance;
the role of parental involvement; barriers and facilitators to parental involvement; potential
adjustments in response to limited socio-economic resources; cultural factors; the role of
siblings; and the use of screen time. The questions about siblings and screen time illustrate how
the focus group findings informed the formulation of the individual interview questions. During
the focus group discussions, parents reported a prominent role of siblings and technology usage,
such as smart phones, television, iPads, and other technological devices as they considered their
children’s school functioning. Therefore, the 23 in-depth individual interviews included open-
ended questions that further probed how siblings, as well as children’s use of screen time
contributed to their children’s academic performance. See Appendix G for a copy of the
individual interview semi-structured instrument guide.
Similar to the focus group semi-structured questions, the individual interview questions
were sufficiently open-ended to enable participants to elaborate on issues they considered
important or relevant. All individual interviews were moderated by the same researcher who
moderated the focus groups.
22
Analysis
Quantitative
Longitudinal growth curve models were employed to identify clusters of student
academic achievement trajectories based on standardized achievement measures (i.e., PPVT and
WJ-III), from preschool to third grade. The inclusion criteria for trajectory analyses included a
minimum of three time points over the course of four years, with at least one time point from
pre- to post-treatment, and at least one time point from kindergarten to third grade. The cluster
analysis identified unique and diverse groups of students that were then used to guide research
activities for the sequential qualitative interviews. Analysis was conducted using the “Traj”
package in Stata (StataCorp, 2019). In the final step, sensitivity analysis in the form of latent
class analysis (LCA) was conducted using the “gsem” command in Stata (StataCorp, 2019).
Qualitative
Both focus groups and individual interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. The
Spanish transcripts were not translated, allowing Spanish-speaking researchers to analyze the
data in its verbatim form. The audio quality of one individual interview was poor and therefore
not transcribed. A total of 10 focus group and 22 individual interview transcripts were included
in the analysis.
Both focus group and individual interview transcripts were coded and analyzed using a
“Coding Consensus, Co-occurrence, and Comparison” (Willms et al., 1990) thematic content
analysis approach similar to that employed in grounded theory (Glaser et al., 1968). Following
this approach, empirical material contained in the qualitative data was coded at a very broad
level to condense the data into analyzable units. Two researchers trained in qualitative methods
independently reviewed four transcripts (two from the focus groups and two from the individual
23
interviews) to develop a preliminary list of codes. Segments of transcripts ranging from a phrase
to several paragraphs were assigned codes based on a priori (i.e., questions in the focus group or
individual interview semi-structured guide) or emergent themes. In some instances, the same text
segment was assigned more than one code. After independent review of the four transcripts,
research team members compared codes and developed two preliminary codebooks, one for the
focus groups and one for the individual interviews. Disagreements in assignment or definition of
codes were resolved via discussion or, when necessary, with other members of the research team.
The codebooks were refined continuously throughout the analytical phase until consensus was
reached among all research team members. To ease analytic coding, an accompanying coding
tree was created for both the focus group and individual interview analysis (See Appendix H).
The resulting codebooks were used to code all 10 focus group transcripts among four researchers
(three of whom were bilingual), and 22 individual interview transcripts among three researchers
(two of whom were bilingual). All 10 focus group transcripts were double coded by two
independent researchers, and six of the 22 individual interview transcripts were also double
coded by two independent researchers. The same researchers analyzed both the focus groups and
individual interviews, which allowed for an immersed experience with the qualitative CHECC
data.
The final list of codes, constructed through consensus, provided a standardized approach
to analyze participants’ opinions related to parental involvement in their children’s education-
related activities in the context of socioeconomic adversity. All coding was completed in
Dedoose (Dedoose, 2018), a computerized qualitative data analysis software program used to
generate a series of categories arranged in a treelike structure connecting transcript segments
grouped into separate categories or nodes. These nodes and trees were used to examine the
24
association between different a priori and emergent categories and identified the existence of
new, previously unrecognized categories.
Through the process of compare and contrast (Willms et al., 1990), excerpts were
condensed into broad themes based on participants’ perceptions of parental involvement and
children’s diverse academic achievement trajectories. In the final step, the qualitative findings
were integrated with the quantitative findings by convergence (i.e., using both quantitative and
qualitative methods to answer the same question), complementarity (i.e., using quantitative data
to provide breadth of understanding and qualitative data to provide depth of understanding), and
expansion (i.e., using one type of data to address questions raised by the other type of data)
(Creswell & Clark, 2017).
25
Chapter 3: Results
Quantitative Findings
Full Sample Descriptives
The full sample for the current study included 1,408 households. Table 2 provides both
children and their parents’ characteristics at baseline. In summary, a little over 50% of the
children were female and 45% and 44% identified as Black and Hispanic, respectively. Given
that low birthweight is associated with a myriad of adverse outcomes (Stålnacke, 2019),
including poor intellectual development, children’s birthweight was also considered at baseline.
Seven percent of children had macrosomia birthweight, 11.3% low birthweight, and 81.7% had
average birthweight. In the original CHECC study, families were asked if children lived with
their mother (“yes” or “no”) and if they lived with their father (“yes” or “no”). A little over 97%
reported they lived with their mother and 79.9% reported they lived with their father. However,
these results are not mutually exclusive.
Parental characteristics demonstrate factors that when considered together, represent an
index of low-socioeconomic status. Two-thirds of families in the current study reported an
annual household income of less than $36,000; 16.4% of mothers and 22.2% of fathers did not
have a high school diploma; and 44.4% of mothers and 16.7% of fathers were unemployed at
baseline. Low maternal age at time of first child’s birth was considered a risk (Putnam-Hornstein
et al., 2013) for healthy parent-child relationships and was therefore also considered at baseline.
Approximately one-third of the study sample had a first birth with a maternal age under 20 years
old. Last, several households received federal aid. For example, 63% received Medicaid, 48.8%
received foodstamps, and 41.8% received WIC. See Table 2 for family characteristics at baseline
for the full dissertation study sample.
26

n col% n col% n col% n col%
Children's Demographics
Gender 0.45
Female 717 50.9% 483 51.0% 132 49.4% 102 52.6%
Male 691 49.1% 464 49.0% 135 50.6% 92 47.4%
Ethnicity 9.63
Black 633 45.0% 420 44.6% 111 42.5% 102 52.0%
White 145 10.3% 94 10.0% 31 11.9% 20 10.2%
Hispanic 620 44.0% 418 44.4% 119 45.6% 73 37.2%
Other 10 0.7% 9 1.0% 0 0.0% 1 0.5%
Birthweight 6.31
2,500 grams or less 119 11.3% 89 13% 21 9.8% 9 6.2%
2,500 to 4,000 861 81.7% 555 80% 179 83.3% 127 87.6%
4,000 grams or more (macrosomia) 74 7.0% 50 7% 15 7.0% 9 6.2%
Lives With (not mutually exclusive)
Mother 1,160 97.2% 771 97.2% 229 96.6% 160 97.6% 0.35
Father 705 79.9% 478 81.3% 144 77.8% 83 76.1% 0.34
Parental Demographics
Household Income 1.18
$0 to $36,000 741 66.0% 494 65.8% 137 64.6% 110 69.2%
$36,000 to $60,000 197 17.6% 131 17.4% 39 18.4% 27 17.0%
$60,000 or more 184 16.4% 126 16.8% 36 17.0% 22 13.8%
Maternal Age with First birth 4.42
Under 20 372 33.1% 250 33.6% 67 30.7% 55 34.4%
20 to 25 431 38.4% 272 36.5% 95 43.6% 64 40.0%
26+ 320 28.5% 223 29.9% 56 25.7% 41 25.6%
Mother's Education 11.33
No High School Diploma 191 16.4% 119 15.4% 51 21.7% 21 13.1%
High School Degree or GED 251 21.5% 166 21.5% 49 20.9% 36 22.5%
Vocational, Some College, or Associates degree 448 38.4% 305 39.5% 76 32.3% 67 41.9%
Bachelor's degree 148 12.7% 92 11.9% 33 14.0% 23 14.4%
Masters, graduate or professional degree 130 11.1% 91 11.8% 26 11.1% 13 8.1%
Father's Education 14.42
No High School Diploma 196 22.2% 119 20.5% 53 28.0% 24 21.1%
High School Degree or GED 220 24.9% 145 25.0% 42 22.2% 33 28.9%
Vocational, Some College, or Associates degree 327 37.0% 223 38.4% 58 30.7% 46 40.4%
Bachelor's degree 86 9.7% 54 9.3% 26 13.8% 6 5.3%
Masters, graduate or professional degree 54 6.1% 39 6.7% 10 5.3% 5 4.4%
Mother's Employment Status 10.92*
Unemployment 514 44.4% 356 46.7% 103 44.6% 55 33.7%
Full-time Employment 446 38.5% 276 36.2% 90 39.0% 80 49.1%
Part-time Employment 197 17.0% 131 17.2% 38 16.5% 28 17.2%
Father's Employment Status 7.90
Unemployment 140 16.7% 89 15.8% 39 17.1% 12 11.7%
Full-time Employment 601 71.6% 412 73.0% 114 50.0% 75 72.8%
Part-time Employment 98 11.7% 63 11.2% 75 32.9% 16 15.5%
Someone in the Household Receives:
Foodstamps 567 48.8% 376 48.2% 106 48.8% 85 51.5% 0.60
TANF 66 6.5% 43 6.3% 12 6.4% 11 7.4% 0.27
WIC 488 41.8% 317 42.5% 92 42.2% 59 37.6% 1.31
Medicaid 721 63.0% 474 62.1% 139 64.4% 108 65.5% 0.85
Unemployment 153 15.1% 93 13.6% 42 23.0% 18 12.3% 10.79*
Notes. *<0.05
χ
2
(N=1,408)
Table 2. Family Characteristics at Baseline
All CHECC Control Group Parent Group Combined
(n=947) (n=267) (n=194)
27
Five Academic Achievement Trajectories
Longitudinal growth curve models identified five latent classes of student achievement
trajectories (See Figure 2), based on the Woodcock-Johnson III and Peabody Picture Vocabulary
test scores from baseline (prekindergarten) to third grade. The x-axis represents six timepoints
across a four-year span, and the y-axis represents average percentile tests of achievement scores.
Trajectories were labeled in accordance with previous literature (Diamond et al., 2016). For
instance, students who began with below average tests of achievement scores at baseline and
maintained below average test scores through third grade were labeled “continuous risk” (n =
233). Some students (n = 391) demonstrated moderate improvements while others regressed (n =
94). A fourth category of students began with above average tests of achievement scores at
baseline and maintained above average test scores through third grade, they were labeled
“proficient” (n = 425). The final group of students were “closing the gap” (n = 265). These
students began with below average tests of achievement scores at baseline, but overtime
narrowed the achievement gap with increased test scores. Altogether, 49% of the study sample
were either closing the gap or proficient.
Sensitivity analysis, in the form of latent class analysis (LCA), was conducted using the
“gsem” command in Stata (StataCorp, 2019). Based on the goodness of fit indices – Akaike’s
Information Criteria (AIC) and Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC) – five unique classes of
students were also identified. See Appendix I for the LCA Stata output. Due to the longitudinal
nature of repeated measures in the CHECC study, the results from the longitudinal growth curve
models were used in the current dissertation study.
28

Focus Groups and Individual Interviews Sample Descriptives
Two focus groups (one in English and one in Spanish) for each of the five unique and
diverse academic achievement trajectories were completed, resulting in a total of 10 focus groups
with 41 participants. Each group had between three and six participants. Although parents were
asked to only have one parent per family participate in the focus groups (to foster trust and
intimacy), four parents in the “proficient” group brought their partners. All 10 focus groups were
held at the Washington McKinley Elementary School in Chicago Heights, Illinois in May and
April of 2019. Focus groups lasted an average of 64 minutes.
Focus group participants were, on average, 42.3 years old with a $34,093 annual
household income, comparable to the full study sample with a $36,000 annual household
income. On average, household composition included three adults and two children. More than
half (56.1%) identified Spanish as their primary language, 65.9% were married, and one-third
29
did not have a high school diploma. Unlike the full sample, most (65.9%) participants identified
as Hispanic, all of Mexican descent, compared to only 44% in the full study sample. Overall, the
focus group participants were fairly stable in their residences, with, on average, one move in the
past 10 years. See Table 3 for full descriptive statistics of the focus group participants.

At the conclusion of the focus groups, parents were asked if they would like to participate
in an individual interview at a later date. Of the 40 parents who expressed interest, seven were
later interviewed at the Washington McKinley Elementary School in Chicago Heights, Illinois
and 16 were interviewed over the telephone. All 23 individual interviews were held in May and
June of 2019. Individual interviews lasted an average of 44 minutes.
Individual interview participants were, on average, 39 years old with a $40,921 annual
household income. Similar to focus group participants, household composition also averaged
three adults and two children. More than half (56.5%) identified Spanish as their primary
language, 82.6% were married, and 17.4% did not have a high school diploma. Slightly more
participants identified as Hispanic (73.9%; all of Mexican descent), as compared to 65.9% in the
ALL Focus Groups
% or M (S.D.)
Language
English 43.9% 33% 40% 50% 50% 43%
Spanish 56.1% 67% 60% 50% 50% 57%
Ethnicity
Hispanic 65.9% 67% 60% 63% 70% 71%
Black 24.4% 33% 20% 25% 30% 14%
White 9.8% 0% 20% 13% 0% 14%
Marital Status
Married 65.9% 83% 70% 63% 50% 71%
Divorced or Separated 7.3% 17% 0% 0% 20% 0%
Single 14.6% 0% 10% 38% 10% 14%
Other 12.2% 0% 20% 0% 20% 14%
Parental Education
No high school diploma 32.5% 0% 40% 43% 30% 43%
High school diploma or GED 25.0% 50% 10% 0% 30% 43%
Some college, associates, or vocational 32.5% 33% 30% 57% 40% 0%
College degree 10.0% 17% 20% 0% 0% 14%
Number of individuals in the household
Children under 18 years 3.0 (1.5) 3.8 (1.3) 2.5 (1.4) 2.8 (1.7) 3.6 (1.4) 2.9 (1.4)
Adults 18 years or older 2.0 (0.7) 1.8 (0.4) 1.9 (0.3) 2.4 (1.2) 2.1 (0.7) 2.3 (0.8)
Residential Stability
Number of moves in the past 10 years 1.0 (1.3) 1.0 (1.6) 0.6 (1.1) 1.6 (1.2) 1.2 (1.6) 0.7 (1.0)
Number of moves in the past 5 years 0.4 (0.6) 0.3 (0.8) 0.3 (0.5) 0.6 (0.7) 0.4 (0.7) 0.1 (0.4)
Particpant Age 42.3 (8.4) 39.3 (4.0) 46.5 (10.9) 40.9 (10.1) 42.2 (6.9) 40.4 (6.8)
Annual Household Income $34,093 ($29,340) $34,017 ($20,889) $41,145 ($41,254) $28,314 ($16,949) $22,142 ($19,915) $45,228 ($35,193)
Note. Other marital status includes domestic partnerships or widows.
Continuous Risk
n = 10
Regressing
n = 10
Table 3. Descriptive Statistics of Focus Group Participants (N = 10 focus groups)
Moderate
Improvement n = 8
Closing The Gap
n = 6
Proficient
n = 7
30
focus group study sample. During the individual interviews, parents were asked how satisfied
they were with their children’s academic achievement. On a 5-point Likert scale, 1=not at all to
5=very much, parents reported an average score of 4 with a 0.9 standard deviation. See Table 4
for full descriptive statistics of the individual interview participants.

Qualitative Focus Group Themes
Across All Five Academic Achievement Trajectories
The first aim in the current dissertation study was to holistically explore and define
“parental involvement” as it is understood by low-SES parents of young school-age children.
Across the 10 focus groups, 41 parents shared their lived experiences and endorsed several
themes that define key components of parental involvement. The themes presented below were
endorsed by at least eight out of 10 (or 80%) focus groups, with representation from all five
academic achievement trajectory groups. Theme percentages are presented following the theme
names; for example “Communication [100%]” demonstrates that all 10 focus groups endorsed
the theme “Communication.” At the end of all excerpts, the academic achievement trajectory
ALL Participants
% or M (S.D.)
Language
English 43.5% 20% 50% 50% 60% 40%
Spanish 56.5% 80% 50% 50% 40% 60%
Ethnicity
Hispanic 73.9% 80% 50% 75% 80% 80%
Black 17.4% 20% 25% 25% 20% 0%
White 8.7% 0% 25% 0% 0% 20%
Marital Status
Married 82.6% 100% 100% 75% 60% 80%
Divorced or Separated 8.7% 0% 0% 0% 40% 0%
Single 4.4% 0% 0% 25% 0% 0%
Other 4.3% 0% 0% 0% 0% 20%
Parental Education
No high school diploma 17.4% 0% 0% 25% 20% 40%
High school diploma or GED 34.8% 60% 25% 0% 40% 40%
Some college, associates, or vocational 39.1% 40% 50% 75% 40% 0%
College degree 8.7% 0% 25% 0% 0% 20%
Number of individuals in the household
Children under 18 years 3.2 (1.5) 4.2 (1.1) 2.3 (0.5) 2.3 (1.0) 4 (1.7) 2.8 (1.6)
Adults 18 years or older 2.1 (0.7) 2 (0) 2 (0) 2.3 (1.3) 1.8 (0.8) 2.4 (0.9)
Residential Stability
Number of moves in the past 10 years 1 (1.3) 1 (1.7) 0.5 (1) 2.5 (0.6) 0.8 (1.3) 0.4 (0.9)
Number of moves in the past 5 years 0.3 (0.7) 0.4 (0.9) 0.25 (0.5) 0.8 (1.0) 0.2 (0.5) 0.2 (0.5)
Number of schools child has attended 1.5 (1.0) 1.8 (0.8) 0.75 (0.5) 1.8 (1.5) 1 (0.7) 2.2 (0.8)
Particpant Age 39 (6.8) 37.8 (1.6) 39.8 (5.5) 37.8 (14.0) 37.8 (4.5) 42 (6.5)
Annual Household Income $40,921 ($34,672) $38,020 ($20,621) $57,200 ($62,181) $31,900 ($19,710) $25,256 ($24,500) $53,680 ($39,088)
Note. Other marital status includes domestic partnerships or widows.
Table 4. Descriptive Statistics of Individual Interview Participants (N=23)
Closing The Gap
(n=5)
Proficient
(n=4)
Moderate
Improvement (n=4)
Continuous Risk
(n=5)
Regressing
(n=5)
31
group is identified. Also, Spanish excerpts are presented in both verbatim Spanish and translated
English. Bilingual readers may have slightly different translations of the verbatim Spanish
excerpts; therefore, both are presented. For additional quotes of the themes presented below, see
Appendix J.
The themes described below should be considered within two important contextual
factors. First, geographical location can influence parental involvement practices. For example,
parents were forthcoming that although they would like to engage in outdoor enrichment
activities, the cold Chicago winters (that occasionally dip down below zero Fahrenheit) were a
deterrent for months at a time.
Si hay tantos juegos, tantas actividades que hay. ¿Bueno en tiempo de invierno también
es imposible salir aéreas de afuera, verdad? Obvio. TRANSLATION: There are so many
games, so many activities. Well in winter time it is also impossible to go outside, right?
Obviously. [Regressing]
Second, when parents were asked directly about potential barriers to parental
involvement, they rarely identified their limited financial resources as an impediment. Instead,
parents acknowledged financial limitations as a nuisance and usually with alternative solutions.
For example, one parent in the Continuous Risk group stated, “No le podíamos comprar una
computadora, lo traíamos a la librería para que hiciera su tarea.” Translation: “We couldn’t buy
him a computer, we brought him to the library to do his homework.” Another parent in the same
group stated, “Tenemos poquito dinero, pero por eso le vamos a echar muchas ganas para
agarrar muchas becas.” Translation: “We have only a little money, but that is why we are going
to put in a whole lot of effort to get lots of scholarships.” The parent below described how
32
financial limitations can curb the possibility of higher education, forcing the family to explore
alternative career paths for their child.
Mi hijo nos terminó de decir, ‘Papá y mamá, necesito hablar con ustedes.’ Le digo, ‘Sí,
dinos.’ ‘Estoy pensando que me voy a ir a la Marine.’ Le dije, ‘¿Y porque a Marine?’
Dice, ‘Porque es lo que yo quiero.’ Le dije, ‘Pero porque no trabajas como tu hermano y
tú mismo te pagas.’ Y me dijo estas palabras: ‘Me voy a ir a Marine porque ustedes no
tienen dinero para pagarme mi estudio.’ TRANSLATION: My son just finished telling us,
‘Dad and mom, I need to talk to you.’ I say, ‘Yes, tell us.’ ‘I’m thinking of going to the
Marines.’ I asked him, ‘Why the Marines?’ He said, ‘Because it is what I want.’ I said,
‘But why don’t you work like your brother and pay for yourself.’ And he said these
words: ‘I’m going to the Marines because you don’t have money to pay for my college.’
[Continuous Risk]
When considering the themes below, financial resources are an important contextual, and
relative, factor. The family’s financial status was all they knew, and in the current study, families
did not describe themselves as financially limited or disadvantaged. Geography is also an
important contextual factor. The study sample is nested in Chicago, Illinois and families in
different states, or countries, may have different experiences.
Sibling Role [80%]. The low-SES parents in the current study began by expanding the
traditional definition of “parental involvement” by including the role of siblings in school-related
activities. Instead of just focusing on how parents got involved, many parents across eight focus
groups and all trajectory groups reported that siblings play a prominent role. This is particularly
true for older siblings; however, on occasion, younger siblings were described as providing an
33
opportunity for the index child to “teach” and, consequently, to practice and master school
material.
Participant 1: “If I can't get involved, I got, like I said, we got a lot of older kids, siblings
in the house. The wife, she can do it. If not her, the older sister can do it. The older
brother can help them.”
Moderator: “Now when you say the older siblings can do it, could do what?”
Participant 1: “To help out. Like with sports, homework, any questions like that. I mean,
help participate in their education. There is always somebody that can do it. If I'm not
able to, somebody else will.” [Moderate Improvement]

A mí me ayuda mucho mi hija porque ella pues siempre ha sido la mayor y cómo le digo
ha sido inteligente y me ha ayudado. Ha tenido la paciencia de enseñarle a los demás.
TRANSLATION: My daughter helps me a lot because she has always been the oldest and
like I’ve told you, she has been intelligent and she helps me. She has had the patience to
teach others. [Moderate Improvement]
Parents reported that, at times, they specifically asked siblings to help with school-related
activities. For monolingual Spanish-speaking parents, sometimes siblings were also asked to help
with translation as it relates to children’s school-related activities.
I did something with my daughter one day when she was still in school, I did something
with her math and you know, I showed her the answer and everything and I'm like, ‘This
is how-’, ‘That's not how they taught us!’ I don't know how to do it any other way. So, I
call my older daughter and I said, ‘Can you come over here today, can you come and
help her with this math 'cause she's telling me I'm doing it wrong.’ She came over and
34
she was like, ‘Let me see, how are you doing it?’ And my oldest daughter, I mean she's a
wiz at math and she's like, ‘No, I know mom, it's 'cause they taught her like this.’
[Continuous Risk]

Bueno yo también ahorita, mi niño, también estaba muy bajo porque pues yo también no,
no sé el idioma, ¿verdad? Pero ahorita este año mi hijo el mayor está bien enfocado en
él. Haga de cuenta que mi niño estaba en el suelo. Pero, así como estába, subió. Hasta
dice que comió con él Principal. Subió así. Pero bendito Dios por la ayuda de mi hijo y
ya llegan mis niños y lo primerito que llegan a hacer es la tarea en la mesa. Es lo
primerito que llegan. Pero ahí está mi hijo al lado. TRANSLATION: Well, right now, my
son was also doing (academically) bad because, well, I don’t know the (English)
language, right? But right now, this year, my oldest son is very focused on [CHECC
child]. You can imagine that my son, [CHECC child], was on the floor. But he rose. He
even says he had lunch with the Principal. He improved. Thank God for the help of my
older son. When my children arrive, the first thing they do is their homework at the table.
It is the first thing they do. And my older son is right next to them. [Continuous Risk]
As described in the excerpt below, parents were sometimes a mediator between a sibling
and the CHECC child. For example, parents elicited help from a sibling to learn the school
material, and in return, parents taught the school material to the index child.
Como vi la escuela del mayor, ya con el menor pues ya es más fácil explicarle yo. Pues
una vez que me explique el mayor, ya tengo yo la forma de qué, Okay yo lo hago así. Es
que nomás se hace así y así y así. Pues ya uno se quiebra la cabeza. Pues lo voy a
hacerlo así, así, y así. Y uno, aunque se quiebre la cabeza, trata de hacerlo. Para sacar a
35
los niños adelante. TRANSLATION: Since I saw the school material with my oldest, it is
easier for me to explain things to my youngest. Well, with one time that my oldest
explains it to me, I have a frame of reference. Okay, I can do it like this. It is because you
just do it like this and like this. I break my head, well, I am going to do it like this.
Regardless if I break my head, I still try to do it. To push my children forward.
[Proficient]
Parent-Teacher Communication [100%]. Another vital component of “parental
involvement” that respondents believed influenced student academic performance was having
communication with the children’s teachers. Communication with teachers was primarily
through the parent-teacher conferences, usually held twice during the academic year. One father
in the Closing the Gap group reported: “La conferencia es buena. Me explica todo lo que hace mi
hijo. El progreso que ha tenido y lo que le falta, lo que le falta por aprender.” Translation: “The
(parent-teacher) conference is good. During the conference, everything that my son does is
explained to me. The progress he has made and what he lacks, what he still needs to learn.”
Parents also described a technological application – ClassDojo – that they sometimes
used to communicate with their children’s teachers. ClassDojo is a communication application
for teachers, parents, and students. Teachers can virtually bring parents into the classroom
experience by sharing photos, videos, and class announcements. Teachers can also instantly
message with parents, either in a group chat or private electronic conversation.
Participant 1: “They have this ClassDojo thing, which I think it works well for being able
to communicate with the teachers. Those teachers, if I have reached out to them, they will
respond or either send notices to parents, more general stuff.”
36
Moderator: “Do you feel like ClassDojo has changed the way you communicate with
teachers?”
Participant 1: “I think it has because I think previously you would only really talk to the
teachers during the parent-teacher conferences, or of course if you have a problem child,
then you will hear from the teacher. But I think the ClassDojo kind of gives easier access
to the teachers.”
Participant 2: “Yeah, 'cause it used to be like, if you call, if they are busy or whatever,
they have to call you back. Or then they will call you back and you will be at work or
something like that. So, it's like hit or miss with that. So, that's what we do. We do the
ClassDojo and emailing.” [Proficient]

Participant 4: “I just think that what they are doing in the school to make it a little bit
better would be that parent involvement. The teacher said contact me through
ClassDojo”
Participant 3: “Yeah, that's what we do”
Participant 4: “And say he's a little bit wrong, what can we do, something going on, that
does make it seem a little bit more like it's a niche, like, this is a community now, they do
care about what my son's gonna do in the next few years.” [Moderate Improvement]

I can see, like, my son, he might not get homework on Fridays and that's okay. ‘I know
you don't get homework on Fridays so now what about Wednesday and Thursday? You
didn't have homework?’ ‘No.’ ‘Okay, I am calling your cousin,’ because in ClassDojo his
teacher said he has to turn in all the homework that he supposedly didn't have on
37
Monday morning. I said, now any problems him missing any homework assignments or
that, Dojo me and I will get on it. He never had another day ‘without’ homework after
that. [Moderate Improvement]
Outside of the parent-teacher conferences, parent-teacher communication seemed to be
focused around verifying that school work was being completed (as described above) or
resolving a behavioral problem, as described below.
No creas todo lo que te dice tu hija, como ‘No puedo o no se puede.’ Siempre averigua
los programas o las cosas que hagan en la escuela porque a veces no te los dicen.
TRANSLATION: Don’t believe everything your daughter tells you, like ‘I can’t do it or I
won’t be able to do it.’ Always verify the programs or services they offer at school
because sometimes they don’t tell you. [Regressing]

It's important, I feel, for parents to talk to their teachers and know how their academic
progress is going. I'm consistently in contact with my kids' teachers and whenever they
have missed an assignment or have acted up in class. [Closing the Gap]

The teacher has your child for six hours out of the day. So, you're trusting that person
pretty much as, you know, stepping in to be you to take care of your child, and to make
sure that they learn. And if there's something wrong, or they're not learning, I feel like
they should contact you and let you know that or send you a note and contact you some
way or another email, whatever, and let you know that this or that is going on.
[Regressing]
38
Parents reported that if their children did not have any problems at school, they would not
communicate with their children’s teachers beyond the parent-teacher conference. However,
parents also described the need for more personal interactions with teachers when problems did
arise, such as requested in-person meeting(s).
I only communicate with (the teacher) if I see there’s a problem. Other than that, if
everything seems to be running smoothly then I don't feel like a necessary need to stay in
contact with the teachers. But when I felt like it's a disagreement then I like to show a
face-to-face or write a note on a homework assignment and ask if we can sit down and
meet and talk. [Closing the Gap]

Participante 2: “Si pasa algo pues va uno a la escuela y habla uno en privado con la
maestra.”
Moderadora: “Entonces si hay un problema, un mal grado u otra cosa entonces allí…”
Participante 3: “Venimos nosotros.” (charla cruzada)
Participante 4: “Personalmente. Yo, sí. Yo personalmente.”
Moderadora: “Y si todo está bien, ustedes vienen”
Participante 4: “Si todo está bien, yo no vengo.” (risas)
Participante 1: “Yo igualmente. Si todo está bien no.”
TRANSLATION:
Participant 2: “If something happens, then I go to the school and talk privately with the
teacher.”
Moderator: “Then if there is a problem, a bad grade or something else, then…”
Participant 3: “Then we come.” (crosstalk)
39
Participant 4: “Personally. I do. I come in personally. If everything is okay, I do not
come.” (laughs)
Participant 1: “Same for me. If everything is good, no, I don’t go.” [Closing the Gap]
Appendix J. Additional Quotes for the Parent-Teacher Communication Theme
Parental Strategies [100%]. Parents endorsed several strategies that they implemented
as part of their parental involvement definition to help their children succeed in school. The three
most common strategies included offering advice or positive messaging, providing consistent
routines, and making sure their children were involved in enrichment activities. Below are a few
examples of how parents delivered positive messaging or advice across academic achievement
trajectory groups.
My kids are pretty open with me for the most part. I talk to them all the time about how
their day was or if there's anything that bothers them, and things like that. I'm the same
with my kids. I talk to them about thinking ahead about college. Like, ‘What do you want
to do right now?’ And I tell her all the time, ‘You're going to change your mind a million
times, but it is good to be thinking what you want to do when you grow up and things like
that because it's important.’ I just tell them all the time how important school is. School is
very important whether you want to go to college or not. It's important and teaches you a
lot of different things like being on time and attendance. Even those in school are
important because when you grow up, whether you go to college or not, you have to have
a job. [Proficient]

Entonces le dije, ‘Mira mami,’ le dije, ‘¿Sabes qué? Tú hiciste lo mejor. No quisiste ir,
pero sacaste buena. Ella te ganó por dos o tres. Pero tú hiciste la mejor. Échale ganas.’
40
TRANSLATION: Then I told her, ‘Look baby,’ I said, ‘You know what? You did your
best. You didn’t want to go, but you did good. She beat you by two or three points. But
you did your best. Continue to put forth a good effort. [Closing the Gap]

For mine, sometimes they're tired in the morning. Like my little one this morning, she was
like, ‘I'm so tired.’ And I was like, ‘I'm tired too.’ You know, I try to be sympathetic with
them, and let them know that as an adult I feel the same way you do, but we both - I told
her, ‘But we both have a job.’ Like, ‘Your job is to go to school, and my job is to go to
work.’ And I tell her, you know, it's preparing you for when you get big, because if you
don't go to school every day, then when you get older, you're not going to want to go to
work every day. So, I try to tell her, you know, I'm not going to be here, and some people
might not agree with that, but, I do tell her, you know, ‘I'm not going to be here forever to
take care of you.’ And someday you're going to get married and you might have kids, or
maybe you won't, but you're still going to have to take care of yourself. So, you have to
get used to going every day, because if you don't go to school every day, and then you
don't go to work every day, you might get fired. And then how are you going to take care
of yourself? Where are you going to live? How are you going to eat, how are you going
to take care of your kids? So, I kind of try to get her to understand that this is preparing
you for the real world, for when you grow up. [Regressing]
Another parental strategy was to establish consistent routines. Across all 10 focus groups,
parents perceived routines as a key parental involvement element that helped their children’s
academic performance.
41
My kids have a routine too. They don't, I mean, it's a little different from yours (talking to
another participant) in the sense that they don't come straight home and do their
homework right away. But they know that by a certain time they have to have their
homework done. They have to have whatever reading they have to be done. They have to
have their stuff ready for the next day and all that stuff. [Closing the Gap]

Instead of them getting in the habit of coming home, jumping on the couch in front of the
TV doing homework in laps, I don't do that. Like, sit down in the same setting as you are
in school so we can focus together. [Moderate Improvement]

Por ejemplo, mis niños si llegan, se cambian. Bueno cuando llegan a las 2:10pm se
ponen a comer y después tienen una hora. Si tienen o no tienen tarea, es una hora de leer
o de repasar lo que hicieron en la escuela. O sea, de lunes a viernes no hay celulares no
hay video juegos en mi casa. Pero cualquier otra cosa, pero no celular y no video
juegos.” TRANSLATION: “For example, when my children arrive, they change
themselves. Well, when they arrive at 2:10pm, they eat and then they have one hour. If
they do or do not have homework, it is one hour to read or review what they did at
school. In other words, from Monday to Friday there are no cell phones, there are no
video games in my house. Anything else, but no cell phones and no video games.
[Proficient]
A final parental involvement strategy was to ensure their children were involved in
enrichment activities. At times these were formal activities, like piano lessons or team sports.
Other times, enrichment activities were informal, such as playing sports with a family member.
42
In addition to academic benefits, enrichment activities were perceived to have other benefits such
as keeping their children away from too much screen time (e.g., watching TV) or keeping them
safe from negative neighborhood influences.
I have kids that they stay in activities. Like my two oldest – they are in the play, they're in
Aladdin. They stay in drama. My oldest son – he stays in football, track, basketball. My
daughter, she's in activities. My other son, he runs track. I try to keep them occupied in
activities. That way, they don't feel the need to be in the street. [Closing the Gap]

Hay veces que cuando llegó a la casa, ‘Papi vamos a jugar fútbol un rato.’ ‘Vamos pues
un rato.’ Porque vengo un poco cansado. ‘Vamos a jugar.’ Ahí vamos y jugamos un rato
y le digo luego ya vámonos porque vas a hacer tu tarea. TRANSLATION: There are times
when I arrive at home, ‘Dad, let’s go play soccer for a while.’ ‘Okay, let’s go for a little
while.’ Because I come home a bit tired. ‘Let’s go play.’ We go play for a while and I tell
him, let’s go back because you have to do your homework. [Moderate Improvement]

Participant 4: “I think a lot of extracurricular activities.”
Moderator: “What do you mean?”
Participant 4: “So, my kids are involved in music lessons, sports. I've got them in
baseball, gymnastics.”
Participant 2: “Super busy.” [Proficient]
Appendix J. Additional Quotes for the Parental Strategies Theme
Limited Time [100%]. Although parents reported several key factors of what parental
involvement means to them, they also reported barriers that prevent their ability for further
43
involvement in their children’s education-related activities. The most frequently cited barrier to
parental involvement for low-SES families in the current study was the lack of time. Work
schedules, attending to the needs of other children in the household, and extracurricular activities
are some of the reasons that parents reported having limited time.
We also belong to a church. I started going to some of the parent-teacher conferences,
but then they would put them on Wednesday, which is when I typically am at Bible study
or something. So, it's just juggling all of those different things that are going on and then
being able to provide a good meal to the kids and getting them ready for school the next
day. I mean, my normal day is I get them home at maybe 6:00pm, that means I pretty
much have three or four hours in there to do whatever that I'm going to do. So, it's like,
fixing dinner, checking homework, okay, get in the shower, it's time to go to bed. So, that
is not a lot of time at all. [Proficient]

But, I mean that is what gets in the way for me, would be my duties that I have – my
cleaning, my cooking, my taking care of the baby. You know? The baby was just sick this
past week and I mean it's like, ‘Ugh, poop everywhere? Okay hold on guys.’ You know?
Everything stops because now I have to deal with the baby. [Continuous Risk]

I'm on the same side as them which is not enough time. Because when you go to work,
come home, cook dinner, clean up, change a diaper, you look around and it's bedtime
and it just repeats and it's just like, ‘Did I spend enough time with this homework or did I
spend enough one-on-one time so you actually know that mommy loves you instead of
44
yelling because you're in the bathtub for too long?’ So, it just seems like it just repeats.
[Moderate Improvement]

There's a lot of parents out here that they're taking on a lot. Some parents are working
two jobs. Like at some point I was working two jobs and I have kids, you know. You have
to pay the bills and I mean I'm married now, you know, newly married and we both, we
both work a lot […] You know, you just, at the end of the day, you just want to go to
sleep. Just want to relax and you might not be able to spend that extra time with your
child that you feel like they need because you’re just occupied and tired all the time.
[Closing the Gap]
Appendix J. Additional Quotes for the Limited Time Theme
Poor Parental Proficiency [90%]. Another leading barrier to parental involvement was
poor parental proficiency, which means not having the academic skills to help children with their
school-related work, such as homework assignments. At times, poor parental proficiency was
driven by low levels of formal parental education. Other times, however, parents described
different “learning strategies.” Parents reported that their children were learning school material
“differently” than how they learned it when parents were in school.
Mi niño no entendía algo de matemáticas y yo traté de explicarle y dice, ‘Sabes que
mama? Así no me enseñan a mí.’ Le dije, ‘Entonces mi hijo no te puedo ayudar.’ Le digo,
‘Trata de hacerlo como a ti te están enseñando. Porque si tú vas a aprender como yo te
diga pues entonces no está bien.’ Así que está difícil. TRANSLATION: My child didn’t
understand something about math and I tried to explain it to him and he said, ‘You know
what mom? They don’t teach me that way.’ I said, ‘Then my son, I can’t help you.’ I tell
45
him, ‘Try to do it the way they are teaching you because if you’re going to learn as I
teach you, then it’s not right.’ So yeah, it is difficult. [Moderate Improvement]

I don't know, you know a lot of us, I grew up like in the nineties as for high school and
stuff. So it's like, they've changed so much with the math and things like that it's different,
so when my kids come home and I don't know what their method of doing the problem is,
I know how to work it out my way, there's no textbook. So how do I help my kids at home
if I don't even know myself what you guys are doing, if there's no book to follow?
[Continuous Risk]

I think when they're younger it's easier. I think it's when they get older, it gets harder
because, just – things have changed so much. And their way of teaching the kids, and the
material, so it's harder. Like, high school, I probably wouldn't be able to help them,
because it's just different. It's different stuff. Maybe like biology, I could help them with
different things, if they had the book or whatever. But with the math, physics, I remember
going to a parent-teacher conference, and this teacher like trying to explain to me. And I
was looking at her like, ‘You think you're going to teach me physics in, like, 10 minutes?’
And she talked so fast and I'm thinking, ‘How does my child even learn that?’ So, I think
when they're early on, it's easier, but the older they get, I feel like somethings are
difficult, especially, like, math, because the math has changed so much. [Regressing]

A veces los niños llegan, ‘Ay, me dejaron esta tarea.’ ‘Que es esto?’ Ni yo lo sé, ni yo lo
entiendo. ‘Pues como te ayudo mi hijo, no sé. Tú tienes que poner más atención en la
46
escuela. Tú tienes que poner más atención en clase.’ Y presionamos más a los hijos.
TRANSLATION: Sometimes the children arrive and say, ‘Ugh, they gave me this
homework.’ ‘What is this?’ Not even I understand it. ‘Well, how do I help you, son, I
don’t know. You have to pay more attention at school. You have to pay more attention in
class.’ And as a result, we put more pressure on our children. [Proficient]
Appendix J. Additional Quotes for the Poor Parental Proficiency Theme
Proficient and Closing the Gap Academic Achievement Trajectories
The second aim in the current study was to explore parental involvement practices for
young children who are closing the low/high-SES academic achievement gap, in the context of
socioeconomic disadvantage. To fulfill this aim, specific themes in the Proficient and Closing the
Gap groups were analyzed, and one theme was identified.
Screen Time as a Facilitator [100%]. Technological advances have changed the social
landscape, and parents shared their experiences of how they have managed their children’s use of
screen time as it relates to education-related parental involvement. In general, parents in both the
Proficient and Closing the Gap groups perceived more benefits, rather than barriers, with their
children’s use of technology—which included smart phones, iPads, television, and videogames.
For example, one mother in the Closing the Gap group reported that technological devices keep
her children off the streets, stating, “(My children) would rather stay at home and play video
games and talk on the phone and watch TV rather than go out in the streets.” Parents in both the
Proficient and Closing the Gap groups also reported that technological advances were “the
future” and “necessary skills” for prospective employment. Therefore, these parents also
reported technology usage as beneficial for their children’s academic success.
47
(Technology) is good in some aspects where it gives (CHECC child) ideas for creative
learning and playing and stuff, and it's okay sometimes for my older one when she's like,
‘Oh, I want to know what the population of Alaska is.’ Cause she is curious about odd
things that you wouldn't really think about. Like, I'm not thinking about what the
population of Alaska is, so I don't know the answer to that question. [Proficient]

If you take a child from this generation and put them in front of the computer, they know
how to make multiple screens, they know how to download apps, so they are learning
computer skills. [Closing the Gap]

Cuando un niño se interesa en algo, igual que nosotros, si nos interesamos en algo
buscamos las formas y los medios a dónde investigar y adonde ver. Un niño cuando no
sabe bailar un trompo, él va a buscar la forma de hacerlo, él. Él va a luchar hasta que lo
va a conseguir. O sea, para mí, cuando un niño realmente quiere sobresalir, busca la
forma. Preguntando el porqué de otra forma. Y uno les puede explicar y ayudar, pero
también he visto que mis niños así le hacen. Cuando hay algo que realmente no
entendieron, piden el permiso, ‘¿Podemos agarrar? Queremos investigar qué quiere
decir esa palabra.’ ‘Hazlo!’ Les doy mi teléfono, no el de ellos. ‘Búscalo aquí.’
TRANSLATION: When a child is interested in something, just like us, if we are interested
in something, we look for ways and means to investigate and research. If a child doesn’t
know how to use a spinning top, he is going to find a way to do it. He is going to try until
he gets it. For me, when a child really wants to succeed, he looks for the way to do so.
Asking, inquiring for ways to do it. And we can explain and help them, but I have also
48
seen that my children investigate. When there is something they really didn’t understand,
they ask for permission, ‘Can we get it? We want to investigate what that word means.’
‘Do it!’ I give them my phone, not theirs. ‘Look for it here, on my phone.’ [Proficient]
Parents also reported that technology sometimes helps them, the parent, to understand
school material. As a result, parents were able to enhance their parental involvement with their
children in school-related activities.
Yo pienso que ahorita ya es más fácil por el internet, por el electrónico, el mensaje de
texto. Ya no es como antes.” TRANSLATION: “I think that right now it is easier because
of the internet, because of the technology, the text messages. It is not like it was before.
[Closing the Gap]
However, parents outside of the Proficient and Closing the Gap groups perceived screen
time as, primarily, a barrier. According to the parents, the amount of time that children wanted to
spend on their technological devices seemed to be the problem. One parent in the Continuous
Risk group stated: “When they get home that’s all they wanna do, just be on their tablets,
YouTube, games. That’s all they wanna do. I mean they can spend hours there.” As described
below, parents perceived that children were not fully immersing themselves in their school work.
Instead, they find “easy” or “quick” answers on the internet and as a result, parents questioned
whether or not their children were learning.
Participant 3: “I kinda think that it hurts them because it's simple now. The question to
your homework is pick up your phone, iPad, computer, put it down, you have your
answer. It's not like when we were young where we had to go to school and pick up a
book, find the right book to get the right answer. I mean, they really ain't learning
through technology because, like I said, in the early years, I don't think it really is, but
49
then it does because some kids do learn through it but others just want to do their
homework quick to get done and they use that to get the answers quicker, instead of, like,
picking up a book and doing real research and trying to find out.”
Moderator: “The audio recording can't see this, but others are nodding their head. It
sounds like you agree with that, that it could help but also it sounds like it might provide
some easy answers.”
Participant 3: “Yeah, but they're really learning nothing. They're not learning anything;
sinking in their heads. They just read it off of there.”
Participant 2: “It's acting, like, ask Siri and is taking exactly what the answer is. Ask
Google. It's not like they have the answer.”
Participant 3: “Their mind aint trying to figure out what to look for, what book to get to
find the answer.” [Moderate Improvement]

I think the most important thing for the children to do—I think basically with how, like, I
see my kids, is to incorporate some of their time instead of the technology things, like the
cell phones and the gaming and to wanting to read and do other things that is school-
related. [Continuous Risk]
Spanish-Speaking Parents
To address the third aim of the current study, potential parental involvement differences
between English- and Spanish-speaking families were explored. In total, there were five English-
and five Spanish-speaking focus groups. Although many themes were observed across the
diverse and unique academic achievement trajectories (as reported above), some themes were
specific to Spanish-speaking parents. For example, Spanish-speaking parents reported a parent-
50
centered (instead of a child-centered) approach to parental involvement, qualitatively defined
“education” (or, in Spanish: educación) differently, and endorsed language as a prominent
barrier to parental involvement. These themes were endorsed by four or all five Spanish-
speaking focus groups, compared to zero of the English-speaking focus groups.
Parent-Centered Approach [80%]. Spanish-speaking parents redefined parental
involvement, stating that instead of being involved in their children’s lives, their children were
involved in the parent’s lives.
Participante 1: “Yo no me involucro en su vida. Yo los involucro a ellos en la mía.”
[laughter]
Moderadora: “¿Y cómo se mira eso? ¿Un ejemplo?”
Participante 1: “Es un ejemplo para ellos. Para que veas lo que tengo. Así me dicen,
‘Nunca tienes tiempo.’ ‘¿Nunca tengo tiempo? Vengan súbanse al carro, vamos a--tengo
que ir a comprar esto o tengo que ir a la tienda.’ Obvio eso iba a hacer. Ellos odian ir a
la tienda. Prefieren estar en la casa, pero digo, ‘No. Si quieres ver en realidad la vida,
vente conmigo. No me voy a involucrar contigo. Tú te vas a involucrar conmigo. Y sí,
como padre eso es lo que hago.”
TRANSLATION:
Participant 1: “I don’t get involved in their lives. I involve them in mine.” (laughter)
Moderator: “And how does that look? Can you give me an example?”
Participant 1: “It is an example for them. So that they can see what I have. They tell me,
‘You never have time.’ ‘I never have time! Come get in the car, let’s go—I have to go buy
this or I have to go to the store.’ Obviously that is what I was going to do. They hate
going to the store. They prefer to be in the house, but I say, ‘No. If you really want to see
51
life, come with me.’ I will not get involved with you. You are going to get involved with
me. And yes, as a father that is what I do.” [Closing the Gap]

Que sí un rato puedes jugar, puedes hacer, mirar tus vídeos lo que sea, pero hasta
ciertas horas. O te doy una hora o te doy media hora, pero también hay que
involucrarlos a que me ayudas a ser algo de limpieza en la casa y te dejo estar un rato a
tu teléfono. Y no tanto de que hay la mamá tiene que hacer todo y la niña o el niño ahí en
el teléfono sin ayudar. A involucrarlos a que nos ayuden con las labores de la casa.
TRANSLATION: You can play for a while, you can do, you can watch your videos or
whatever, but up to a certain amount of time. I either give you one hour, or I give you
half an hour, but let’s also get them to help me to do some cleaning around the house and
then I will let you be on your phone for a while. And not so much that the mother has to
do everything and the child is on their phone without helping. Involve them with the
housework. [Regressing]

Y como dice aquí la señora, involucrar también a los niños. Como mis hijos, mi esposa es
la que más se encarga. Todos mis hijos saben guízar, saben hacer de comer, llega y a
lavar los trastes. Luego yo les pongo las reglas: el lunes se corta la yarda. También ellos
ahí andan con la máquina cortando. Como dice uno, haciendo sus actividades. Pero
están involucrados. Todos están involucrados. TRANSLATION: And, like, the lady says,
also involve the children. Like my children, my wife is the one who takes care of them the
most. All of my children know how to cook, they know how to make dinner, they carry
over and wash the dishes. Then I set the rules: On Mondays they cut the yard. They are
52
also out there with the machine cutting the grass. Like we say, ‘taking care of business.’
But they are involved. Everyone is involved. [Moderate Improvement]
Educación [80%]. There is a common phrase that Spanish-speaking parents often
referenced during the focus group discussions: “Se educa en casa y se ensena en la escuela.”
The loose translation is: “You educate (behaviorally) at home and you teach (academically) at
school.” In English, the words ‘educate’ or ‘education’ refers to instruction in a school or
university setting. However, in Spanish, the word educación refers to instruction in a home
setting, often referring to instruction around manners and polite behavior, such as being
respectful. Spanish-speaking parents, in the current study, viewed their primary parental
involvement role as behaviorally educating their children, whereas they viewed it was the
teacher’s responsibility to academically teach their children. One parent from the Proficient
group stated, “En la casa se enseñan morales, y en la escuela se enseña.” (TRANSLATION: “At
home morals are taught, and at school academics are taught.”)
Pues poniéndoles reglas, o sea, y hacerlos que sigan las reglas tanto en la escuela como
en la casa. Porque si nosotros no ponemos reglas en la casa, pues quizás el maestro
pueda controlarlo o no pueda controlar en la clase. Pero si él no tiene tampoco reglas en
la casa, pues de nada sirve. Cómo vamos a invulcarle algo que no estamos enseñando.
Sino que enseñarle bases en la casa. TRANSLATION: Well, having rules and making
them follow the rules both at school and at home. Because if we don’t have any rules in
the house, then maybe the teacher can control them or maybe they can’t control them in
the class. But if he doesn’t have any rules in the house, he is useless. How are we going
to integrate something that we are not teaching them? Instead, we have to teach them the
basics at home. [Moderate improvement]
53

Modales, principios de educación: Buenas tardes; buenos días; ya llego; ya terminé; ya
me voy. Es como dice la señora, todo empieza por la casa […]Hacerte cada quien su
parte que le corresponde para la educación de sus hijos. Que si son muy educados:
simplemente se portan bien. TRANSLATION: Manners, principles of education: (Saying)
good afternoon; good morning; I am here; I am done; I am leaving. It’s like the lady
says, it all starts in the home […] Everyone is responsible for their part that corresponds
to the education of their children. If they are well educated: they simply behave well.
[Proficient]
Language Barrier [100%]. In addition to limited time and poor parental proficiency,
Spanish-speaking parents reported that language was a significant barrier to their parental
involvement. Their inability, or limited ability, to speak English had ramifications on the parent-
teacher relationships with their children’s teacher, parents’ ability to help with school-related
activities, and their confidence as a parent to their bilingual children.
Yo creo que ahorita por nosotros, bueno personal, por el idioma. De que nosotros no
hablamos, por ejemplo, el 100% de inglés y que no podemos; pues les enseñamos en la
casa nuestro idioma y toda verdad? Pero ellos también están aprendiendo el otro idioma.
Entre nosotros oséa yo no hablo él inglés cómo es. Ósea hablarlo fluidamente. Y pues a
veces, por ejemplo, volvemos a hacer las tareas. ¿A veces hay tareas que yo no las
entiendo y digo, ‘Y ahora como le hacemos?’ Ósea donde digo yo el idioma a veces se
me hace difícil en involucrarme con ellos. TRANSLATION: I think that right now for us,
well personally, it is the language. That we do not speak, for example, 100% English and
that we cannot – Well, at home we teach them our language and everything, right? But
54
they are also learning the other language. Between us, I don’t speak English the way it
should be. In other words, speaking it fluently. And well, at times, for example, we do the
homework. Sometimes there are homework assignments that I don’t understand and I
say, ‘And now, how are we going to figure this out?’ In other words, that’s when I say the
language, at times, makes it difficult for me to get involved with them. [Moderate
Improvement]

Moderadora: “¿Y cuáles son las barreras para que ustedes estén más con los niños?”
Participante 1: “Al 100% el idioma.” [risas] “Para mí es como, ay Dios Mio!”
Participante 2: “¿No se le pega? ¿O será porque no estudio?” [risas]
Participante 1: “No a todos se nos da. Yo, años y años he ido a clase y nomas no.”
Participante 2: “¡No, yo ni siquiera he ido! No, y a veces tú quieres tener una
conversación con tu hijo en Inglés y dicen, ‘Mami, ¡así no se dice!’”
Participante 4: “Ósea, se burlan de ti.”
Participante 2: “Digo, ‘Bueno, ¡Pero me entendiste!’ O me hago a entender porque a
veces si vamos a algún lado y me quiero dar a entender con mi poco inglés que yo sé
porque también no se me da y me dice mi hija, ‘Mami así no se dice!’ ‘¡Pero tu tampoco
me ayudas!’ Pero el idioma es el que a veces – ¿No queda una más que hablar en su
idioma verdad?”
Participante 4: “Pero sí así les ayudamos imagínate nomás si supieras el idioma.”
[risas]
Participante 3: “Si, el idioma. Porque como comento ella igual. Mi hija también es
donde no puedo ayudarle ahí. ¡Me enseña tareas que no le entiendo!”
55
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “And what are the barriers to your parental involvement?”
Participant 1: “100% language.” (laughs) “For me it’s like, ‘Oh, my God!’”
Participant 2: “It doesn’t stick, or is it because you didn’t study?” (laughs)
Participant 1: “It doesn’t stick for everyone. I have gone to classes for years and years
and nothing.”
Participant 2: “I haven’t even gone! And sometimes you want to have a conversation
with your son in English and he says, ‘Mom, that’s not how you say it.’”
Participant 4: “In other words, they make fun of you.”
Participant 2: “I say, ‘Well, but you understood me!’ Or I make myself understood
because sometimes if we go somewhere I want to make myself understood with the little
English that I do know because I can’t learn it. And my daughter tells me, ‘Mom, that is
not how you say it!’ ‘But you don’t help me either!’ But the language sometimes – There
is no other option than to speak our own language, right?”
Participant 4: “But if we help our children under these circumstances, just imagine if you
knew the language!” (laughs)
Participant 3: “Yes, the language. Because as she commented, the same – that is where I
can’t help my daughter. She shows me homework assignments that I don’t understand.”
[Regressing]

Moderadora: “¿También se les hacen difícil ayudar con las tareas?”
Participante 4: “A mí se me hace difícil porque como mi niño esta en puras clases de
inglés.”
56
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “Do you also find it difficult to help with homework?”
Participant 4: “I find it difficult because my child has English-only classes.”
[Continuous Risk]

Necesitamos más participación de los maestros con los alumnos porque cuando hay
cosas que se les dejan mucha tarea, como dice la señora, los niños en veces, o los padres
en veces no entendemos el idioma y no podemos ayudarles en algunas cosas. Porque los
niños preguntan y si los maestros no les explican entonces no sabemos cómo les vamos a
explicarles a los niños. Esos problemas yo sé los he platicado con otros amigos.
TRANSLATION: We need more participation from the teachers with the students because
when they leave them a lot of homework, like the lady states, the children at times, or the
parents at times, we do not understand the language and we cannot help them with some
things. Because the children ask and if the teachers do not explain it to them, then we do
not know how we are going to explain it to our children. These problems I have talked
about with other friends. [Proficient]

Participante 1: “Si los maestros no hablan español, sí es un poco difícil. No es poco
difícil es bien difícil, bien difícil.” [laughter] “Es que yo quiero decirle una cosa y él me
entiende otra.”
Participante 2: “Y aparte los traductores también a veces no dicen bien lo que uno
quiere decir. Entonces también uno como qué (toma un respire) yo me quedo atorado.
Me quedo callada.”
57
TRANSLATION:
Participant 1: “If the teachers do not speak Spanish, it is a little difficult. It is not a little
difficult, it is very difficult, it is very difficult.” (laughter) “It is because I want to tell
them one thing and they understand something else.”
Participant 2: “Apart from that, the translators also sometimes do not correctly say what
one wants to say. Then, it is like one (takes a deep breath) gets stuck. Instead, I stay
silent.” [Closing the Gap]
Appendix J. Additional Quotes for the Language Barrier Theme
Qualitative Individual Interview Themes
Across All Five Academic Achievement Trajectories
Sequentially following the focus groups, 23 individual interviews were conducted. Of
those 23 interviews, one was not transcribed nor analyzed due to poor audio quality. To fulfill
the first aim, themes across the five academic achievement trajectory groups were explored to
define “parental involvement” as perceived by study participants. Twenty-two parents shared
their lived experiences and endorsed several themes. The themes presented below were endorsed
by at least 70% of the parents, with representation from all five academic achievement trajectory
groups. The percentage that endorsed the themes are presented following the theme names; for
example, “Sibling Role [86%]” demonstrates that 86% (or 19 out of the 22 parents) endorsed the
theme “Sibling Role.” At the end of all excerpts, the academic achievement trajectory group is
identified. Spanish excerpts are again presented in both verbatim Spanish and translated English.
Sibling Role [86%]. Similar to the focus group discussions, the individual interview
participants endorsed the role of siblings as part of their definition of “parental involvement.”
Many parents reported that siblings play a prominent role in academic-related activities for the
58
CHECC child. Many times, siblings alleviated two of the leading parental involvement barriers
identified in the focus group discussions: poor parental proficiency, for both English- and
Spanish-speaking parents, and language barriers for Spanish-speaking parents.
Porque hay veces que sí yo le he ayudado en las tareas, pero mi hijo el más grande, es el
que más le ha ayudado. ¿Me entiendes? A él, a su hermano pequeño. Porque a veces le
digo yo, ‘No mi hijo. Termina tu tarea tú y yo le ayudo a tu hermanito.’ Pero hay veces
que las preguntas realmente si no la entiendo. [risas]. ¿Es Cuando ya yo le digo, ‘Oh,
¿sabes qué? Nos atoramos aquí y entonces aquí sí ayúdame, porque no la entiendo.’
TRANSLATION: There are times that I have helped (my son) with the homework
assignments, but my oldest son is the one who has helped him the most. You understand
me? Helped him, his little brother. Because sometimes I tell him, ‘No, you finish your
homework and I will help your little brother.’ But, sometimes the homework questions, in
reality, I don’t understand them. [laughter]. That is when I tell him, ‘Oh, you know what?
We got stuck here so help us here, because I don’t understand it.’ [Continuous Risk]

Moderadora: “Me puedes decir un poquito de la hermana. ¿En qué manera ella le ha
ayudado?”
Participante: “Ella le ha ayudado básicamente en como, por ejemplo, ¿esta vez que fue a
clases regulares de inglés, y por si pues nosotros no le entendemos mucha verdad? Algo,
como le diré, de lo que le entendemos le ayudamos en lo que no, pues entonces ya vamos
a la hermana y la hermana ya le entiende más. Entonces, ahí es donde ella le ayuda
también a dónde no entiende el. Entonces ya básicamente nos juntamos, el, la hermana y
nosotros ya para buscar una conclusión de la tarea que tenga ese día o que le han
59
dejado. Entonces está dónde y le ayudamos y ella también se involucra en ese lado. Pero
si, le ayuda. Algo que él no lo sabe, pues va y le pregunta. Ella le dice, ‘No, pues es así y
así.’ O, ‘La pregunta es esto y esto.’ Entonces ya le da un ejemplo de cómo contestar y
cómo hacerlo correctamente.”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “Can you tell me a little bit about his sister? How has she helped you?”
Participant: “She has basically helped him, for example, this time he went to regular
English classes, and well, we don’t understand (English) very much, right? How should I
tell you? What we understand we help him with, and what we don’t understand we don’t
help him. In that case we go to his sister and the sister understands it better. So, that is
where his sister also helps him. When he doesn’t understand something, then we
basically get together – him, the sister, and us (the parents) to look for a conclusive
answer to the homework assignment that he has that day. So, that is how we help him and
(the sister) also gets involved in that way. She does help him. Something that he doesn’t
know, well he goes to his sister and asks her. She tells him, ‘No, it is like this and like
this.’ Or, ‘The question is this and this.’ So she gives him an example of how to answer
and how to correctly do his homework assignments.” [Moderate Improvement]

Pues a mí se me hace un poquito difícil pues porque yo no hablo inglés y todas sus tareas
son en inglés. Por eso es por lo que mi hijo le pone un poquito más de atención para
ayudarle en su trabajo. A mí eso es lo que se me hace muy difícil. TRANSLATION: Well,
I find it a bit difficult because I don’t speak English and all of his homework assignments
60
are in English. That is why my son gives him a little more attention to help him with his
school work. That is very difficult for me. [Continuous Risk]
Parent-Teacher Communication [82%]. Consistent with the focus group discussions,
parents who were individually interviewed reported that ongoing communication with the
teachers was a key factor in their definition of parental involvement. However, the mechanisms
for parent-teacher communication varied. For example, some parents reported that the bi-annual
parent-teacher conferences were the only means of communication. This trend was noted across
all five academic achievement trajectories, and strongly among Spanish-speaking parents. When
asked about parent-teacher communication outside of the conferences, one parent from the
Proficient group stated “pues yo digo que no es necesario.” Translation: “Well, I think it is not
necessary.” Other parents endorsed the same sentiment.
Moderadora: “¿Y además de esas conferencias, usted habla con la maestra en otras
ocasiones o nomás se enfoca en esas conferencias?”
Participante: “Nada más cuando hay conferencias es cuando nada más me enfocó
hablar con la maestra. Porque nos manda a traer ya para firmar como qué, cómo van en
la escuela, sus calificaciones.”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “Besides the parent-teacher conferences, do you communicate with the
teachers on other occasions or do you only focus on the conferences?”
Participant: “Only when they have the conferences do I focus on communicating with the
teacher. Because they ask us to come and sign to verify how our children are doing in
school, their grades.” [Continuous Risk]

61
Moderadora: “Me puedes describir qué tipo de comunicación usted tiene con las
personas en la escuela, sí las tiene?”
Participante: “Mira, con la maestra solamente cuando es a final del trimestre. Bueno
vamos y platicamos con ella en como va la niña y todo.”
Moderadora: “Esto va siendo como para la conferencia con los padres?”
Participante: “Si.”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “Can you describe the type of communication you have with personnel at
school, if you have any?”
Participant: “Look, only with the teacher when it’s at the end of the semester. We go and
we talk with the teacher to see how my daughter is doing.”
Moderator: “This is the parent-teacher conference?
Participant: “Yes” [Proficient]

La única manera es involucrarme y llendo a las juntas con los maestros cuándo requiere
que yo vaya. Qué es normalmente una o dos veces a los años. TRANSLATION: The only
way to get involved is going to the meetings with the teachers when they require that I go.
It is normally once or twice a year. [Closing the Gap]
However, other parents reported that their parent-teacher communication included
communication outside of the parent-teacher conferences. These communications included
electronic mail or one-on-one meetings with teachers. However, communication outside of the
parent-teacher conferences was most frequently via ClassDojo. Communication via ClassDojo
62
was described as broad updates or brief check-ins, especially if there were concerns or questions
about academic performance or behavioral problems.
Moderadora: “¿Y en medio de las conferencias hay comunicación con las maestras o no
tanto?”
Participante: “La maestra me manda mensajes por ClassDojo. Me manda mensajes cada
vez, siempre. ‘Mañana van a salir temprano.’ ‘El niño el trajo su tarea hoy.’ ‘[CHECC
child] no estuvo hoy,’ y todo […] Pero si, la maestra todo me dice, todo me manda a
decir. Si [CHECC child] se portó mal, como la semana pasada iban a ir aquí a ice
cream. Se portaron mal y la maestra me mandó mensaje: ‘Los niños todos están
castigados no va a ir nadie a ice cream porque pintaron el piso.’”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “Between parent-teacher conferences, is their communication with the
teachers, or not really?”
Participant: “The teacher sends me messages through ClassDojo. She always sends me
messages, always. ‘Tomorrow they are getting out early.’ ‘Your son brought his
homework today.’ ‘[CHECC child] didn’t come to class today,’ and all of that […] Yeah,
the teacher tells me everything. She tells me everything. If [CHECC child] misbehaves,
like, last week they were going to get ice cream. The class behaved badly and the teacher
sent me a message: ‘All the kids are punished because they painted the floor, they are not
going to get ice cream.’” [Moderate Improvement]

63
ClassDojo, that really helped the first few years of her schooling. That was really the
only main line of communication. You know what's going on in the classroom. [Moderate
Improvement]

I'm more connected with just his homeroom teacher. We usually do most of our
communications through ClassDojo. [Moderate Improvement]
No Problems; No Communication (82%). In the focus groups, parents reported that
when they did not perceive problems at school, they did not engage in parent-teacher
communication. The theme “No Problems; No Communication” was therefore further explored
during the individual interviews. All parents were asked about their communication styles, and
several parents across all five academic achievement trajectory groups reported that they did not
communicate with the teachers if they did not perceive any problems. One parent from the
Regressing group stated, “Si hubiera una pregunta de algo, entonces sí llamó, pero si no nada
más voy a las conferencias de calificaciones.” Translation: “If there were a question about
something, then I do call, but if not, then I only go to the parent-teacher conferences.” Other
parents reported similar experiences:
Mientras no hay ningún problema yo no me comunico con la maestra. TRANSLATION:
As long as there are no problems, I do not communicate with the teacher. [Closing the
Gap]

Casi no he hablado con ellas, pero cuándo si tengo alguna duda o alguna pregunta, voy
busco yo personalmente. TRANSLATION: I hardly communicate with the teachers, but
when I have a doubt or a question, I go in person. [Continuous Risk]
64

Cuando voy a las entrevistas, por decir es hasta donde entregan las calificaciones, el
reporte de calificaciones, es cuando realmente voy y ahí me dice que va muy bien. Que le
eche muchas ganas. Que entrega el trabajo a tiempo […] Confío que las maestras me
dicen que va muy bien. TRANSLATION: When I go to the meetings, when they provide
the grades, the report of their grades, that is when in reality I go to the school and they
tell me he is doing very well. That he tries really hard. That he turns in his work on time
[…] I trust the teachers when they tell me that he is doing very well. [Regressing]

Moderator: “Outside of the parent teacher conference are there other times that you get
connected with the teachers?”
Participant: “I haven't had the need to contact them about her academically or whatever
other than the parent teacher conferences.” [Proficient]

Pues yo siento que con eso es más que suficiente porque [CHECC child] me platica que
son muy buenas maestras y que si le tienen paciencia cuando hay algo que no sabe. Y les
pregunta, si le contestan bien. Porque si le pregunto, qué cómo son sus maestras, cómo
son sus amiguitos con él y por eso no me preocupo tanto. Porque hasta ahorita gracias a
Dios está teniendo buenas maestros y maestras también. TRANSLATION: I feel that the
conferences are more than sufficient because [CHECC child] talks to me and tells me
that his teachers are really good and that they are patient with him when there is
something that he doesn’t understand. And when he asks them questions, the teachers
give him answers. Because I do ask him, how are his teachers, how are his friends with
65
him, and that is why I don’t worry very much. Because up to this point, thank God, he has
had good teachers. [Continuous Risk]
Enrichment Activities (77%). Similar to the focus group discussions, parents who were
individually interviewed reported that parental involvement entails identifying enrichment
activities for their children. Often times, enrichment activities were informal, such as playing
soccer with a family member. However, when the activities were formal, they were frequently
offered through the schools, such as music lessons.
She was taking gymnastics at one point, but the school has been, like, doing renovations
or something for the last two months, so it's a pause on that right now, but she also plays
piano. So she takes piano lessons and she signed up for soccer this summer and maybe
swim classes end of summer for a few weeks, and then we also do a summer reading
program. [Proficient]

Mi hijo de 26 años lo ayuda bastante porque lo lleva más que nada a los deportes. Mi
hijo maneja un gimnasio. Maneja un gimnasio y ellos hacen jiu-jitsu. Hacen judo. Hacen
artes marciales. Y él se va todos los días. TRANSLATION: My 26-year-old son helps him
a lot because he takes him to sports. My son manages a gym. He manages a gym and they
do jiu-jitsu. They do judo. They do martial arts. And he goes every day. [Moderate
Improvement]

Ahorita me dieron la – me mandaron una carta de la escuela de qué puede entrar el a
una banda de música para el otro año. Él está muy contento de que quiere entrar. Ya se
lo firmé el permiso. TRANSLATION: Right now they gave me the – they sent me a letter
66
from school stating that he can join the music band next year. He is very happy because
he wants to join. I already signed the permission slip. [Continuous Risk]

Está en un programa del center y es como si fueran a clases de verano, pero no más
tienen actividades de juegos, computadoras, gimnasio, paseos. Es lo que hacen por los
dos meses y medio, todo lo que es el verano. TRANSLATION: He is in a program through
the center and it is like he is going to summer school, but they only have activities like
games, computers, gyms, field trips. That is what they do for the two and a half months,
for the entire summer. [Regressing]

Participant: “At school she's in art club ‘cause she loves art, she loves drawing, and
she's very artistic and she's in game club, and she goes every Wednesday and Friday
after school.”
Moderator: “What is game club?”
Participant: “It's a club where the teacher or whoever over there, they put together
different types of games. They might play Uno, they might do puzzles, they might—I mean
I ask her, ‘What do you do in game club?’ And she'd tell me some games I've never heard
of. So just something—she just likes being active or talking. Just, like, games to help her
think. And then she stays for art club as well, where she shows me the little projects she
do and she loves that type of stuff.” [Closing the Gap]
Appendix J. Additional Quotes for the Enrichment Activities Theme
Single-Parent Involvement (73%). Parents often defined parental involvement as a
single-parent activity. Although 82.6% of the study sample were married, one (and at times both)
67
parents’ work-related responsibilities impeded on their school-related parental involvement.
Parents, often mothers, described themselves as being primarily responsible for parental
involvement activities or “taking turns” with their partners to navigate parental involvement
responsibilities. For example, if a father worked the night shift and a mother worked the day
shift, the father was responsible for taking the child to school and attending school events during
the day, while the mother helped with homework assignments in the evenings.
No se involucra mucho porque él trabaja en las tardes. Entonces cuando [CHECC child]
está en casa, mi esposo no está. No más llega la noche a dormir. Aunque si lo espera el
niño hasta que llegue su papá acostarse. Pero no se involucra mucho. Pero si me ayuda
como yo trabajo en las mañanas. Él está en las mañanas. Cualquier pregunta, cualquier
cosa de la escuela. Ya lo mandó a él. Ya él va y pregunta y ya me pone al tanto y así.
TRANSLATION: (My husband) doesn’t get very involved because he works in the
afternoon. So when (CHECC child) is at home, my husband is not. He arrives at night
only to sleep. Although my child waits to go to bed until his father gets home. But he
doesn’t get very involved. But, he does help me, since I work in the mornings. He is here
in the mornings. Whatever question or thing that comes up from the school, I send him.
He goes and asks and he fills me in on what’s going on. [Regressing]

Pues, prácticamente lo hago yo porque mi esposo se la lleva trabajando. Está en la
mañana y sale de trabajar hasta las 3 de la tarde. Como que me siento un poquito más
enfocada yo en referencia a lo de mi hijo. TRANSLATION: Well, really, I practically do
it because my husband is always working. He goes in the morning and leaves work at
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three in the afternoon. Like, I feel a little bit more focused in things related to my son.
[Continuous Risk]

I would say the majority is on me. Most of the activities that are going on, I'm aware of.
Which is kind of weird but the kids always come to me. [Laughter.] With homework, they
always come to me with permission slips, they always come to me. Usually they come to
me with what's going on and I'm the one that keeps track of all the stuff that happens with
the school and make sure he knows if they have a concert or something like that—that he
needs to go for either choir or Christmas concerts or band concerts. So, I think they do
come to me more, I think that I'm more connected, so I have the ClassDojo app on my
phone, I have reminder on my phone so I keep more closer [sic] tabs on what's going on
with the kids at school. And then I relay that to (my husband). [Proficient]

Cuando él tiene tiempo se va conmigo a las conferencias, pero es muy rara la vez que él
vaya una conferencia. TRANSLATION: When he has the time, he comes with me to the
parent-teacher conference, but it is very rare the times that he goes to a parent-teacher
conference. [Closing the Gap]
Appendix J. Additional Quotes for the Single-Parent Involvement Theme
Dynamic Parental Involvement (73%). A new theme that emerged from the individual
interviews was parental involvement defined as dynamic, changing, and evolving. Parental
involvement, parents described, has to change over time and parents must adapt to their
children’s evolving needs. From preschool through third grade, the presence of parental
involvement sometimes lessened due to fewer school-related activities (e.g., teachers no longer
69
asked parents to volunteer in the classroom); the child matures and developmentally needs less
parental involvement; or family dynamics, such as a new baby in the household or new
employment that placed additional demands on the parents’ time.
My involvement, I would say has actually lessened. When he was back in preschool, it
was just him. He didn't have siblings that I have to attend to as well. That's what I'm
guilty of—of not being as active as I was before. Also, his sister is a six-year-old, she's
special needs and non-verbal. It's like, now (CHECC child) is actually helping and trying
to be a part of that instead of me just giving him a little bit more attention that sometimes
he needs. [Moderate Improvement]

Moderator: “And do you have any interactions with school personnel?”
Participant: “I tried to ask them. They don't have anything for me now. I asked them, but
they want – I told them let me know what I could do to help, so they haven't, you know,
they don't have nothing for me.” [Continuous Risk]

Pues, ahorita ella es más independiente – ya no necesita igual de mí que cuando era niña
chiquita. Pero, de todas maneras yo siempre estoy ahí. Ella sabe que sí ocupa ayuda, yo
le ayudo. Pero, allá ella – pues en realidad casi ya no necesita ayuda porque no tiene
problemas en la escuela. TRANSLATION: Well, now she is more independent. She
doesn’t need me in the same way that she did when she was younger. But, either way, I
am always there. She knows that if she needs help, I will help her. But she, in reality,
doesn’t need help because she doesn’t have any problems at school. [Closing the Gap]

70
The older that she has gotten, she's gotten more independent than she was in pre-school.
Nine times out of ten, she'll come home from school and she'll either have already done
her homework in school, or she just does it. Most times, she almost never asks for help.
We ask her every day, ‘Did you have homework?’ She's like, ‘Yeah, it's done.’ Sometimes
we'll check it, but she really does it. [Proficient]
Alternatively, parental involvement sometimes increased from preschool through third
grade. Parents reported that a child may need additional support (i.e., math competency), or
parents wanted to shield their children from negative influences, such as undesirable peers or
community violence. Parents also reported that the type of parental involvement they offered
changed over time. For instance, reviewing the alphabet with their preschooler versus enrolling
their third grader in an enrichment activity.
I think my involvement has changed because now she's not the one that has to get things
done, I have to be that motivation for her, so making or setting the rules and giving her
consequences if she doesn't do what she's supposed to be doing, and then rewarding her
if she does. Before, we didn't have to have these rules in place. She's excited about
reading homework sheets and doing her homework. Now, it is, ‘Did you do your
homework?’ And making her do it, so I think my involvement has changed from kind of
helping her along to now pushing her along. [Proficient]

Ahorita en esta edad de [CHECC child] es cuando más debe de estar uno más al
pendiente con ellos. Cuando más debe de estar involucrados. Porque si no lo agarras tú,
lo agarran otros muchachillos, y no! – la influencia. Si no le pones atención al niño, ese
niño va a irse con quien le ponga atención o que le diga, y no. Yo procuro involucrarme
71
en todo: ‘Qué hiciste?,’ todos los días, ‘Que hiciste o qué vas a hacer?’ Nada de que se
va a la calle ni nada de eso. TRANSLATION: Right now at [CHECC child’s] age it is
when one should be more vigilant about them, when one should be more involved.
Because if you don’t get them, other little kids will get them, and no!- the (bad) influence.
If we don’t give our children attention, that child will go with whoever gives him
attention, and no. I try to get involved in everything: ‘What did you do?’ Every day,
‘What did you do or what will you do?’ I don’t want to hear anything about him going to
the streets or anything like that. [Moderate Improvement]
Appendix J. Additional Quotes for the Dynamic Parental Involvement Theme
Barriers [82%]. Similar to the focus group discussions, individual interview participants
described both limited time and poor parental proficiency as significant barriers to their parental
involvement. Spanish-speaking parents also reported language as a primary barrier to their
parental involvement.
Limited time was mostly driven by full-time employment or multiple children, with
multiple needs, in the household. At times, parents also reported that limited time for parental
involvement was due to being tired after “long days.”
También vamos a necesitar de trabajar, pues para estar un poquito mejor
económicamente para que mis niños están económicamente mejor. Y, pues, a veces como
ya llega, a veces uno cansado, entonces también necesita uno – A veces uno está cansado
y ya no les pone uno el suficiente tiempo. Yo pienso que a veces yo quiero que, a veces,
mejor que nomás el papá trabajé y uno no para enfocarse un poquito más, como nosotros
las mamás con nuestros hijos. TRANSLATION: We also need to work, well, to be a little
bit economically better so that my children are economically better. And then sometimes,
72
I sometimes arrive tired, then I also have to— Sometimes I am tired and I don’t give him
the sufficient time. I think that sometimes I just want only the dad to work and not me so
that I can focus a little more, like me as a mom focus more on my children. [Continuous
Risk]

Ahorita, pues, por mi esposo, sí, porque él se va todo el día a trabajar. Solo el tiempo del
invierno es cuando está más tiempo en la casa. Pero ahorita, todo el verano se va todo el
día. Regresa hasta muy tarde – 7, 8, 9 de la noche. Se va muy temprano. A él no lo ve
nada más los domingos. TRANSLATION: Well, right now, because of my husband,
because he goes to work all day. Only during the winter time does he spend more time at
home. But right now, he is gone for most of the day during the summers. He comes back
really late, like, 7, 8, or 9 o’clock at night. He also leaves very early. My son only sees
him on Sundays. [Regressing]

The only resource I'm limited with is time. Work, schedules. So, for the most part, kids
are out of school during the day and some of that is when you're at work but I drop my
kids off in the morning for school, but then I'll see them in the evenings, if I have a
normal work day, at 6 o'clock. So, it can be a long work day for me, longer than theirs if
they get out of school at 2 o'clock, that's four hours right there where I'm not around and
then when I do get home at 6 o'clock, there are meals that have to be prepared and then
counted [sic] homework. But I think that me having a job limits my time to be around and
can be involved even for some of their activities that they have at school, that they have
during the daytime. They have awards ceremonies during the day, but unless you're a
73
stay-at-home mom or you have second shift kind of hours, then those things you can't
really be involved or participate in. So, those kind of things I think I would be more
involved with and participate more if I didn't have a job. [Proficient]

I try to get involved with her school activities as much as I can, when I can. When I used
to work at— Before I started at this job two years ago, I had more vacation time and my
boss was more lenient. So, they had a lot of school activities during school time for
parents involved with children. And any time they had one, I would always go with her,
or my children, because they just love seeing me at school. They like me going to school
and being involved with them in those programs just like other parents would do. And I
would do that. And I would always go on field trips with them. But now, with this other
job, I get very little vacation time. And so, I'm not able to go during the day anymore. If
they have anything after school hours, which is at 5:30pm or something, we go to those
all the time. I would love to be involved with PTA (parent-teacher association), but I
never was able to because I had work. [Continuous Risk]
Poor parental proficiency, similar to the focus group discussions, was at times driven by
academic material that is taught differently now than when parents were in school. A parent from
the Continuous Risk group stated, “I feel like this new way that they have a lot of things, I don't
know, because it's a different way from what I learned.” Another primary driver of poor parental
proficiency was low levels of parental education.
Pero pues ahorita yo ya no puedo, la verdad. Siento que si yo tuviera más capacidad, mi
niño estuviera arriba. Porque si, no sé de qué forma poderlo ayudar. Porque si, es listo.
Es listo, pero – Pero se me ha dificultado eso. TRANSLATION: But right now, I really
74
can’t anymore, truthfully. I feel that if I had more (academic) capacity, my child would be
doing better because, yes, I do not know how to help him. Because he is smart. He is
smart but—but that has become very difficult for me. [Regressing]

The curriculum now is way different than when I was growing up. Some of the math that
she does I'm like, whoa, because we never had to do that. Sometimes on the occasions
that she does ask me, I have to ask Google how to do it, you know? [Proficient]

Pues, en las tareas, hay temas que ella no entiende y nosotros como papás tampoco
porque, a lo major, no tuvimos la misma educación que ellos pero en lo que uno puede
ayudarle. En las preguntas que ella tenga las tareas, nosotros le ayudamos.
TRANSLATION: Well, in the homework assignments there are themes that she doesn’t
understand and, us as parents, we don’t understand it either because maybe we do not
have the same level of education as our children. But when we can, we help her. In the
questions that she has about her homework, we try to help her. [Closing the Gap]
Some parents described an interaction effect, stating that at times both limited time and
poor parental proficiency resulted in lower levels of parental involvement.
Lo que pasa es que también yo, como que yo siempre ando muy ocupada. Y ando aquí
ando allá. Pero si le dedicara más – bueno ya, aunque le quisiera dedicar más tiempo,
no puedo ya ayudarlo. Yo tengo muy poco estudio. Llegué hasta el grado 6 y pues no
puedo ayudarlo. La verdad, académicamente yo no puedo. Es por eso que yo le buscó las
ayudas. TRANSLATION: What happens is that I also am always very busy. I am here and
I am there. But if I dedicated more – well, even if I wanted to dedicate more time, I can’t
75
help him anymore. I have very little academic education. I completed 6
th
grade and well,
I can’t help him. The truth is that, academically, I can’t. [Regress]
In addition to poor parental proficiency and limited time, Spanish-speaking parents also
endorsed language as a prominent barrier for their parental involvement. One parent from the
Closing the Gap group reported, “El idioma es una limitación muy grande.” Translation: “The
language is a huge limitation.” When asked about potential barriers to parental involvement, one
parent from the Proficient group stated, “El idioma nomas.” Translation: “Only the language.”
Most of the Spanish-speaking parents agreed.
Pues a lo mejor nos sentimos como prohibidos. Pues, ser hispano, hay veces que nos
rechazan grupos en la escuela o cosas así. Pero, pues, en mi caso no ha ocurrido tanto.
Yo he tratado de estar ahí cerca. Las personas que están como en los grupos de padres y
no esa escuela son personas, por lo regular nacidos aquí porque tiene su idioma bien. Y
a veces uno que quiere involucrarse, se siente uno como tímido por el idioma. Para mí
siempre ha sido el idioma. TRANSLATION: Well, maybe we feel prohibited. Well, being
Hispanic, there are times when groups reject us, in the schools or things like that. But in
my case, it hasn’t happened a lot. I have tried to be there (at school). The people who are
in the parent groups and the people in that school, for the most part, are people who
were born here because their (English) is good. And sometimes when I want to get
involved, I feel, like, shy because of the language. For me, it has always been about the
language. [Closing the Gap]

76
Moderadora: “Y me puedes describir qué tipo de comunicación tiene con las personas en
la escuela, si hay alguna comunicación? Sea la maestra, la directora, la enfermera o
cualquier persona en la escuela.”
Participante: “He estado con el maestro. He estado hablando con él, con la – una que le
dan una maestra que me le da clases después de clases. Cómo es que se llama? De
tutoría. Es una de las maestras que me ayudaron mucho con él. Ella! Porque como con
ella me puedo comunicar más. Es la que me ayuda con el maestro. Le pregunto cómo va
lo que esta hacienda, cómo se ha portado. Todo eso, es lo que me ha ayudado mucho con
esa maestra.”
Moderadora: “Y por qué. Por qué ella le ha ayudado mucho?”
Participante: “Porque como ella habla español. Y nos entendemos y como ya la conozco.
Porque fue un tiempo que ella dio clases de inglés. Tengo relación con ella.”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “And can you describe what kind of communication you have with people at
school, if there is any communication? It can be with the teacher, the principal, the
nurse, or anyone at the school.”
Participant: “I have been with the teacher. I have been talking to him, with the—a
teacher that gives my child classes after class. What is it called? Tutoring! She is one of
the teachers that has helped me a lot with my son – her! Because I can communicate
more with her. She is the one that helped me with his teacher. She asked the teacher how
my son is doing, what he is doing, how he has behaved. All of that is what has helped me
a lot with the teacher.”
Moderator: “Why is that? How does (the tutor) help you?
77
Participant: “Because she speaks Spanish. And we understand each other and I know her
because there was a time that she taught English classes. I have a relationship with her.”
[Regressing]
Many times, language barriers exacerbated poor parental proficiency barriers for
Spanish-speaking parents.
Moderadora: “Entonces algún recurso limitado le ha afectado su participación en la
educación de su hija?”
Participante: “Pues, el idioma. Pues, como no habló en inglés tanto. Sí hablo en Inglés,
pero a veces quizás tengo preguntas para los maestros que no sé cómo expresarlas, o que
ellos no me entienden. También a veces en las tareas, palabras que uno no entiende.”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “Have there been any limited resources that have affected your participation
in your daughter’s education?”
Participant: “Well, the language, since I don’t speak English that much. I do speak
English, but sometimes I may have questions for the teachers that I don’t know how to
express, or they don’t understand me. Also, sometimes with the homework, there are
words that I don’t understand.” [Closing the Gap]

Moderadora: “Entonces para usted ha tenido algún recurso limitado que le ha afectado
su participación en la educación de [CHECC child]?”
Participante: “Solamente el idioma. No hablo mucho inglés y eso me dificulta un poquito
más ayudarle con alguna tarea. La realidad es que para ayudarle con una tarea de
78
gramática o algo, realmente él tendría que corregirla solo porque yo no podría ayudarle
en ese aspecto porque yo no tengo ni idea de lo que se trata.”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “Have you had some limited resources that have affected your participation
in [CHECC child] education?”
Participant: “Only the language. I don’t speak much English and that makes it a little
harder for me to help him with some homework assignments. The reality is that to help
him with grammar or something like that, in reality, he would have to correct it himself
because I can’t help him in that regard because I have no idea what the assignment is
about.” [Closing the Gap]
Managing Barriers [77%]. In the intimate individual interview discussions, parents
reflected on and provided examples of ways they managed, or overcame, their barriers. For
example, one parent in the Proficient group reported that she had to “multi-task” to manage her
limited time. “I’m helping with homework, I’m fixing a meal, I do try to make sure they go to bed
at a certain hour so they can get sufficient sleep.” In general, managing the limited time barrier
entailed managing schedules.
Tengo que hacer el tiempo para – y ahora como trabajo, tengo que cuidar el trabajo.
Cómo que programo mis cosas un día antes para poderle poner atención a cada uno de
ellos. Estoy haciéndolo eso. Pero, trabajo porque tengo que hacer dinero […] Como que
le quería dar a entender que – cómo le diré? Que ahora cómo me programó un día antes
para la atención de cada uno de mis hijos, hago el tiempo para cada uno de ellos.
Porque yo sí le dije a [CHECC child], ‘Ahora te voy a dedicar más en el tiempo.’
TRANSLATION: I have to make the time for—and now since I work, I have to take care
79
of my job. Like, I schedule my things the night before to pay attention to each of my
children. That is what I am doing. But I work because I have to make money […] Like, I
want you to understand – how can I tell you? Now, the night before, I schedule some time
and attention for each of my children, I make the time for each of them. Because I told
[CHECC child], ‘Now I am going to dedicate more time to you.’ [Closing the Gap]

Escojo el mismo día para mis dos hijos para no estar en diferente horario. Siempre he
estado pendiente de cómo van.” TRANSLATION: “I choose the same day for my two
children so that they do not have different schedules. I have always been aware of how
things are going. [Continuous Risk]
Managing the poor parental proficiency barrier often entailed the use of technology, such
as Google searches, reaching out to the student’s teacher or relying on the children (or their
siblings) to teach parents how to complete school-related activities, such as a homework
assignments.
Even like that with the math – which I understand the other parents because it's totally
different from when we were in school. I try, even if I don't know exactly what I'm doing.
I will ask her, ‘Okay, can you show me how you do this? Do you remember any steps on
how to do this?’ If she does, she'll show me. If she doesn't, then I try to figure it out. I'm
looking at it and looking at the example and we try to figure it out together. [Continuous
Risk]

Participante: “Ahorita, la tecnología está muy avanzada. Bueno, yo llege como hasta la
– como se dice? Como hasta la high school por decir, en México. Mi esposo solamente
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llegó hasta el quinto grado. Pero le digo, así como le digo yo, siempre que ella nos
pregunta algo. Para eso, ya está toda la tecnología. Ya tenemos ahí donde están las
cosas. Cómo se hacen las cosas y, pues, eso nos ha ayudado mucho, pues, para ir a su
nivel de ella. Ir ayudándole a ella.”
Moderadora: “Entonces aunque un poco limitados, siempre con la tecnología se puede
ayudar uno para superarlo.”
Participante: “Exactamente. Eso es. Pues, nosotros decimos que la tecnología para eso
llego. Es muy bueno, muy bueno.”
Moderadora: “Y usted siente que la tecnología le ha ayudado en el sentido de buscar;
Como digamos a buscar como preguntas que los niños tienen en la escuela o en qué
manera le ha ayudado la tecnología?”
Participante: “Exactamente, Cómo le digo que hay veces que le encargan a ella cosas de
la escuela y nosotros, como le digo, no estamos ya a su nivel, lo que le están enseñando a
ella. ‘Pues sabes que mi hija? Vamos a buscarlo.’ Vamos a buscarlo y depende de dos,
tres respuestas que tengan allí, las asimilamos las dos, y más o menos le decimos.”
TRANSLATION:
Participant: “Right now, technology is very advanced. Well I reached – how do you say?
Like, high school in Mexico. My husband only reached the fifth grade. But I tell him, like
I told you, every time our daughter askes us a question, that’s what all the technology is
for. We now have a place where the things are at, how things are done. And, well, that
helped us a lot, to be at our daughter’s level. It allows us to help her along the way.”
Moderator: “Although a little bit limited, with the technology you can help yourself to
overcome that limitation.”
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Participant: “Exactly, that’s it. Well, we say that the technology arrived for that. It is
very good, very good.”
Moderator: “Yes, okay. And do you feel that the technology has helped you in the sense
of searching – like, say, search for questions that children have in school, or in what
ways has technology helped you?”
Participant: “Exactly, how I told you there are times they give her assignments at school
and we, like I told you, we are not at her level, the things they are teaching her. ‘Well,
you know what daughter? We are going to search for the answer.’ We are going to
search for it and it depends on two, three answers that they have there. We synthesize
them and, more or less, we tell her the answer.” [Proficient]

Anything that I don't know I can find on Google and then be able to model it for him. I
have seen how, like, their modules have changed from how it looks in elementary school
from when I came up, but that's why they still come to us. Whatever I don't know, I can
Google it or look at his previous pages and then just be able to explain it to him so that
he can comprehend it. [Moderate Improvement]

Well, I communicate with the teacher and I write her a note and I let her know what's
going on. When I go to the parent-teacher conferences, I let them know if I'm like, ‘Look,
I don't understand this or how y'all got it.’ And so they'll offer to send me little papers
home and stuff. Or I go online and I Google it. Find out that way, too. [Continuous Risk]
Spanish-speaking parents also provided examples of ways they manage language
barriers. Many parents reported that they attended English classes; however, they expressed
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difficulty with English fluency. Another common strategy was to elicit help from their bilingual
children. A mother in the Closing the Gap group reported that she asked her son for help with
translation in an effort to engage in parent-teacher communication. “Y si, para mandar un
mensaje en Inglés tengo que pedirle a él. Yo lo escribo y le pido a él que lo corrija. Yo le pido
ayuda a él.” Translation: “And yes, to send a text message in English, I have to ask my son. I
write it and I ask him to correct it. I ask him for help.” In addition to eliciting help from their
children, parents at times sought professional help when a translator was available.
Yo siempre he tratado con el idioma. Siempre he ido a la escuela para aprender mejor el
inglés y siempre ellos me corrigen las palabras. Me ayudan: ‘Mami, se pronuncia asi.’
Entonces pues, yo trato de aprenderlo. TRANSLATION: I have always tried with the
(English) language. I have always gone to school to learn English and my children
always correct my words. They help me: ‘Mom, it is pronounced this way.’ So, I try to
learn it. [Closing the Gap]

Participante: “Como yo no hablo el idioma, el Inglés, si hubiera nada más en Inglés
pues, si fuera menos mi participación. Pero como hay personal que habla español,
entonces si es mayor mi participación […] Cuando me han tocado maestras que hablan
puro inglés y no hablan español, tiene un intérprete y siempre me han apoyado con un
intérprete.”
TRANSLATION:
Participant: “Since I don’t speak English, if (school-related activities) were only in
English, well, my participation would be less. But since there are staff that speak
Spanish, then I participate more […] When I’ve had teachers that only speak English and
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not Spanish, I had an interpreter and they have always supported me with an
interpreter.” [Proficient]
One parent reported that she focused on school-related activities that she could
understand. For example, instead of helping her daughter with grammar, sentence structure, and
phonics, the mother required her daughter to practice neat handwriting.
Pues mi esposo y yo no sabemos mucho inglés, pero cuando ella escribe alguna, cuando
está escribiendo una letra y si vemos que no está bien, que una letra está ‘bailando’
cómo le decimos a veces a ella, ‘No, estas letras están bailando! Vuélvelas a hacer otra
vez.’ TRANSLATION: Well, my husband and I do not know much English, but when she
writes some, when she writes a letter and we see that it is not neat, that one letter is
‘dancing’ as we sometimes say, we tell her, ‘No, these letters are dancing! Rewrite
them!’ [Proficient]
Finally, some Spanish-speaking parents reported that they try their best to utilize their
limited English. Parents reported that their limited English is, at times, better than no English at
all.
Ahí trató de comunicarme con los maestros y todos los que están involucrados, de la
mejor manera posible. Creo que tienen un traductor, sí. Yo nunca lo – es rara vez que lo
ocupó cuando voy. Es muy raro que pida que me traduzcan lo que me están diciendo.
Normalmente, yo voy y trato de hacer lo mejor que pueda. Es un poco limitado. No es
muy bien, pero de todos modos, así es. TRANSLATION: I try to communicate with the
teachers and everyone who is involved (at school) in the best way possible. I think they
have a translator, yes. I never – it is on rare occasion that I use them when I go (to the
school). It is very rare that I ask them to translate what they are telling me. Normally, I
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go to the school and I try my best. It is a bit limited. It is not very good, but anyway, that
is how it is. [Closing the Gap]
Spanish-Speaking Parents
In total, there were 13 individual interviews with Spanish-speaking parents. Although
many themes were observed across all five academic achievement trajectories (as described
above), one theme was specific to Spanish-speaking parents.
Generational Improvements (100%). All of the Spanish-speaking parents, compared to
zero of the English-speaking parents, described a desire for their children to have a better life
than theirs (the parents’ lives). Spanish-speaking parents defined generational improvements as a
key component of their parental involvement. Many times, Spanish-speaking parents reported
that they explicitly shared their hardships with their children in an effort to motivate their
children to do well in school. Sometimes, parents used their low-paying or undesirable jobs as
examples of what to avoid.
El me dice que el casi no terminó la escuela, no fue mucho para él. Pero, si les dice que
debe de echarle ganas. Eso sí lo está motivando. Le digo, ‘No quiere leer.’ Le explico, le
digo, ‘Te gustaría estar ahí arriba del techo? Quieres trabajar ahí sufriendo de calor,
sufriendo de frío? Es lo que quieres?’ Digo, ‘Tienes que prepararte.’ Porque mi esposo
le da el ejemplo. Le enseña que, pues, el no escribe bien. Sus letras son apenas, ahorita
ya está más o menos, pero apenas se le entendía. Ahorita ya es lo que le trata de explicar
el. ‘Si quieres ser como yo?’ Dice, ‘No, tú tienes que salir adelante por ti mismo. Echarle
ganas. No decir, “No puedo.” Tienes que poder.’ TRANSLATION: My husband tells me
that he practically didn’t finish school, it wasn’t much for him. But, he does tell our
children that they have to try. He does that, he motivates them. I tell my husband, ‘our
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son doesn’t want to read.’ My husband explains to my son, he tells them, ‘Would you like
to be on a roof? You want to work there, suffering from heat, suffering from the cold? Is
that what you want?’ I tell my son, ‘You have to prepare yourself.’ Because my husband
sets the example. He teaches them that well, he doesn’t write very well. His letters are
barely, right now they are okay, but you can barely understand them. That is what he
tries to explain to them. ‘Do you want to be like me?’ he says, ‘No, you have to be
successful for yourself. Give it a good effort. Don’t say that you can’t do it. You have to
be able to do it. [Regressing]

Me gustaría que fuera al colegio porque no me gustaría que esté trabajando como mi
esposo. Pues a mirar el trabajo que tiene mi esposo, no me gustaría ver en un futuro a
mis hijos así como miró a mi esposo – que llega bien sucio, con las manos bien negras
porque él trabaja en soldadura. El es soldador. Y, pues, yo les digo a mis niños que su
papá siempre está respirando puro humo, puro humo, y yo sé que él está dañando su
organismo por dentro. Y no me gustaría ver así mis hijos. TRANSLATION: I would like
him to go to college because I wouldn’t like him to work like my husband. Well, seeing
the work that my husband has, I wouldn’t like to see one of my children like my husband
in the future – that he arrives really dirty, with his hands very black because he works in
welding. He is a welder. And so I tell my children that their dad is always breathing pure
smoke, pure smoke and I know that he is damaging his body inside. And I would not like
to see my children like that. [Continuous Risk]

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Moderadora: “¿Cuando [CHECC child] esté grande le gustaría que él fuera al
colegio?”
Participante: “Si. ¿Pues para que, como se dice? Para que tenga una, un conocimiento
más mejor. Conocimiento es cómo le decimos. Nosotros no fuimos a la escuela,
prácticamente sabemos hasta el grado a dónde fuimos a la escuela. Pero, asi sabemos,
pero nosotros sí nos gustaría que él fuera para que aprenda más. Más sobre todo en este
país. Y más que nada que tenga un conocimiento más avanzado que nosotros.”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “When [CHECC child] is older, would you like him to go to college?”
Participant: “Yes. So that he, how do you say it? So that he has a better, better
understanding and knowledge. We practically didn’t go to school; we only have
knowledge up to the grade that we attended at school. Regardless, we do have some
knowledge, but we would like him to go to college so that he can learn more, especially
in this country. And, more than anything, that he has more advanced knowledge than us.”
[Moderate Improvement]

Les dice que tienen que echarle ganas. Siempre está trabajando, pero cuando él está, ahí
les dice, ‘Estudien. Prepárense. Mírenme.’ Les vamos mucho de que tienen que estudiar
y prepararse porque es lo único. Eso es la mejor herencia, que ellos estudien.
TRANSLATION: My husband tells them that they have to put an effort. He is always
working, but when he is there, he tells our children, ‘Study. Prepare yourself. Look at
me.’ We tell them often that they have to study and prepare themselves because it is the
only thing. That is the best inheritance, that they study. [Closing the Gap]
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Appendix J. Additional Quotes for the Generational Improvements Theme
Summary and Integrated Mixed Findings
Study Aim 1: Defining Parental Involvement
The first study aim was to holistically explore and define “parental involvement” as it is
understood by low-SES parents who have young children attending school. Parents in both the
focus group discussions and individual interviews identified several key factors in their
definition of parental involvement, including the important role of siblings, parent-teacher
communication, and identifying enrichment activities for their children.
Parents expanded the traditional definition of parental involvement by including siblings,
particularly older siblings, as playing a significant role with the CHECC children’s education-
related activities. Siblings helped with homework, engaged in informal enrichment activities, and
for Spanish-speaking parents, siblings also sometimes served as translators.
Another key component in the definition of parental involvement was parent-teacher
communication. Parents reported that they communicated with their children’s teachers during
the bi-annual parent-teacher conferences. Also, the school district adopted an electronic
communication application, ClassDojo, that allowed teachers to provide frequent updates to
parents about classroom activities, homework assignments, or upcoming school events. Often
times, the ClassDojo communication was one-sided by teachers and focused less on the specific
child and more on classroom happenings. In general, parents reported that without perceived
concerns or problems, they did not engage in parent-teacher communication beyond parent-
teacher conferences.
A final component in the definition of parental involvement across the academic
achievement trajectories and in both the focus groups and individual interviews was enrichment
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activities. As part of their parental involvement, parents sought activities that they believed
enhanced their children’s academic performance. Often times, the low-SES parents in the current
study described informal enrichment activities, such as playing soccer with a family member or
completing art projects at home. Formal, or organized, enrichment activities were most often
described in the context of the child’s school setting. For example, parents enrolled their children
in music classes, summer camps, or a glee club through the school. Parents rarely endorsed
formal enrichment activities outside of the school setting.
Other components of a “parental involvement” definition were endorsed; however, they
were not triangulated through both the focus groups and individual interviews. For example, the
focus group participants also reported that varied parental strategies are a key component of
parental involvement. This included offering routines, as well as positive messages or advice to
their children. Parents who were individually interviewed also expanded the definition of
parental involvement by reporting that parental involvement is dynamic, constantly changing,
and that frequently, only one parent is prominently involved in education-related activities.
Study Aim 2: Parental Involvement in the Proficient and Closing the Gap Groups
The second study aim was to explore parental involvement practices affecting young
children who are closing the low/high-SES academic achievement gap, in the context of
socioeconomic disadvantage. Only one theme was identified for the Proficient and Closing the
Gap groups through the focus group discussions. Parents in the focus group discussions reported
that they used screen time, such as iPads, smart phones, or television, as a parental involvement
facilitator. Parents reported that technological advances allowed them to provide opportunities
for their children to learn more than what was offered in a classroom setting.
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In total, there were five and four individual interviews from the Closing the Gap and
Proficient trajectory groups, respectively. Seventy-eight percent of parents, compared to only
14% of parents in the other trajectory groups (i.e., Regressing, Continuous Risk, or Moderate
Improvement), described their children as having “grit.” Parents who were individually
interviewed from the Closing the Gap and Proficient groups described their children as
“naturally smart,” “self-motivated,” or having “strength of character.” These parents
acknowledged that their children’s grit was outside of their parental involvement definition,
instead, they believed their children were born this way.
[CHECC child] is doing exceptionally well. Of all my children, she's actually one of the
kids that I really don't have to check too much on her – she comes home, she already
knows what to do, I don't have to help her a whole lot with her homework. She is – I don't
know some kids is just naturally smart. She's one of those kids that's naturally smart and
if I do have to help her with something, she grasps it right away. I'm grateful for that. She
picks up very fast. She very seldom ask me for help with homework or anything, ‘cause
she pays attention in class and she does naturally grasp information, but if she does come
ask me for help then she gets it. It doesn't take a long time explaining things to her […]
She's always been that way. She always been one of them kids to ask a lot of questions.
She's very inquisitive like I said she pays attention to a lot of the details and it's – she
surprised me with as much as she knows. She surprises me a whole lot, ‘cause I'll be like,
‘Wait a minute, I didn't teach this. Tell me how do you know this? [Closing the Gap]

Desde que iba a grado pre-kínder, cómo que tenía muchas ganas de aprender, una sed
de aprender. Desde chiquito él siempre le ha gustado aprender. TRANSLATION: Since
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he was in preschool, he had a lot of desire to learn, he was thirsty to learn. Since he was
little, he has always liked to learn. [Proficient]

She already takes an interest in her education. It's not like I have to—you know, some
kids you have to make them do homework or make them do activities and she's not like
that. She's already taking a broad interest. The things I would have to encourage some
kids to do, she — Also, she has a natural eye for reading or books. I don't have to tell her,
she already knows. [Closing the Gap]
Study Aim 3: Parental Involvement for Spanish-Speaking Parents
The third and final study aim was to analyze potential parental involvement differences
between English- and Spanish-speaking low-SES families. Spanish-speaking parents identified
three parental involvement components and one barrier that were not endorsed from their
English-speaking counterparts.
First, Spanish-speaking parents defined parental involvement as a “parent-centered”
versus a “child-centered” approach. Many Spanish-speaking parents reported that they did not
get involved in their children’s lives, instead, their children got involved in their lives. For
example, children were obliged to join their parents for daily errands and, at times, joined their
parents at work. Spanish-speaking parents also reported a deep desire for generational
improvements, sometimes using their own life as an example of what to avoid. For example,
parents used their low-paying and undesirable jobs as a means to motivate their children to do
well in school. Last, Spanish-speaking parents reported that they perceived their role was to
teach their children how to be well-mannered and respectful, not to instruct their children on
91
academic matters. The latter role was perceived to be solely, or primarily, the teachers’
responsibility.
Spanish-speaking parents defined parental involvement in the context of a significant
barrier: language limitations. Across both focus group discussions and individual interviews,
Spanish-speaking parents reported that they would be more involved in their children’s
education-related activities if they were better able to communicate and express themselves in
the host language, i.e., English.
Beyond Parental Involvement
Although the study aims were focused on understanding and exploring parental
involvement, parents highlighted that other components – outside of parental involvement –
affect students’ academic performance. Parents reported that both the role of teachers and the
students themselves matter quite a bit. One parent from the Proficient group summarized it this
way:
Yo pienso que para que un niño tenga éxito son tres puntos que tiene que ver. Número 1:
maestros. Número 2: niños. Número 3: padres. Los tres tenemos que tener comunicación.
Tenemos que saber lo que está pasando con nuestros hijos, apoyar a nuestros hijos.
TRANSLATION: I think that for a child to succeed, there are three things that need to be
present. Number 1: Teachers. Number 2: Children. Number 3: Parents. The three of us
have to have communication. We have to know what is going on with our children,
support our children. [Proficient]
Parents described teachers as variable. Sometimes teachers were perceived as good and
noble, other times they were perceived as uninterested in their students. Below are some
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examples of how parents described teachers and how a teacher could influence students’ school
performance.
First of all, it takes a teacher that really is dedicated to her work and wants to help
children. Some people are out to do it for a paycheck […] But there's other teachers out
there that are really dedicated and some are there for the paycheck and some are really
there to make a difference in the world. And the ones that are there to make a difference
in the world, I notice they come to the parents a lot. When their kid ain't doing something
or they think there's something that the child needs, some help, they will come and
address it to the parents. But then there's some that don't say nothing and you could see
them in school how they act, and then your kids tell you about this one particular teacher
that don't do nothing. ‘Say, what did you learn today?’ ‘Nothing. She just sit by the desk
and just told us to open our book and read that page and that was it. Then we're gonna
have a test.’ So there's some good and some bad in the teachers. Some are really
dedicated to teach some children but then a lot of teachers I think are frustrated with the
attitude these kids got nowadays. [Moderate Improvement]

A mi niño no le han brindado ayuda. Se me hace injusto porque he ido hablar con ella, si
ofrecieron ayuda, pero dijo que para los niños que están muy poquito bajos, que para los
que están muy atrás no. Digo, se supone que va más atrás es al que tienen que apoyar
más. Pero no, ellos se están enfocando en puntuaciones, me imagino, que para el estado.
Los que están poquito, suben y presentan esas plantas A. Yo me imagino que en eso
estan. TRANSLATION: They have not given my son help. I find it unfair because I have
gone to talk with her (the teacher). They do offer help, but she said for children that are
93
only a little behind, not for the children who are very behind. I think, they are supposed
to help the ones that are furthest behind. But, no, they are focusing on their rankings, I
imagine, for the state. For those that are a little behind, they improve and get As. I
imagine that is what they are doing. [Regressing]

Participante 1: “Entonces éste yo miré como por unos siete meses que ella no estaba
haciendo cosas bien. No estaba poniéndole atención a los niños, no estaba – si tú le
preguntabas algo ella era como muy ruda, como muy...”
Participante 2: “Se molestaba.”
Participante 1: “Sí. Pero por eso ella está trabajando. Pues sí tú no entiendes esta
cuenta, tienes que preguntarle y ella tiene que volver explicar.”
TRANSLATION:
Participant 1: “So I saw for about seven months that (the teacher) wasn’t doing things
right. She wasn’t paying attention to the children, she wasn’t— if you asked her a
question about something, she was very rude, like very…”
Participant 2: “She would get irritated.”
Participant 1: “Yes. But that is why she is working. If (the child) doesn’t understand this
problem, they have to ask her and she has to explain it again.” [Continuous Risk]

I feel like it's kind of different with every teacher, personally. I think there are some
teachers that do go above and beyond and have high expectations for their students, and
they do their best and try really hard to get them to meet them. I feel like I would rather
have them have high expectations for our children and have them shoot for that and give
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them positive reinforcement, and positive, you know, when they do reach it, like, great
job. Even that matters. But then, there are teachers, like she said, that it's just, like, a job.
I'm going 9:00 to 5:00 type of thing to where I'm going, I'm doing what I have to do, and
I'm going home. There's a big difference, and you can see it. You're not going to have –
your child is not going to have that kind of teacher every year. So, it's going to be hit or
miss. One year they may have an amazing teacher that you just love and you wish all
teachers are like that. [Proficient]
Appendix J. Additional Quotes for the Teachers’ Role Theme
Parents also perceived some of their children’s academic success, or lack thereof, as
driven by the children’s characteristics or personality. For example, some children were
described as “shy” and avoided asking questions in class, even when parents believed they
needed additional instruction. Other children were described as “naturally smart” or “self-
motivated,” and therefore achieved academic success without a strong need for parental
involvement. In other reports, parents believed it was the students’ sole, or primary,
responsibility to achieve academic success.
It's not going to fall on me where you're going to tell, where my child is going to come
and tell me, ‘Mom, I just can't do it. Can you go tell’ – No. You need to figure it out. If it's
tutoring, it's your job to figure out that subject, it does not fall on the parent. But, I think
we have to support that child. So, I think that for me is – because I know if the child
wants to do it, you can do it. Because I never had help, I didn't have that type of help in
life. [Regressing]

95
En mi caso, las mías son bien tímidas. Pues nomas aquí en la escuela, me imagino,
porque en la casa son canijas. [laughs] Pero aquí en la escuela, seguido me hablaban de
que la niña no participaba, no opinaba, no nada y me llamaron y vine y ya me dijeron
que porque eran las niñas así y sí así eran en la casa. Le dije, ‘No en la casa no son así.’
TRANSLATION: In my case, my children are very shy. Well, just at school, I guess,
because at home they are naughty. (laughter). But here at school, they called me
frequently – that my daughter doesn’t participate, that she doesn’t express her opinion,
nothing; and they called me and I came and they asked me why she is like this.
[Continuous Risk]

He's doing very well in school. I think a lot of it is with the teacher, being at home, and
pretty much now he's – he has homework and I'm going, ‘Okay, let's get ready for
homework,’ and ‘Oh, I've done it,’ that type of thing. So, I think he's really more into self-
motivated to just get it done, mainly gets it done at school. I think mainly he does a lot on
his own, read a lot of things that go on, and then he comes home and just kind of follows
up on different things. He's very, very curious about stuff. So things like geography and
that stuff, he's just into it. He can do a whole world map and name different things. I
don't know where he gets it from, but I think he's just curious. [Proficient]
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Chapter 4: Discussion
Study Implications
The way parental involvement is conceptualized greatly influences the expectations
placed on parents (by schools or parents themselves) on how they involve themselves in their
children’s education-related activities. Having discordant definitions can legitimize some, while
pathologizing other diverse parental involvement practices (De Carvalho, 2000). In this study, a
sample of 1,408 low-SES households, both children and parents, was used to understand how
low-SES families define and practice education-related parental involvement. Quantitative
longitudinal growth curve models were employed to identify children’s early academic
achievement trajectories, from preschool through third grade, a critical time for both brain
development and initial exposure to school. Five academic achievement trajectories were
identified: Proficient, Closing the Gap, Moderate Improvement, Regressing, and Continuous
Risk. The results from the quantitative analysis, as well as a risk and resilience framework,
directly informed the sequential qualitative analyses which included both focus groups and
individual interviews. Specifically, focus groups were arranged based on academic achievement
trajectory groups, resulting in two focus groups per academic achievement trajectory. Similarly,
a minimum of four individual interviews were conducted to represent the diverse and unique
academic trajectory groups that were identified through the quantitative analysis. A risk and
resilience framework allowed for a balance understanding of how low-SES families define
education-related parental involvement.
In fact, low-SES families in the current study defined parental involvement with some
distinct differences than what is captured in current research studies, schools, communities, and
survey measurements. As just one example, low-SES and Spanish-speaking families reported
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that they explicitly used their experiences of hardships, disappointments, and failures to motivate
their children to do well in school. Whereas high-SES families model desirable behaviors for
their young children, low-SES parents discuss perceived life limitations and ask their children,
without much guidance, to try something different. Lived experiences such as these suggest that
the concept of parental involvement may vary substantially based on family circumstances, and
may not be accurately, nor holistically defined for all groups of parents.
Assumptions about the meaning and expectations of education-related parental
involvement may also unintentionally have negative effects on perceptions of parents and their
support for their children’s educational development. Better understanding how different groups,
particularly vulnerable populations such as low-SES families, define and practice parental
involvement is therefore vital because how it is defined has direct implications for how schools,
communities, policy makers, and parents themselves perceive that parental involvement should
be practiced. It also has direct implications for how parental involvement is measured and
broadly understood.
The findings in the current dissertation imply that the parental involvement construct in
academic literature, and to some degree in schools and communities, is predominately driven by
a middle- and high-SES definition. In such a definition, parents are often thought of as being
confident, educated individuals who can pose questions, concerns, or recommendations with
school personnel. It is also assumed that parents have the necessary skills and understand how to
help their children complete school activities, including homework assignments and classroom
projects. In return, parents are expected to dedicate their available resources (e.g., time and
money) accordingly to their children’s education-related needs. However, the low-SES families
in the current study provided a counter-narrative to these commonly held assumptions when
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defining education-related parental involvement. In the context of low socioeconomic resources,
parents in the current study described themselves as uncomfortable raising concerns or
recommendations with school personnel. Although most teachers were perceived as friendly,
they were simultaneously perceived as authority figures who bear responsibility to ensure the
academic success of students. In addition, low-SES parents reported an inability, or low ability,
to help their children with school-related work. Parents continued to have investment in and seek
out ways to be involved with their children’s academic growth, but basic assumptions about
parental involvement as a deployable resource as measured and described in the academic
literature were challenged.
Low Socioeconomic Status Families (Study Aim 1)
To date, low-SES and Spanish-speaking parents have been under-researched in exploring
how they both define and practice parental involvement in their children’s education-related
activities, despite being two groups that traditionally, in academic literature, have lower levels of
parental involvement when compared to their high-SES and English-speaking counterparts
(McQuiggan & Megra, 2017; Watson & Swanberg, 2013). To address the first study aim, to
define “parental involvement” as it is understood by low-SES parents, 41 parents across 10 focus
groups and 23 parents across individual interviews that represented all five academic
achievement trajectory groups were asked to define parental involvement. Five primary themes
that defined parental involvement, as it is understood by low-SES parents, were endorsed: 1.
sibling role; 2. parent-teacher communication; 3. parental strategies; 4. single-parent
involvement; and 5. dynamic parental involvement.
These components that define parental involvement for low-SES parents have direct
implications for how parental involvement should be measured. For example, low-SES parents
99
expanded the traditional definition of “parental involvement” by including the role of siblings.
Low-SES parents argued that siblings, particularly older siblings, play a significant role in their
children’s education-related activities. Older siblings help with homework assignments; facilitate
communication between parents and teachers; explain school material to both their parents and
younger siblings; engage in enrichment activities with their younger siblings; and share their
school experiences which are often relevant and recent. Although most studies examining
education-related involvement measure only the role of parents, some emerging studies have
included the role of other family members, such as how siblings improve social-emotional
functioning, working memory, and cognitive flexibility (Hill, 2020; Zaidman-Zait et al., 2020).
The current study provides empirical evidence that, due to barriers that low-SES parents face to
directly support their children’s academic progress, the concept of parental involvement may
need to be more broadly defined. In families with limited resources and low levels of formal
education, parents talked about relying on the extended family network, especially siblings, to
circumvent their own limitations and provide additional academic support to children in the
family. Taking into account the full spectrum of families, there likely is a need to conceptualize
“parental involvement” more broadly by including the role of siblings. To holistically and
accurately understand the support that children from low-SES families receive in regard to their
education-related activities, future measurements and instruments should consider family
involvement instead of parental involvement.
The second theme, parent-teacher communication, is another component of how the
participating parents defined their education-related involvement. On the surface, this seems to
be consistent with other studies that have found significant and positive associations with higher
rates of parent-teacher communication and higher student academic achievement scores.
100
However, there are important and distinct differences in how low-SES parents qualitatively
defined parent-teacher communication. First, most parents reported that they attended the
biannual parent-teacher conferences, and they believed that meeting provided sufficient parent-
teacher communication. Parents reported that they trusted teachers to provide a detailed report of
not only their children’s academic performance, but also their children’s behavioral and social
functioning. As a result, most parents did not engage in parent-teacher communication outside of
the parent-teacher conferences, unless there were specific identified problems or concerns.
Currently, parental involvement is conceptualized as almost being synonymous with the amount
of hours that parents invest, including hours spent on parent-teacher communication (Barger et
al., 2019). However, the parents in the current study demonstrated that at times, lower levels of
parent-teacher communication might signal healthy student school functioning. The identified
theme, “no problems; no communication,” may in part explain why some of the literature around
parental involvement has found mixed outcomes (Holod, 2012; Makofske, 2010). Several hours
of parent-teacher communication outside of the typical parent-teacher conference could be
driven by an astute parent with a child who is doing well in school, or a concerned parent with a
child who is struggling in school. Family involvement measurements should not only quantify
the amount of parent-teacher communication, but also assess the quality and drivers of parent-
teacher communication.
Because low-SES parents’ communication with teachers often defaults to the parent-
teacher conferences, future research ought to examine the quality of the parent-teacher
conferences. For example, in addition to providing feedback on how a single child is doing,
future research ought to explore if providing feedback on how the index child is academically
performing relative to their classmates, peers within the school, peers in the local district, and
101
peers across the country have parental involvement implications. This can potentially provide
parents with more useful information to then target necessary resources or enrichment activities
to improve their children’s school functioning. Also, schools may consider standardized ways to
provide parents with holistic feedback, beyond academic performance. In a global effort to
produce not only A+ students but also A+ humans (Astor & Benbenishty, 2018), teachers can
engage parents in conversations around social-emotional learning during parent-teacher
conferences.
A final consideration around the parent-teacher communication theme is the use of
electronic applications. Specific to the current sample, the Chicago Heights school district
adopted ClassDojo, a communication application that allowed teachers to virtually bring parents
into the classroom experience by sharing photos, classroom updates, videos, and class
announcements. Although this application did not increase two-way, reciprocal parent-teacher
communication, parents reported several benefits. In general, parents reported that ClassDojo
was useful because they felt more involved in their children’s education-related experiences. The
ClassDojo app allowed parents to be up-to-date with classroom activities, assignments, and
upcoming events. Several schools across the country have adopted a similar application, and
although future research is needed to better understand the potential benefits on student school
functioning, districts without a similar application should consider pursuing this as a method to
further engage parents in their children’s education-related activities.
As a third theme, parents endorsed several different strategies that they implemented to
be involved in their children’s education-related activities in the context of socioeconomic
limitations. The three primary parental strategies included providing their children with advice
and positive messaging; ensuring consistent routines; and identifying enrichment activities for
102
their children. Whereas all three strategies are consistent with previous literature, qualitatively,
enrichment activities appeared to have distinct differences when compared to high-SES families.
Enrichment activities for high-SES families may include music lessons, travel, summer camps,
sports, dance recitals, outdoor recreational activities, or local visits to a museum or theatre.
However, in the current study, enrichment activities were often described as informal, such as
playing soccer with a family member or completing an art project at home. When enrichment
activities were formal, such as music lessons or gymnastics, they were often provided at no cost
by the local school. This finding has at least two important implications. First, schools should
continue to offer enrichment activities, especially in low-SES neighborhoods. Often times, this
could represent the only pathway for low-SES students to access formal enrichment activities,
which have been shown to be significantly important in children’s educational development
(Hodges et al., 2017). Second, future research should examine the differences and similarities
between formal and informal enrichment activities. A better understanding of what types and
structures of enrichment activities help children the most can have implications for future
recommended enrichment activities in an effort to improve academic achievement.
The last two themes, single-parent and dynamic parental involvement also have
implications for family involvement measurements and instruments. For the latter theme, parents
reported that their parental involvement changed over time as their children developed. Most
parents reported that their parental involvement decreased from preschool to third grade,
however a few reported that it increased. For the parents who reported that their parental
involvement increased, the drivers were often in the context of their children’s social, instead of
academic, functioning at school. For example, low-SES parents reported being concerned about
negative peer influences and therefore consciously increased their levels of parental involvement.
103
Nonetheless, existing measurements fail to capture the dynamic nature of parental involvement.
Often, a single parental involvement scale or survey is used with populations across time, from
preschool through 12
th
grade. Having family involvement measurements that are anchored in
specific grades, ages, or developmental periods might more accurately capture family
involvement in education-related activities.
For the “single-parent involvement” theme, one parent reported being primarily involved
despite being married or having a domestic partner. Parents who took on the primary, or full,
responsibility of their children’s education-related activities reported being “tired” and at times
not providing “optimal” involvement. Future family involvement measurements ought to ask
how many family members get involved with the index child’s education-related activities, in
addition to assessing the quality of involvement that children receive.
Naturally, as parents reflected on their parental involvement, they also reflected on the
barriers that they have experienced. Two primary barriers were identified: limited time and poor
parental proficiency. Parents in the current study reported that they managed their limited time
by multi-tasking and being intentional about their schedules. For example, parents enrolled their
children in the same extracurricular activities, or in different activities but at the same location,
to maximize the parents’ limited time.
The second barrier, poor parental proficiency, is significant and has not been widely
published in the extant literature. Low-SES parents reported that poor parental proficiency
significantly limited their desired parental involvement. Poor parental proficiency refers to the
parents’ inability, or limited ability, to help their children in education-related activities, such as
homework assignments. The drivers behind poor parental proficiency were twofold. First, some
parents did not have the academic knowledge necessary to assist their children with school
104
assignments due to low levels of formal education. Other parents reported that although they had
some formal education, they found it difficult to help their children with school assignments
because children were learning school materials “differently.” For example, many parents
reported that their children’s math skills and strategies differed from the skills and strategies that
they learned when the parents were in school. Low-SES parents reported that they attempted to
manage poor parental proficiency by employing Google searches, reaching out to teachers, or
having their children (or an older sibling) teach the parent (or index child) how to complete an
assignment. The parents, much to their chagrin, reported feeling both deflated and paralyzed by
poor parental proficiency, resulting in lower levels of parental involvement.
Proficient and Closing the Gap Trajectory Groups (Study Aim 2)
The second study aim was to explore parental involvement practices among the parents
of young children who were closing the low/high-SES academic achievement gap, in the context
of socioeconomic disadvantage. Only one theme was identified. Whereas parents from the
“moderate improvement,” “regressing,” and “continuous risk” academic achievement trajectory
groups identified technology or screen time as a barrier, parents from the “proficient” and
“closing the gap” groups identified it as a facilitator for their children’s positive school
functioning. Parents in the latter groups reported that technology usage, such as smart phones,
iPads, computers, or television, was a parental involvement strategy that helped their children’s
school performance. In addition to helping their children search for additional knowledge on
unique interests or hobbies (such as the population of Alaska), parents reported that technology
usage allowed their children to gain vital skills for future employment. The implication, parents
reported, was that technology usage had both benefits and disadvantages. When used responsibly
and under close supervision, technology was perceived to help improve their children’s school
105
performance by allowing children to explore and enhance their interests outside of the school
setting.
Parents from the “proficient” and “closing the gap” groups also described their children
as naturally smart and inquisitive, as well as having “grit.” Therefore, it is difficult to disentangle
whether screen time as a facilitator was driven by the parents’ involvement or the children’s grit.
Further research is needed to better understand the relationships between technology (i.e., screen
time), education-related family involvement, and student academic achievement outcomes.
Spanish-Speaking Families (Study Aim 3)
In their definition of parental involvement, Spanish-speaking parents also endorsed the
important role of siblings, parent-teacher communication, parental strategies (such as enrichment
activities), dynamic parental involvement, and single-parent involvement. They also shared the
“limited time” and “poor parental proficiency” barriers with their English-speaking counterparts.
However, consistent with previous literature, Spanish-speaking parents endorsed unique parental
involvement practices and barriers when compared to their English-speaking counterparts
(McQuiggan & Megra, 2017; Tarasawa & Waggoner, 2015). To address the third and final study
aim, potential parental involvement differences between English- and Spanish-speaking low-SES
parents were analyzed. In addition to the themes and barriers described above for low-SES
families in general, which included both English- and Spanish-speaking parents, Spanish-
speaking parents endorsed three additional themes and one additional barrier. The themes
include a parent, versus child-centered approach; attitudes about what the school teaches versus
what parents teach; and aspiring for generational improvements. Difficulties with the English
language were identified as a barrier to parental involvement in their children’s academic lives.
106
First, Spanish-speaking parents endorsed a parent-centered, versus a child-centered,
approach to their parental involvement. Specifically, Spanish-speaking parents reported that they
did not get involved in their children’s lives; instead, their children got involved in the parents’
lives. Children of Spanish-speaking parents were required to join their parents for daily errands
(e.g., trips to the grocery store), household activities (e.g., helped to cook dinner), and at times
accompanied their parents in the workplace (e.g., construction site on the weekend). This theme
alone demonstrates a fundamental discordance from the current definition, and expectations, of
the parental involvement conceptualization that promotes child-centeredness. In fact, Spanish-
speaking parents felt they were quite involved; however, traditional academic measurements may
not capture the different mechanisms for their perceived involvement.
Spanish-speaking parents also endorsed a theme known by the Spanish word,
“educación,” further cultivating distinct parental involvement practices. Consistent with previous
literature, this theme highlights that Spanish-speaking parents perceive their role as primarily
teaching their children to be respectful and well-behaved, instead of teaching them academic
material (Johnson et al., 2016). In fact, Spanish-speaking and low-SES parents viewed schools as
primarily responsible for academics.
The final theme, generational improvements, is similar to the parental strategy of
providing advice or positive messaging that was endorsed by both Spanish- and English-
speaking low-SES parents. However, as part of their parental involvement, Spanish-speaking
parents reported that they explicitly shared with their children a desire for them to have a
“better,” more successful life. Many times, Spanish-speaking parents used their own arduous
experiences, such as a poor paying and undesirable job to motivate their children.
107
Collectively, these three themes –– parent-centered approach, educación, and
generational improvements –– imply that Spanish-speaking, low-SES parents have unique
cultural parental involvement practices that vary from current definitions of the parental
involvement construct. These findings suggest that future research is needed to better understand
mechanisms, drivers, and pathways for parental involvement among Spanish-speaking parents.
Family involvement measurements ought to consider diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds
that present with unique parental involvement practices, such as a parent-centered approach to
education-related involvement.
Last, consistent with previous studies, Spanish-speaking parents reported language as a
significant barrier to their parental involvement (Tarasawa & Waggoner, 2015). Spanish-
speaking parents reported feeling uncomfortable attending school events because of their
inability, or limited ability, to express their thoughts, feelings, concerns, and questions regarding
their children’s education-related functioning. Although many Spanish-speaking parents reported
that professional translators were available at formal school meetings, such as parent-teacher
conferences, they often opted out of these services. Instead, Spanish-speaking parents asked their
eldest child or a Spanish-speaking teacher or school staff member to translate for them. This
finding implies that academic ideas about mechanisms for parental involvement are likely more
complex to enact for families with linguistic barriers. Parental involvement differences by SES
and ethnic groups may be influenced significantly by these language-related boundaries. Schools
should be particularly conscious of these barriers to parental involvement and, when possible,
consider ways to hire staff that reflects their student body demographics. Not only would this
enhance the involvement of Spanish-speaking parents, it could also fortify relationships among
school personnel and parents.
108
Study Limitations
The study findings and implications should be considered in the context of the study
limitations. First, parents were susceptible to both recall bias and social desirability. At the time
of the study, children were between nine and 13 years old. However, parents were asked to
reflect upon and discuss their parental involvement practices between preschool and third grade.
Future studies should track parental involvement in real time. Parents might also have inflated
the positive aspects of their education-related involvement, while mitigating (or omitting)
perceived undesirable practices. Social desirability biases would tend to flatten out the
differences between academic trajectory groups in the current study. However, many parents
were interviewed in both a focus group and individual interview setting and reported both
parental involvement facilitators and barriers. In fact, many parents openly discussed their
perceived shortcomings. Nonetheless, the current findings should be interpreted with the
possibility of social-desirability bias.
Also, in the current study, only parents were interviewed. Hearing from teachers, other
family members directly involved with the index child’s academic development (e.g., siblings),
and children (when appropriate), could provide a more holistic understanding of parent and
family involvement in education-related activities. Despite these limitations, the current study
offers insights into low-SES and Spanish-speaking parental and family involvement definitions
and practices.
In addition, academic achievement trajectories were identified by only using test scores
from the WJ-III and PPVT. Previous research has suggested that multiple sources, such as
standardized testing, research measures (e.g., Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test), and school
grades, are necessary to more accurately capture children’s academic performance (Diamond et
109
al., 2016). This is particularly true for vulnerable and under-researched populations, such as low-
SES and Spanish-speaking families. The current study, however, did use two test scores that
were repeated seven times over a four-year span, which allowed for the detection of changes in
academic trajectories over time.
The current study could potentially have been strengthened by having additional focus
groups and individual interviews. Some themes were emerging in the focus groups and
individual interviews; however, saturation was not reached and therefore these emerging themes
were not presented in the current report. Only themes endorsed by 70% (for individual
interviews) or 80% (for focus groups) of the parents were presented. It is possible that emerging
themes might have insightful implications to better understand the parental involvement
construct. Also, the relatively low number of focus groups (n = 10) and individual interviews (n
= 23) did not allow for a more detailed analysis of patterns among parents from the different
trajectory groups. Additional research is needed to better understand potential unique practices
amongst the diverse academic trajectory groups (e.g., the Proficient and Closing the Gap groups)
that can have implications for ways to mitigate the low/high-SES academic achievement gap.
Recommendations
Currently, there is a noticeable absence of national guidelines to better leverage parent-
teacher conferences to the benefit of family involvement and student outcomes. These meetings
were fundamentally important for the low-SES parents in the current study because they are one
of the unique moments when teachers, students, and families meet to discuss the student’s school
functioning. Nationwide and systematic guidelines should be implemented to ensure that all
families across the nation are receiving the necessary, critical feedback to help their children
succeed in school. Capitalizing on the innate and intrinsic interest of parents to see their children
110
succeed in school, such feedback can be used to identify school performance problems early,
allowing for timely preventive or early intervention services, or to target strategies that enhance
their children’s school functioning. For example, depending on the children’s strengths and
needs, students can be enrolled in STEM programs, writing workshops, math camps, or liberal
arts seminars. Further research is needed to understand best practices around parent-teacher
conferences.
A significant barrier that was reported by most of the parents in the current study is poor
parental proficiency. In an effort to address poor parental proficiency, schools and education-
related services and institutes might need to reimagine outreach services to low-SES parents. For
example, parents reported that some schools in the district offer night classes for adults, such as
English classes in neighborhoods with high rates of monolingual Spanish-speaking families. For
a nominal cost (or no cost), this concept could be expanded and schools could offer workshops
on math or reading basics for dyads, including both the student and their parent(s). Such a class
could empower parents to better understand their children’s school material, increase their
parental involvement, and enhance their children’s academic functioning. It could also bolster
parents’ confidence to interact with school personnel while increasing their school-related
parental involvement. Low-cost workshops have the potential to raise money for schools nested
in low-SES neighborhoods; schools can then decide how to invest that money for their local
needs, such as extending access to formal enrichment activities.
Last, an up-stream approach is important to help identify national and global policies that
assist family involvement in students’ education-related activities. For instance, an emerging
theme in the current study suggested that work-related responsibilities interfered with parents’
ability to attend school meetings or events. Workplace policies, particularly for blue-collar jobs,
111
should consider parent and family involvement-friendly policies that allow low-SES parents to
take time off work, without negative ramifications, to engage in their children’s education-
related activities. Such policies would be consistent with other social policies that aim to
improve family well-being and long-term social and economic outcomes (e.g., the Family and
Medical Leave Act that requires employers to provide employees with job-protected leave for
qualified family and medical reasons). Education-related family involvement policies have the
potential to both enhance children and their families’ well-being, as well as increase economic
growth due to better rates of academic achievement among low-SES students.
Study Participants’ Recommendations
In addition to describing pathways on how they were involved in their children’s
education-related activities, parents also made a couple of important and feasible
recommendations for the schools. First, parents reported that with time, teachers were less likely
to ask parents to volunteer in the classroom or school setting. Many parents recalled getting an
invitation to volunteer in the classroom when their children were in preschool, kindergarten, or
first grade; but they were less likely to receive such an invitation when their children reached
second or third grade. Parents suggested that schools should consider ways to engage parents in
ongoing school activities. For example, inviting parents to be in the classrooms or playground to
assist school personnel with engaging students or completing specialty projects (e.g., science or
art). Schools can also hold community events to further strengthen relationships with students
and their families.
Second, the low-SES parents in the current study reported that their children’s schools
would benefit from family donations to provide additional school resources or events, such as
tutoring services or evening concerts for the students and their families. Across all of the focus
112
group and individual interview discussions, parents reported that school should be “fun” for their
children. Parents indicated a willingness (and feasibility) to donate a nominal amount between $1
and $20 to the school every year, if it meant improving their children’s school experience.
Because most parents attend the parent-teacher conferences, schools could consider fundraising
during these events. Without overburdening school personnel, schools should also consider
providing feedback in terms of how much money was raised and how those funds were used.
Such information can keep parents up-to-date on school expenditures and events, as well as
potentially motivate them for future fundraisers.
Conclusion
Altogether, the current dissertation calls into question the basic assumptions underlying
commonly held notions about education-related parental involvement. The construct assumes
that parental involvement is equally feasible among all families, but inequalities exist on various
levels, particularly for vulnerable populations such as low-SES or Spanish-speaking families in
the United States. Specifically, the construct does not sufficiently take into account potential
cultural differences in perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of parents relative to schools.
It also does not take into account barriers that alienate and separate parents from involvement,
such as language and feelings (e.g., discomfort or low confidence) of being unable to support
their children in foundational academic work. The current parental involvement construct also
does not take into account how families manage limitations (e.g., sibling involvement to
overcome poor parental proficiency) to increase support for their children. Importantly, it
assumes that parents are meaningfully and accurately able to assess their children’s progress and
needs for parental involvement, which may be an inaccurate assumption for parents having
difficulty with their ability to support basic academic development. If education-related parental
113
involvement is not holistically understood, a deeper and continuous exploration of what it means
to be involved, as well as how schools and parents alike can best support family involvement for
the benefit of all children is required. The concept of parental involvement overall may need to
be conceptualized more broadly as part of supporting the closure of a widening academic
achievement gap between families from low- and high- SES backgrounds.

114
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127
APPENDIX A.
BILINGUAL FLYER

Dear CHECC parent,

We invite you to a 1-hour small-group discussion about your experiences raising your child. In
this discussion, we will ask you to share what you believe influences children’s academic
achievement. This discussion is part of a research study to learn about what parents believe help
their children learn.

If you participate, you will get a $20 Wal-Mart gift card to thank you for your time. Snacks will
also be provided.

We ask that only one parent per family participate in each discussion. The discussions will be
audio-taped, but your individual information will always be confidential.

The group discussions will be led by Judy Perrigo, a graduate student from the University of
Southern California. She has been working with the CHECC team.

We hope you can participate! Each group is capped at 5 participants, so you should e-mail, call, or
text early to secure your spot.

Location for group discussions:

Washington McKinley School
25 West 16
th
Place, Chicago Heights, IL

Dates for group discussions:

Thurs April 11
th
, (4-5PM English or 6-7PM Spanish)

Call/Text or e-mail Judy to reserve your spot:

Judy Perrigo | (818) 495-8684 | JLPLEITE@usc.edu

Thank you!
128

Querido padre de CHECC,

Lo invitamos a una discusión en grupos pequeños de 1 hora sobre sus experiencias al criar a su
hijo. En esta discusión, le pediremos que comparta lo que cree que influye en el rendimiento
académico de los niños. Esta discusión es parte de un estudio de investigación para aprender sobre
lo que los padres creen que ayuda a sus hijos a aprender.

Si participa, recibirá una tarjeta de regalo de $ 20 de Wal-Mart para agradecerle su tiempo.
También se proporcionarán aperitivos.

Pedimos que solo un padre por familia participe en cada discusión. Las discusiones se grabarán en
audio, pero su información individual siempre será confidencial.

Las discusiones grupales serán dirigidas por Judy Perrigo, una estudiante graduada de la
Universidad del Sur de California. Ella ha estado trabajando con el equipo de CHECC.

¡Esperamos que puedan participar! Cada grupo tiene un límite de 5 participantes, por lo que debe
enviar un correo electrónico, llamar o enviar un mensaje de texto con anticipación para asegurarse
de que pueda participar.

Lugar para discusiones grupales:

Washington McKinley School
25 West 16
th
Place, Chicago Heights, IL

Fechas para discusiones grupales:

Jueves 11 de Abril: (4-5PM inglés o 6-7PM español)

Llame/envíe un mensaje de texto o envíe un correo electrónico a Judy para reservar su
lugar:
Judy Perrigo | (818) 495-8684 | JLPLEITE@usc.edu

¡Gracias!

129
APPENDIX B.
BILINGUAL TELEPHONE SCRIPT
Hello! This is [researcher name], calling from the Chicago Heights Early Childhood Center. Is this [parent
name] or the parent of [child name]? We are holding another activity and would like to invite you to
participate in a parent focus group on [DATE]. Participation in the focus group is voluntary and focus groups
will be audio recorded. If you choose not to participate in the focus group, you can still continue with other
CHECC activities. The focus group should take about an hour to complete and you would receive a $20 Wal-
Mart gift card, plus snacks during the group discussion. The focus group will consist of a small group of
parents, about 4 or 5 parents, talking about what they believe influences children’s academic achievement.

Do you think you might be interested in participating in this study? Yes No

If no:
Thank you very much for your time and remember that you can still continue with other CHECC activities.
Thank you and I hope you have a nice day.

If yes:
On that date, we have [insert time]. What time works best for you?

Will you need childcare during the group discussion? Yes No

Perfect, you are all set. Any questions? If not, we will see you on [Date and Time]. We will meet at the
Washington McKinley School. Do you know where that is at, or do you need the address? Please arrive on
time and I look forward to meeting you.

¡Hola! Este es [researcher name], llamando del estudio CHECC. ¿Estoy hablando con [nombre del padre] o
el padre de [nombre del niño]? Estamos realizando otra actividad y nos gustaría invitarlo a participar en un
grupo focal para padres en [DATE]. La participación en el grupo focal es voluntaria y los grupos focales
serán grabados en audio. Si elige no participar en el grupo focal, aún puede continuar con otras actividades
de CHECC. El grupo focal debería tomar aproximadamente una hora para completar y recibiría una tarjeta
de regalo de $ 20 de Wal-Mart, además de bocadillos durante la discusión grupal. El grupo de enfoque
consistirá de un pequeño grupo de padres, de aproximadamente 4 o 5 padres, que hablarán sobre lo que creen
que influye en el rendimiento académico de los niños.

¿Crees que podría estar interesado en participar en este estudio? Si No

Si no:
Muchas gracias por su tiempo y recuerde que aún puede continuar con otras actividades de CHECC. Gracias
y espero que tengas un buen día.

En caso afirmativo:
En esa fecha, tenemos [insertar hora]. ¿A qué hora te va mejor?

¿Necesitarás cuidado de niños durante la discusión grupal? Si No

Perfecto, estás listo. ¿Alguna pregunta? Si no, lo veremos en [Fecha y Hora]. Nos reuniremos en la escuela
Washington McKinley. ¿Sabe dónde está o necesita la dirección? Por favor, llegue a tiempo y espero
conocerte.

130
APPENDIX C.
FIGURE 1. RECRUITMENT EFFORTS AND OUTCOMES

131
APPENDIX D.
FOCUS GROUP SEMI-STRUCTURED INSTRUMENT GUIDE

Introduction. Hello, my name is [researcher name] and I am from the University of Southern
California. I am here to learn about your opinions, thoughts, and feelings about things that you
consider to be important in your children’s educational development. This study is about early
childhood development. When children are 3, 4, or 5 years old and beginning to enter school in
preschool or kindergarten. During our discussion today, I would like you to think about these
early years as you share your thoughts and answers to my questions. In other words, when I ask
questions about children’s educational development, I want to know what you think affected how
well they did in school when they were in preschool or kindergarten, and what affected their
preparation for school following that.

Before we get started, I want to go over a few ground rules:
1. First, and this is very-very important, please be honest. There are no right or wrong
answers. You can talk as little or as much as you want, but one of my main jobs is to
make sure everyone has an opportunity to be heard. So, if you are not saying much, I
may call on you to make sure I am not missing something important that you may be
thinking.
2. Our discussion will be audio-recorded and transcribed at a later date. After the audio
recordings are transcribed, all audio recordings will be destroyed and deleted. All
identifying information will be removed from the transcripts and will be stored in a
secure location with password-protected computers.
3. Third, some of you may know each other from either the school or local
neighborhood. Please respect everyone’s privacy by keeping the information that you
hear today private. What we say in this room stays in this room! With that said, only
share what you feel comfortable sharing.
a. My hope is that you experience this as a safe space with no judgement. Again,
there are no right or wrong answers.
4. Last, please make sure there is only one person talking at a time. That will make for a
better discussion, but it will also be easier to understand when we go back and review
the audio recordings.

Any questions? Now, I would like to go around the room for brief introductions. Please share
your name, how many children you have, and their ages.

Now, I have THREE main questions that I will ask you in the next hour. Our group discussion
will be recorded so that we can listen to the tape and carefully hear all of your responses. I am
here to learn from you, and I want to hear your honest opinions. You are the experts on
understanding your children, and I would love to hear your opinions on their educational
development. Any questions before we get started?

If not, please start recording and let’s get started!

132

[For recording purposes: Today is (date) and this is focus group (number). We have (number)
participants.

Topic Main Question Follow-Up/Probes
[Opener/Rapport
Building]
There are many things that can help
children do well in school. What do
you think are the most important
things that help them do well?
Can you think of any additional
things that may be important?

[follow-up questions are segue to
the main topics]
School Role QUESTION 1: Can you tell me
what schools do to improve your
children’s educational development?
What about things they should be
doing?
Are you aware of any policies,
activities, or events that are hosted
by the school in an effort to foster
academic achievement?
Teacher Role QUESTION 2: Can you tell me
about things that teachers have done
to help your children succeed in
school?

What about things you think they
should be doing?
Parental Role QUESTION 3: What can parents,
like you, do to help your children
succeed in school? What are the
things that get in the way?
[location; behavior; attitude; etc.]
Where do these activities take place
(school, home, elsewhere)? What
are some of the barriers and
facilitators? [What are the things
that get in the way? And what are
some of the things that help or make
it easier?] If you had to choose one
thing, what do you think helps the
most? How would you define
parental involvement? What are
important aspects of parental
involvement? What promotes or
hinders your parental involvement?

That’s it, those were my questions. [I will provide a brief summary of what I heard]. Did I get
that right, or is there something that someone would like to add? Is there anything you would like
me to know that I didn’t ask about? Thank you for your time.

133
APPENDIX E.
RANKED FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO CHILDREN’S ACADEMIC ACHIEVMENT

Pre and Post Averages of the Preceived Most Important Factor for Children's Academic Achievement (N=41)
Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post
All Focus Groups 3.3 3.3 4.6 4.7 2.5 2.3 2.3 2.3 2.1 2.3
English 3.6 3.9 4.6 4.6 2.6 2.3 1.7 1.9 1.9 1.9
Spanish 3.0 2.7 4.6 4.7 2.4 2.3 2.9 2.6 2.3 2.7
Closing the Gap 3.1 4.1 4.1 4.1 2.3 1.8 2.3 2.4 2.3 2.6
English 3.0 5.0 3.5 4.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 2.0 1.5 2.0
Spanish 3.3 3.3 4.8 4.3 2.0 1.5 3.0 2.8 3.0 3.3
Moderate Improvement 3.4 3.0 4.5 4.3 2.9 2.4 1.9 2.1 1.5 2.0
English 3.3 3.8 4.0 3.5 3.3 2.3 1.0 1.0 1.8 2.0
Spanish 3.5 2.3 5.0 5.0 2.5 2.5 2.8 3.3 1.3 2.0
Proficient 3.2 3.0 4.5 4.9 2.5 2.4 2.7 3.0 2.1 1.7
English 3.5 3.5 5.0 5.0 2.8 2.8 2.0 2.8 1.8 1.0
Spanish 2.8 2.5 4.0 4.8 2.3 2.0 3.3 3.2 2.5 2.3
Regressing 3.4 3.9 4.7 4.9 2.2 1.9 2.3 2.1 2.5 2.4
English 4.0 4.3 4.7 4.7 2.3 1.7 2.3 2.7 1.7 1.7
Spanish 2.8 3.5 4.8 5.0 2.0 2.0 2.3 1.5 3.3 3.0
Continuous Risk 3.4 2.9 4.9 4.8 2.7 3.1 2.2 1.9 2.1 2.8
English 4.0 3.8 5.2 5.2 2.2 2.6 1.6 1.6 2.6 2.8
Spanish 2.8 2.0 4.6 4.4 3.2 3.6 2.8 2.2 1.6 2.8
0.2 ⎼0.3 0.9 0.1 ⎼1.2 Paired T-Test (df=40)
Teachers
Note. Participants were asked to rank school, teachers, neighbohood, parental involvement, and children's innate ability on a scale 1 (most
important) to 5 (least important) based on what factor they considered most important for their child's academic achievement. Parents were also
given the option of "other" and therefore, at times, the average exceeds five. Only one parent selected "other" indicating that school equipment such
as computers contributed to children's academic achievement. Lower averages indicate more important per parental opinion.
School Environment Neighborhood Parental Involvment Children's Abilities
134
APPENDIX F.
FOCUS GROUP PRE- AND POST-SURVEYS
CHECC Focus Groups PRE-survey

How old are you? ____________ What Race/Ethnicity do you identify as?______________

What is the highest level of education you have obtained? (circle ONE)
No High
School
Degree
High School
Degree
or GED
Some College or
Associate's
Degree or
Vocational
Bachelor's
Degree
Masters or Graduate
or
Professional
Degree

Marital status (married, divorced, separated, etc.)? ________________________ What is your
household income? ____________________

Number of individuals that live in your household? Children (under 18 yrs.): _______________
Adults (18 and over): ________________

How many times have you moved in the past 10 years? _______ In the past 5 years? ________

Since your child started school (in preschool or kindergarten), how many schools has your child
attended? ___________________________

How satisfied are you with your child’s academic achievement? (Circle one)
1 2 3 4 5
Not At All Very Much

Place a number 1 through 5, with 1 being the most important for your child’s educational
development.

____ School Activities and Rules/Policies ____ Teachers

____ Neighborhood/Community ____ Parental Involvement

____ The child ____ Other: please specify

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CHECC Focus Groups POST-survey

1. I know we talked a lot about Parental Involvement, it certainly doesn’t mean it is the
most important thing in a child’s educational development. We would like to know if
your order of priority has changed. Place a number 1 through 5, with 1 being the most
important for your child’s educational development.

____ School Activities and Rules/Policies ____ Teachers

____ Neighborhood/Community ____ Parental Involvement

____ The child ____ Other: please specify
___________________________________

2. In your own words, define early parental involvement as it relates to young children’s
early academic achievement.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________

3. In the next few months, we will conduct 45-minute individual interviews to expand our
discussion that we had today. The interviews will be at this location, phone call, or
virtually (e.g., Skype) depending on your preference. You will get a $25 gift card to
thank you for your time. The discussion will be audio-taped, but your individual
information will always be confidential. Can we contact you to participate in an
individual interview? YES No
If NO: Thank you very much for your time and remember that you can still continue with
other CHECC activities.
If YES: Thank you very much!
a. Preferred location: ____ In-person ____ Phone call ____ Virtually: please
specify _____________________
b. Preferred language: English Spanish c. Morning (9-12PM)
Afternoon (12-4PM) Evening (4-7PM)
Thank You!

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APPENDIX G.
INDIVDIUAL INTERVIEW SEMI-STRUCTURED INSTRUMENT GUIDE

Interview Guide
Parents’ Perceptions of their Involvement in their Children’s Academic Achievement

Review Study:

Explain what the conversation will contain:

STOP to allow for questions. When participant is ready, START audio recording.

• Purpose is to explore parental involvement practices that
contribute to children’s academic achievement trajectories.

• Goal is to understand:
a. Barriers and facilitators of parental involvement in children’s
academic achievement.
b. How parents navigate their limited resources to remain
involved in their children’s education-related activities.
c. What might influence why parents do or do not get involved in
their children’s school-related activities.
d. Characteristics specific to disadvantaged socio-economic
status that influences parental involvement.

Interview overview:
a. Set of ten interview questions.
b. Conversation is about the stated goals listed above.
c. Interview will last approximately 45 minutes.
d. No right or wrong answers, rather, we want to understand
barriers and facilitators of parental involvement in
children’s education-related activities in the context of low
socio-economic status.
e. Some questions might be repetitive; this helps ensure we
are as clear as possible.
f. We value parents’ perspectives and opinions on what they
think could be happening.
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Questions about Child. Grade: _______ Age: _______ Preschool: _____ # of siblings: ________
Gender/Age of siblings: _____________________________________________________________________
How satisfied are you with your child’s academic achievement?
1 (not at all) 2 3 4 5 (very much)

Semi-Structured Interview Questions

1. Can you please begin by describing how you think [child’s name] is doing at school?
a. Have things always been like that, or have things changed over time?

2. What do you think has contributed to [his/her] educational performance?

3. In what ways, if any, have you been involved in your child’s education?
a. Can you describe the types of things you did, if any, when [child’s name] was in school for the first
time during [preschool or kindergarten]?
b. How has your involvement changed since [child’s name] started [preschool/kindergarten] to now that
he is in [grade]?

4. Can you give me examples of things that have made it easier or helped you to be involved in your child’s
education?

5. Can you give me examples of things that have gotten in the way or made it hard for you to get involved?

6. Limited resources, such as time; money; language; educational capacities, can be an issue for some
families. Do any limited resources affect your involvement in your child’s education? IF YES: which ones
and how do you try to overcome them?
a. Are there any networks (e.g., family, church) that are particularly helpful in allowing you to be
involved in your child’s education related activities?

7. Can you describe to me any interactions that you have with school personnel?
a. How do you communicate with teachers (e.g., technology)?

8. Are there any cultural factors (e.g., gender expectations) that might influence why you do or do not get
involved in your child’s school-related activities?

9. IF CHILD HAS SIBLINGS: Do you believe [child’s name] sibling(s) contribute to [his/her] education related
activities? How or why not?

10. Can you walk me through normal week and describe [child’s name] relationship with technology (e.g.,
phone, TV, iPads)?
a. How do you think that affects your child’s educational performance?
b. And how does that affect your relationship with your child as it relates to school and [his/her] school
performance.

Closing
ü Summarize interview
ü Ask if there is anything else they want us to know. Maybe something that we didn’t ask, but they perceive
as important.
ü Thank parent for participating
ü Provide participant with their $25 Gift Card, make sure they sign/initial the gift card log.
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APPENDIX H.
CODING TREES

Focus Group Coding Tree

Individual Interview Coding Tree

Parental
Invovlement
Parental Strategies
Parental Modeling
Enrichment
Activities
Positive
Reinforcement
Repitition
Building
Community
Routines
Messaging / Advice
Poor Parental
Proficiency
PI Barriers
Language
PI Facilitators
Resources
Parenting
Collaborative
Parenting
Developmental
(Dynamic) PI
Discipline /
Punishment
Parental
Attunement
Communication
Parent-Teacher
Communication
Parent-Child
Communication
No Probs; No
Communication
Parent-Centered Educacion
Child
MH/Well-Being Physical Health Personality Traits Grit Naturally Smart
Unmotivated or
Unfocused
Academic Challenges
Favorite
Subject/Topic
Accolates/Privilages
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Parental Involvement
Education
Strategies
Practice /
Repitition
Reinforcement
Hands On
Hands Off
Punishment
Well-Being/MH Early Childhood
Future Goals (for
their Kids)
Communication
No Prob; No
Comm
Parent
Conferences
Parent / Teacher
Dinner Chats
Check-Ins
Messaging /
Advice
Class Dojo
AA Perceptions
Overcoming
Barriers
Parent Centered
Family Context
Parent
Partnerships
Networks Sibling Role Harmony Discord
Consistent
Trajectory
Parental
Invovlement
Screen Time (Technology)
Rules Quantity Quality
Screen Time
Dyad
Relationship
with AA
School Climate
Positive Negative
Recommendations Changes
Positive Negative
Barriers Facilitators Teacher
Positive Negative
Culture/Generation
Social Services/
Enrichment
Programs
Current Early Childhood
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APPENDIX I.
SENSITIVITY TESTS: LATENT CLASS ANALYSIS
4 Classes (Quadratic v Linear)

5 Classes (Quadratic v Linear)

6 Classes (Quadratic v Linear)

BIC AIC BIC AIC
3 Classes -20,360.23 -20,330.80 -20,456.08 -20,434.00
4 Classes -20,239.09 -20,199.85 -20,348.88 -20,319.44
5 Classes -20,181.80 -20,132.74 -20,299.49 -20,262.70
6 Classes -20,127.66 -20,068.79 -20,244.65 -20,200.50
Quadratic Linear
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APPENDIX J.
ADDITIONAL QUOTES FROM THE QUALITATIVE THEMES
Parent-Teacher Communication
“Los papás tenemos algo muy importante porque si los padres no estamos involucrados
entonces quién va a chequecar que los niños estén bien? Que tengan lo que necesiten.
Que vayan a sus clases todos los días? Porque pues los niños pueden decir, ‘Voy a la
escuela.’¿Pero como sabemos en realidad si están asistiendo? Debe de haber
comunicación entre maestros y padres” TRANSLATION: “As parents, we have
something very important because if the parents are not involved then who will check that
our children are doing well? That they have what they need. That they go to their classes
every day? Because children can say, ‘I go to school.’ But how do we know in reality if
they are attending? There must be communication between teachers and parents.”
[Closing the Gap]

Moderator: “When you talk to the teachers, do you also communicate through
ClassDojo, or do you email, phone calls, any other ways?”
Participant 3: “Yes, ClassDojo. Well, sometimes phone calls if it's bad news, but mainly
good news through, you know ClassDojo.” [Proficient]

“Well, the only communication would be parent conferences, or the parent activities after
school. Well, at that point, that's basically just it. Because any time they would have a
worry about [CHECC child], it would be a parent conference. So we would just work on
that. And then meet the next quarter. Yeah, and so there was no need for them to call me
or anything. She's always been a good student, behaved well. So, it was just the parent
conference that we would communicate with each other.” [Continuous Risk]

Parental Strategies
“I believe that if you will allow your child to become complacent, that child will learn to
become complacent. Because if he can get away with getting a 75 or 80, and no one tells
him anything, that's fine, that's good. But if you expect him to get higher because you
know he could achieve a higher goal or a higher grade, I believe the child will do it.
Especially if the teacher tells you, ‘You know, I think your son is capable of doing more.
He's just there. He's just complacent.’ So, I'll tell him, you know, ‘I know you can do
better.’ And he proves it to me. I think as a parent, if I allow it, he will become
complacent because there is no reason to achieve any higher.” [Regressing]

“Definitely with not coming home and getting on the TV and all that. Like even with my
older children – they knew they couldn't cut that television on til 6 o’clock. It didn't
matter if you had homework or not. If you don't have homework, you need to find a book
and you need to read, you can come help me clean up the house. It was something that
they had to do before they could just jump in front of the TV or jump on a game system.
Because when you're leaving school, all of that is still going on in your head so you want
142
to keep it going, you know what I mean, for the next day or even that night. And a lot of
the times, I discovered they didn't even think about the game or getting on that television
until like 7:30 or 8:00pm because we would be so involved in doing whatever it was we
were doing. And then they'll look up and be like, ‘Man, it's too late to get on the game
system.’ Take a shower and go to bed! Yup, you sure can try again tomorrow.”
[Moderate Improvement]

Participant 1: “Consistency, I'm talking more about like a routine.”
Participant 2: “Yeah, a routine, a routine.”
Participant 1: “My daughter knows that when she gets home from school, she gets out of
her uniform. She has like a little chore, not nothing big because older siblings, they pretty
much take care of the chores and I'm trying to, like, build her up to do her things. Well,
she knows when she gets home, take my school clothes off, start my homework and I don't
hover over her. I mean she basically, she's very independent. She knows how to do math,
reading and she's very intelligent.” [Closing the Gap]

“Pues yo trato más que nada les enseñó juegos que yo jugaba cuando era niña. Ellos
saben todos los juegos que yo jugaba.” TRANSLATION: “Well, I try more than anything
to teach them games that I played as a child. They know all the games that I played.”
[Regressing]

Limited Time
“Involucrado con los niños. Es difícil porque siempre hay que trabajar y eso es mucho
más difícil.” TRANSLATION: “Involvement with the children. It is difficult because you
always have to work and that is much more difficult.” [Closing the Gap]

“I would say there's sometimes time because like I said, I also have a baby, so sometimes
I'm just—The baby's sick or whatever it is with the baby, I'm just focused on the baby and
if [CHECC child] is doing homework. If my daughter is doing homework, I will tell her,
‘Okay. Try to do what you can do on your own. Let me do this with the baby and then I'll
come help you if you need help.’ For the most part, she will sit and do what she can do
and then try to do, if there is a problem she didn't get, or if she didn't understand, she will
try to do it. Sometimes it has been where she did do it and she'll tell me, ‘Oh mom, I got
it. Oh, I remembered how to do this.’ Okay. I check her work and see what she does and
most of the time she gets them right.” [Continuous Risk]

“A veces el tiempo. Porque, como los tres están en diferentes escuelas, entonces tienen
diferentes horarios. Y a veces si quisiera estar con alguno de ellos no puedo porque
tengo que estar recogiendo al otro. Pues el tiempo.” TRANSLATION: “Sometimes, the
(limited) time. Because, since the three of them are in different schools, then they have
different schedules. And sometimes if I want to be with one of them, I can’t because I
have to be picking up the other one. Therefore, the time.” [Closing the Gap]

143
“I would say time, for me, is also a big issue. Of course, I always make the time, but I feel
like everything is rushed. I wish I had more time just to sit down and take my time with
her, but because I have to work, I feel like the time is limited.” [Regressing]

Poor Parental Proficiency
“Mas bien oséa nunca los, a nosotros en la escuela nunca lo aprendimos. De la forma
que – y si alguno lo aprendimos, yo creo que casi ninguno lo recordamos porque si se
pone a hablar. Yo no más estudié secundaria. Fue hasta donde llegue. Pero si me pongo
a decir que yo de raíz cuadrada y todo eso, para mí nada. Ósea, ni me recuerdo cómo
era ni nada de eso.” TRANSLATION: “Better stated in other words, never, we never
learned it at school. In the form that they - And if some of us learned it, I think that most
of us don’t remember it because if you talk with us, I only studied junior high school. It
was as far as I got. But if I think to myself the square root of something and all of that,
for me, not at all. In other words, I don’t remember what it was like or anything like
that.” [Proficient]

“He's really not involved. I don't think he's ever gone to a parent-teacher conference
meeting. Everything is me. And I feel that's because he also doesn't speak English. So he
thinks, I don't know how to communicate with them, so I can't. At home, say right now for
example, the little one, she goes to preschool. She has homework. He'll sit down and do
homework with her. I mean that's easy. You gotta trace, things like that. But once it gets
to math, reading and all that, with all this, that's it.” [Moderate Improvement]

“Algunos padres no entendemos todas las matemáticas. Entendemos lo que es nada más
lo más básico, pero no entendemos lo demás. Y cuando le dejan a uno alguna otra tarea,
asi que no la entendemos, ¿cómo se lo explicamos?” TRANSLATION: “Some parents do
not understand all mathematics. We only understand what is the most basic, but we don’t
understand the rest. And when they leave our children with another homework
assignment, one that we do not understand, how do we explain it to them?” [Proficient]

Participante 1: “Para mí ayudarnos también un poco con sus tareas con algo que yo
entiendo. Si yo puedo ayudar en algo que yo entiendo, pues yo les ayudo. Si no, pues.”
Participante 2: “Pero cuando se llega a un nivel cuando uno ya no puede ayudar...”
Participante 1: “Se van.” [risas]
Participante 2: “Especialmente en mi opinión, yo creo que es cuando uno no tiene
mucha educación académica. Entonces los niños llegan ya un nivel donde no sabe uno ya
ni qué.”
TRANSLATION:
Participant 1: “For me, we also help a little with their homework, with something that I
understand. If I can help with something that I understand, then I help them. But if I
can’t, well then.”
Participant 2: “But when they reach a level when one can longer help…”
Participant 1: “They leave.” (laughter)
144
Participant 2: “Especially, in my opinion, I think it’s when you don’t have much
academic education. Then the children reach a level where one doesn’t know anything.”
[Regressing]

Moderator: “Do you feel that you have any limited resources that affect your
involvement?”
Participant: “The math. I think it's changed a lot. It's not the same, or they're not putting
it out the same like it used to be.” [Moderate Improvement]

“As far as helping her, I feel like some of it is the way we learned things. I can help her,
but sometimes just the way that— The learning is different now, so that makes it more
difficult.”

Language Barrier
Moderadora: “Todos dijeron algo bien interesante; qué en México, ¿ahí estában mas
involucrados, verdad? Todos se ofrecieron como volunatrios en la clase, todos hablaron
con los maestros”
Participante 3: “¡Si, de verdad!”
Moderadora: “Qué es la diferencia. Qué pasa aquí en los Estados Unidos?”
Participante 2: “El idioma.”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “Everyone said something very interesting; that in Mexico you were more
involved, right? Everyone volunteered in class, everyone talked to the teachers”
Participant 3: “Yes, that’s right!”
Moderator: “What is the difference? What happens here in the United States?”
Participant 2: “The language.” [Closing the Gap]

“Como dice mi compañero, el inglés es el que nos falta a nosotros. ¿Y cómo luego mis
hijos, ‘Porque no estudias?’ En primero como estamos platicando, con el tiempo, que no
tenemos para agarrarlo y ir a la escuela. Yo vino en una ocasión a estudiar aquí. Dije
una palabra media mocho o algo y se rieron todos mis compañeros. Me dio un coraje.
Me la quede mirando y le dije que repitiera la palabra. Dijo no sé pues, eso no hablo. Le
digo, ‘Entonces porque te burlas, ¿si no sabes?’” TRANSLATION: “As the other
participant states, English is what we lack. And my children ask, ‘Why don’t you study?’
First of all, like we were discussing about not having time to go to school (for English
classes). On one occasion I came (to the school where the focus groups were being held)
to study. I said a word rather funny or wrong, and one of my classmates laughed at me. I
got angry. I looked at her and I asked her to say the word. She said she didn’t know how
to because she doesn’t speak English. I asked her, ‘Then why do you make fun of me if
you don’t know?’” [Moderate Improvement]

“Pero yo pienso que ya la que sabe inglés y la que lo sabe leer, se le facilita. Pero como
uno que no lo sabe ni hablar ni leer se hace más difícil.” (Charla cruzada en acuerdo)
TRANSLATION: “But I think that the people who know English and who know how to
145
read English, it is easier for them. But like us who do not know or speak or read English,
it becomes more difficult.” (cross talk in agreement) [Continuous Risk]

Moderadora: “¿Y usted ha tenido conversaciones con la maestra? ¿Se puede comunicar
o no hay comunicación?”
Participante: “Si, hay comunicación por medio de textos. No – por correo electrónico.
Si, si hay comunicación. Aunque, pues, por mi inglés no hay mucha, verdad, porque
siempre necesito de alguien que me ayude a los textos.”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “And have you had conversations with the teacher? Can you communicate
with her or is there no communication?”
Participant: “There is communication through text messages. No – by e-mail. Yes, there
is communication. Although because of my English, there isn’t much, really, because I
always need someone to help me with the text messages.”[Regressing]

Moderadora: “Okay. Me puede dar ejemplos de cosas que se le hacen difícil para que
usted pueda participar?”
Participante: “El idioma. Si! Si yo pudiera el idioma, yo trajera más por donde quiera.
Pero siempre como qué busco los rumbos hispanos a donde yo pueda entenderme o así.
Si tuviera el idioma – no, fuera más diferente.”
Moderadora: “Y en qué manera piensa que el idioma la ha parado?”
Participante: “El poder socializar con la gente. En hablar. ¿El español pues yo le hablo
aquí lo hablo allá verdad? Pero el inglés, no – Me hago entender en cosas de trabajo
donde quiera que vaya, pero, está muy mal mi inglés y no se me da. Porque lo he
estudiado, pero no se me da. Es bien difícil para mí.”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “Okay. Can you give me examples of things that make it difficult for your
parental involvement?”
Participant: “The language. Yes! If I could speak the language, I would be more involved
wherever I went. But I always look for the Hispanic areas or groups. Where I can make
myself understood. If I could speak the language – no, it would be very different.”
Moderator: “And in what ways do you think the language has prevented you from being
involved?”
Participant: “Being able to socialize with people, to communicate. In Spanish, I speak
here and I speak there, right? But the English, no — I make myself understood at work or
wherever I go, but, my English is really bad and I can’t learn it. I have studied it, but I
can’t learn it. It is really difficult for me.” [Regressing]

Participante: “Pues yo creo que está todo bien al momento, pero un poquito el idioma.
Mas que nada, el idioma.”
Moderadora: “En qué manera el idioma se le ha hecho difícil para poder participar más
en la educación de [CHECC child]?”
Participante: “Como le digo, cuando ella escribe algo que a veces le dejan – bueno,
vamos a suponer, que es una oración. Pues yo no sé si vaya primero una palabra o
primero la otra palabra, y eso. Y pues no, ahí no. Como yo le digo, nomás le digo, ‘Está
146
mal escrito. Está mal la letra. Están bailando muchos esos números, quiero que me los
hagas otra vez.’”
TRANSLATION:
Participant: “Well, I think everything is fine at the moment, but the language is a little bit
(difficult). More than anything, the language.”
Moderator: “How has language made it difficult for you to participate in [CHECC
child’s] education?
Participant: “Like I mentioned, when she writes something, an assignment that they’ve
given her— Well, let’s suppose that it is a sentence. I don’t know if one word goes first or
if the other word goes first. And well, no, I can’t help her with that. As I’ve stated, I just
tell her, ‘It is not neatly written. The letter is not neat. Those numbers are dancing too
much, I want you to re-write them.’” [Proficient]

“A veces es por el idioma […]Como le dire? Yo siento que nosotros no tenemos ningún
inconveniente de participar. Cuando no Podemos, yo creo que será por él idioma.”
TRANSLATION: “Sometimes it’s because of the language […]How should I say this? I
feel that we do not have any inconveniences for parental involvement. When we can’t (get
involved), I think it is because of the language.” [Moderate Improvement]

Enrichment Activities
“Pero lo que a mí me detenía es que como apenas aprendía a manejar, no me atrevía a
meter al expresó. Eso, porque tenemos que llevarlo lejos. A él le gusta el deporte, le
gusta el fútbol. Él va con su papá y se pone a jugar. Pero, sí he visto he que aquí cerca
de donde puedo inscribirlo y que puede practicar. Eso le gusta, y incluso se pone a jugar
aquí con su papa, con los niños. Es lo que le gusta a él.” TRANSLATION: “What held
me back is that since I just learned to drive, I wouldn’t dare to get on the freeway. That’s
a problem, because we have to take him far away. He likes sports, he likes soccer. He
goes with his father and they play together. I have seen places nearby that I can sign him
up and he can practice. He likes that, and additionally, he plays with his father right here
with the children. That is what he likes.” [Regressing]

“She was in the glee club. But right now, the school that they go to does not have a lot of
activities until they are in a certain grade.” [Continuous Risk]

“He is exposed to just, like, softball and different athletic sports when he goes to summer
camp, but no official team.” [Moderate Improvement]

“Después de la escuela, se queda en un programa de música,, quedan allí en la escuela.”
TRANSLATION: “After school, she stays at school for a music program that they offer at
the school.” [Proficient]

“She just got on the softball team. Something new. Before, she was in the choir.”
[Continuous Risk]

147
“She just started a dance class. She's been wanting to do it for a long time. I just never
put her in it because it's a lot.” [Moderate Improvement]

“Ahí en la escuela le están dando clases de música. .” TRANSLATION: “At the school
they are giving him music classes.” [Continuous Risk]

“Soccer. It's new. She has been in other things too. She's been in ballet. But soccer's
new.” [Regressing]

Single-Parent Involvement
“Por razones de su trabajo, él está un poquito más alejado. Pero, por ejemplo, yo se lo
insisto más a lo que viene siendo las conferencias y los eventos. Pero si él termina su
trabajo y tiene el niño alguna actividad o algo en la escuela, trata de participar el
también. Trata de acompañarnos. Y de todos modos yo lo tengo al tanto de todos sus
estudios y todo como padre y todo.” TRANSLATION: “Because of his work, my husband
is a bit more distant. But, for example, I insist more on the conferences and school events.
But, if he finishes his work and our son has an activity or something at school, my
husband also tries to participate. He tries to join us. And, either way, I have him up-to-
date on all of our son’s studies and everything.” [Proficient]

“Mas que todo es un poco – mi esposo está ahí para ayudarlos y lo que ellos necesiten
pero siempre me los avienta a mí. como, ‘Tu ayúdalos en la tarea.’ Él está allí se
necesitan un consejo. Especialmente ahorita en edad que estaba mal con todos sus
cambios. Entonces yo digo, ‘Okay, es un varoncito entonces tu explícale de sus cambios y
como él se va a sentir.’ Pero en esa forma, siento que hay comunicación entre mi esposo
y yo hacia el niño. Académicamente yo soy la que voy más a las conferencias de
maestros, por su trabajo.” TRANSLATION: “More than anything it is a little – my
husband is there to help them and provide anything that they need, but my husband
always dumps them on me. Like, ‘You help them with the homework.’ He is there if they
need advice. Especially at this age that (our son) wasn’t adjusting well to his changes. So
I say, ‘Okay, he is a boy, so explain to him his changes and how he is going to feel.’ In
that sense, I feel there is communication between my husband and I, as it relates to our
son. Academically, because of his work, I am the one who goes to the parent-teacher
conferences.” [Closing the Gap]

“Soy yo la que a veces le ayudo con la tarea. O a veces le digo a mi esposo que es
necesario que se involucre en la tarea de la niña porque es necesario que ella mire que
él le pone atención. Pero casi no estamos así juntos ayudándole con la tarea.”
TRANSLATION: “It is me who sometimes helps her with the homework. Or sometimes, I
tell my husband that he needs to involve himself with her homework assignments because
she needs to see that he pays attention to her. But we are rarely together helping her with
her homework.” [Closing the Gap]

“Yo estoy siempre en la casa. Yo no trabajo. Yo estoy en casa siempre. Nunca he
trabajado, siempre he estado con ellos. Cuando él puede, él también nos acompaña en
148
las reuniones de los maestros qué son dos veces al año. Casi siempre nos ha
acompañado el también. En las reuniones que teníamos en pre-school de papás, él
estaba ahí. Pues en la casa también el apoyándolos.” TRANSLATION: “I am always in
the house. I do not work. I am always at home. I have never worked; I have always been
with my children. When my husband can, he also joins us at the meetings with teachers
which are twice a year. He has almost always joined us. In the parent meetings that we
had in preschool; he was there. And, in the house he also supports us.” [Closing the
Gap]

“(My partner) helps her. Like I said, she hasn't had any homework, so not so much this
year, but in the past he would help her with her homework when I wasn't here because a
few nights a week I have to work at night.” [Regressing]

Dynamic Parental Involvement
“I think they changed over time. The first few years in school she was doing really good,
and I feel like it's my fault too. Because I started working more, so I started helping her
less. The first few years, I did help her more. We did read more. I really don't read with
her. I just kind of tell her, ‘You have to read.’” [Moderate Improvement]

“We used to do everything together, but now they just like, ‘I did my work at school,
mom.’ Like, okay. That's what I do when they come home, I'm waiting on them so I can
help them with their homework. Most of the time they do it at school. I still read with her
and do different things with her, but it isn't as much.” [Continuous Risk]

“En este momento no necesita mi ayuda tanto como la necesitaba antes. En este
momento, es más independiente y de lo único que tengo que asegurarme es de
preguntarle que todo esté bien y que su trabajo lo haiga hecho. Solamente dos veces me
ha pedido ayuda en lo que va el último año. Solamente dos veces me ha pedido ayuda
con alguna de sus tareas y de ahí en adelante, él solito. Es independiente. Solito arregla
sus problemas. Sólo más que nada.” TRANSLATION: “At this moment, he doesn’t need
my help as much as he needed it before. At this moment he is more independent and the
only thing I have to make sure is to ask him if everything is okay and to make sure that he
has done his work. He’s only asked for my help twice in the last year. He’s only asked me
twice for my help with his homework and from then on, he’s done it himself. He is
independent. He fixes his problems by himself. Alone, more than anything.” [Closing the
Gap]

Generational Improvements
“Yo pienso que hay que motivarlos. Hay que hablar con ellos. Ósea de qué no se pasen
como nosotras; 8, 10, 12 horas en un trabajo qué paradas o como sea. Hay que decirle
usted qué pues ellos tienen que ser mejor que nosotros.” TRANSLATION: “I think we
have to motivate them. We have to talk with them. In other words, that they are not like
us, spending 8, 10, 12 hours in a job, standing or whatever. We need to tell them that they
have to be better than us.” [Continuous Risk]
149

Moderadora: “Qué es lo que usted gustaría para ella?”
Participante: “Pues qué estudia y que tenga buen trabajo. Una vida más fácil que la de
nosotros también.”
TRANSLATION:
Moderator: “What would you like for her?”
Participant: “Well, that she studies and gets a good job. Also, an easier life than ours.”
[Closing the Gap]

“Pero hay algo que él no se quiere esforzarse y estamos hablando mucho a que esforzar,
porque la vida no es fácil. Le digo, ‘Quieres estar como nosotros?’ Dice, ‘No.’ ‘Entonces
tú tienes que esforzarte por la escuela.’ Estarlo motivando.” TRANSLATION: “But there
is a reason that our son doesn’t want to strive, and we are talking a lot with him to
strengthen him, because life is not easy. I tell him, ‘Do you want to be like us?’ He says,
‘No.’ ‘Then you have to strive at school.’ We need to be motivating him.” [Regressing]

“Me gustaría que fuera al colegio porque quiero que no esté como nosotros. Quiero que
tenga una carrera que se esfuerce, que tenga algo que piense algo en el future, algo
bueno para él. Es lo que quiero.” TRANSLATION: “I would like him to go to college
because I don’t want him to be like us. I want him to have a career that he strives for,
have something that he thinks about, something in the future. Something good for him.
That is what I want.” [Regressing]

Teachers’ Role
“Muchas veces los maestros probablemente no estén preparados para enfrentar el reto
que tienen en este momento. Porque mi niño viene a mi casa y se queja mucho de su
maestro de que él se aburre mucho en clase porque nunca tiene nada que hacer. Les da
cierto límite de tiempo. En límite de tiempo estoy hablando de una hora. Qué les da una
hora para hacer este ejercicio y probablemente lo acaben en tres o cinco minutos y no
puede avanzar al siguiente tema, o no puede hacer algo más porque dice que, la maestra
no quiere que sus compañeros se sientan mal de eso. Y en eso está un poquito como, yo
pienso que está un poco mal porque yo no puedo estar aquí durmiendo mientras usted
está practicando.” TRANSLATION: “Many times, the teachers are probably not
prepared to face the challenges that they face at this moment. Because my son comes
home and complains a lot about his teacher, that he gets bored in class because he never
has anything to do. [The teacher] gave him a certain time limit. By time limit, I am
talking about one hour. The teacher gives them an hour to do a problem and they
probably finish it in three or five minutes and they can’t move on to the next topic, or they
can’t do something else, because he says that the teacher doesn’t want his classmates to
feel bad about it. And in that, [the teacher] is a little bit, I think it’s a little bit wrong
because my son can’t be here sleeping while others are practicing.” [Closing the Gap]

“I would say it depends on their teacher and their environment in class. I feel like if they
feel like – if the teacher is kind of warm and welcoming, their kind of attitude toward the
children. There are a lot of really good teachers, and then I feel like there are some
150
teachers that shouldn't be teachers, truthfully, because every kid is different and
something that may bother one kid isn't going to bother another kid. So, just how they
interact with them, and even in their environment.” [Proficient]

Yo considero que los maestros deben de involucrarse también más con los alumnos
porque, en ocasiones los alumnos tienen problemas de bullying. Problemas de que a lo
mejor no, no aprenden igual unos que otros y los maestros deberían de tener más
atención para los niños. Yo sé que es difícil porque tienen muchos niños.”
TRANSLATION: “I believe that teachers should also get more involved with students
because sometimes students have bullying problems. Problems that maybe they don’t,
they don’t learn the same as others and teachers should give children more attention. I
know it is difficult because they have many children.” [Closing the Gap]

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Background and Purpose: Education-related parental involvement is a significant factor in student academic achievement, with higher levels of parental involvement resulting in higher levels of academic achievement. However, there is a well-documented parental involvement disparity between low- and high-SES families, which potentially contributes to the persistent academic achievement gap between children from low- and high-SES families. Little is known about how low-SES families, both English- and Spanish-speaking, define and practice education-related parental involvement. Additionally, most studies exploring the role of parental involvement in student academic achievement have focused on older children, sixth grade or older. Thus, the current study’s objective was to explore how parents of young children (preschool through third grade) with low-SES and diverse linguistic backgrounds define and practice education-related parental involvement. ❧ Methods: The study employed a three-phase explanatory sequential mixed methods approach, utilizing quantitative methods to prepare for qualitative interviews. Participants (n = 1,408) were a subsample of young students (preschool – third grade) from the Chicago Heights Early Childhood Center (CHECC), longitudinal and randomized controlled trial study. The first phase involved the use of longitudinal growth curve models to identify unique children’s academic achievement trajectories. Academic achievement was measured with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Woodcock Johnson III (WJ-III). The second and third phases included both qualitative focus groups (n = 10) and individual interviews (n = 23) with parents or primary caretakers of CHECC students. Focus groups and individual interviews were divided into groups stratified by academic trajectories that were determined in the first phase. Systematic inductive (e.g., grounded theory) and deductive (e.g., thematic content analysis) methods were used to identify qualitative themes. ❧ Results: A little over 50% of the students were female and 45% and 44% of families identified as Black and Hispanic, respectively. The families demonstrated an index of low-socioeconomic status characteristics. Two-thirds of families reported an annual household income of less than $36,000

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Asset Metadata

Creator Perrigo, Judith Lorena (author)

Core Title Low-socioeconomic status families: the role of parental involvement and its association with early childhood academic achievement trajectories

School Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Social Work

Publication Date 05/03/2020

Defense Date 03/23/2020

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Academic Achievement,Early childhood,education-related parental involvement,low-socioeconomic families,OAI-PMH Harvest,Spanish-speaking families

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Hurlburt, Michael (committee chair), Hackman, Daniel (committee member), Palinkas, Lawrence (committee member), Samek, Anya (committee member), Traube, Dorian (committee member)

Creator Email jlpleite@usc.edu,judy.perrigo@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-294969

Unique identifier UC11664049

Identifier etd-PerrigoJud-8409.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-294969 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-PerrigoJud-8409.pdf

Dmrecord 294969

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Perrigo, Judith Lorena

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA