Section 1: Academic Achievement - National Center for School ...

Gathering Data
This study was conducted by the Children’s Services Coordinator at the Colorado Coalition
for the Homeless who assisted parents in identifying barriers to parent participation.
Participants in the study included parents and in some cases extended family members of
children living in transitional housing. The research began by creating and asking parents
from the transitional housing program to partake in a survey about school participation. The
purpose of this survey was to gather information about the importance of participation in a
child’s education, the ways to participate and the obstacles that limited their involvement.
Soon after the survey was distributed, it was quickly realized that the survey had been written
from a middle-class point of view without any consideration of how this view of participation
could significantly differ from the view of a person in poverty. In A Framework for
Understanding Poverty, Ruby Payne tells us that resources of students and adults should be
analyzed before dispensing advice or seeking solutions to the situation. She goes on to say,
“What may seem to be very workable suggestions from a middle-class point of view may be
virtually impossible given the resources available to those in poverty” (Payne, 1998).
With this in mind, the research took a step back and solicited a definition of “Parent
Participation” from teachers, parents in the transitional housing program as well as
community members. The results were then compared. Overall the definitions were uniform,
and all were in agreement that “involvement with homework” was one of the most important
ways a parent could participate in his/her child’s education.
Data collected from the survey demonstrated consistency among participants. Of the 19
surveys that were returned, all agreed that participation in a child’s education is important and
that participation would improve a child’s attendance and performance. When asked how
parents could participate in a child’s education, the ways most often stated were:
• Reading at home
• Helping with homework
• Attending parent/teacher conferences and school events
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