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Title:
Prediction African American Parents' and Guardians' Satisfaction With Teachers and Public Schools.
Authors:
Thompson, Gail L.
Source:
Journal of Educational Research; May/Jun2003, Vol. 96 Issue 5, p277, 9p, 9 charts
Document Type:
Article
Subject Terms:
*AFRICAN Americans
*PUBLIC schools
*PUBLIC relations -- Schools
*TEACHERS
*REGRESSION analysis
NAICS/Industry Codes611110 Elementary and Secondary Schools
Abstract:
Provides information on a study that examined variables that predicted how African American parents and guardians rated their children's teachers and the public school system using regression analyses. Methodology of the study; Results and discussion on the study.
Full Text Word Count:
6453
ISSN:
00220671
Accession Number:
10400546
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http://pv-ezproxy.tamu.edu:2062/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=10400546&site=ehost-live
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Prediction African American Parents' and Guardians' Satisfaction With Teachers and Public Schools.
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Prediction African American Parents' and Guardians' Satisfaction With Teachers and Public Schools
ABSTRACT The author used regression analyses to examine variables that predicted how African American parents and guardians rated their children's teachers and the public school system. The results indicated that although several variables were significant, parents' and guardians' satisfaction with their children's elementary school teachers was the strongest predictor of how they rated high school teachers and the public school system. The need for educators and policymakers to improve their relations with African American parents and guardians is underscored.
Key words: African American parents and guardians, public school satisfaction, teacher satisfaction
In January 2002, President G. W. Bush signed The No Child Left Behind Act into law. This bill was designed to close the achievement gap between White upper- and middle-class public school students and poor children and children of color (U.S. Department of Education, 2001b). Education reform is not a new concept. For nearly 4 decades, government officials have sought to reform the public school system. However, no reform movement has been successful in closing the achievement gap, and there are some indicators that the achievement gap is actually widening (U.S. Department of Education, 2001b). The National Assessment of Educational Progress has reported consistently that the standardized test scores of average African American and Hispanic students continue to lag behind the scores of White students at comparable grade levels (U.S. Department of Education, 2000). Moreover, after examining 27 school reform models, the U.S. Department of Education (1998) concluded that most of the reform models had failed to make substantial improvements.
The new education reform bill, The No Child Left Behind Act, seeks to close the persistent achievement gap through a multifaceted and comprehensive approach. The bill promises to (a) achieve excellence through high standards and accountability, (b) make literacy a priority, (c) improve teacher quality, (d) improve mathematics and science instruction, and (e) move students with limited English proficiency to English fluency. Enhancing education through technology, providing impact aid, and encouraging safe schools are additional components of the reform plan. However, one of the most historic and controversial aspects of the plan is that the new legislation also promises to promote parental options. Although some states had already enacted school choice policies, the U.S. Supreme Court (U.S. Department of Education, 2002b) upheld parents' right to choose their children's schools. Throughout the nation, instead of just in certain states, the parents of students in substandard public schools will finally have the government-sanctioned option of moving their children to higher performing schools (U.S. Department of Education, 2001b). For the most part, the majority of children in substandard public schools tend to be poor children and children of color. Those children are more likely than others to have the least qualified teachers (Quality Counts, 2000), to be subjected to low expectations (Drew, 1996; Oakes, 1999; Polite, 1999; Thompson, 2002), and to be less likely to have access to the courses (Dupuis, 1999) and quality of instruction that would prepare them adequately for college (Thompson, 2002). However, one of the primary goals of The No Child Left Behind Act is to improve the quality of teachers in all schools, thereby eradicating those persistent problems. Consequently, the new legislation ideally would decrease the likelihood that parents would merely move their children to another poor-quality school.
Although critics have raised numerous questions about the efficacy of school choice, the U.S. Department of Education is emphatic in maintaining that the Supreme Court's recent decision to uphold school choice policies "is perhaps the most important education decision since Brown v. Board of Education" (U.S. Department of Education, 2002a, p. 1). In another press release, the U.S. Department of Education cited research that validates the efficacy of school choice in improving the academic performance of African American students. According to the press release, "the beneficiaries of school choice are overwhelmingly minority, typically Black students" (U.S. Department of Education 2002b, p. 1).
Because the new education reform bill seeks to empower the parents of children in underperforming schools by permitting them to place their children in better schools and to use Title I funds for tutoring, summer school, and after-school or weekend assistance, there is a need as never before for educators to improve their relations with parents. As a result of deficit theories about the language, culture, home environments, and parents of children of color (Thompson, 2002), a gulf has arisen between some groups of parents and educators. Often, African American and Hispanic parents do not attend school functions. Consequently, there is a widely held belief among educators in poor and urban schools that those parents do not care about their children's education (Delpit, 1995; Flores, Tefft-Cousin, & Diaz, 1991; Poplin & Weeres, 1992; Thompson, 2002). Moreover, in its Schools and Staffing Surveys for 1990-1991 and 1993-1994, The Digest of Education Statistics (U.S. Department of Education, 1999) reported that lack of parent involvement was a great concern for many public school teachers.
Some researchers have found that there is a mismatch between teachers' perceptions of parent and guardian involvement and reality (Flores et al., 1991; Poplin & Weeres, 1992). For example, Thompson (2002) conducted a study of the K-12 schooling experiences of nearly 300 African American students in a southern California region that had many underperforming schools. Although there was a widespread assumption among educators in the region that the parents and guardians of most children of color were apathetic about their children's formal education, Thompson found that when the African American students in her study were asked to rate the level of their parents' involvement, the majority of students rated it as excellent or good. The students' ratings were compared later with data from African American parents in the same region. The overwhelming majority of the parents also rated their involvement in their children's education as excellent or good (Thompson, 2003). Furthermore, in their examination of the National Education Longitudinal Study data, Cook and Ludwig (1998) found that African American parents were as involved in their children's education as were White parents from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. These findings are similar to those of other researchers who found that educators are not always the most reliable judges of parent involvement (Flores et al., 1991; Poplin & Weeres, 1992).
Despite the mismatch between teachers' perceptions of parent involvement versus the reality, a plethora of research has underscored the strong positive correlation between parent involvement and children's academic achievement. For example, according to the U.S. Department of Education (2001a), family involvement is linked to better attendance at school, higher test scores, higher grades, higher graduation rates, a higher rate of homework completion, and greater likelihood of college attendance.
Furthermore, some researchers have specifically described the positive correlation between parent involvement and the schooling experiences of African American students. Comer and Poussaint (1992) not only discussed the importance of parent involvement but also described numerous strategies that African American parents can use to improve their relations with educators. Thompson (1998) conducted a resiliency study that involved African American college students and interviews with successful African American adults, including attorneys, a television producer, educators, and employment managers. Parents were the most frequently cited positive role models in that study, followed by other relatives, teachers, and preachers, respectively. Whereas low achievers, dropouts, and nonresilient students also might have positive role models, most resiliency research emphasizes the positive link between resilient students and positive adult role models. Floyd (1995) examined variables that contributed to the academic success of a group of lower socioeconomic status (SES) African American high school students. She found that good parental relationships or positive relationships with other adults played an important role in the students' academic success. Wilson and Allen (1987) studied African American adults to identify links between educational attainment and family practices. They concluded that parents play a significant role in their children's education. Clark (1983) studied the home environments of high-and low-achieving poor African American high school seniors and found that parents of high achievers used regular routines to assist their children academically. Conversely, the parents of low achievers were so overwhelmed by adversity that they made few positive contributions to their children's formal schooling.
Although educators often bemoan the lack of parent involvement, and some educators even blame poor student achievement on parent apathy, there is clearly a need for educators to be diligent in their efforts to increase parent involvement in their children's education. This is especially true of African American parents because African American students have historically been more likely to suffer from low achievement than have their peers of other racial and ethnic groups. In light of the new education reform bill's promise to empower the parents of children in underperforming schools, educators will have to move beyond being merely concerned about parent involvement. Moreover, to prevent a parent-initiated mass exodus of children from low-performing schools, educators will be forced--by government mandate--to improve the quality of education that those children receive, and they must be willing to include parents in the discussion of how to initiate and implement those improvements.
A logical first step is for educators to begin to listen to the voices of parents in order to hear their concerns. In an effort to begin this discussion, I sought to provide educators with feedback from African American parents about their children's schooling experiences. In this study, I examined variables that predict how African American parents and guardians of school-aged children rate their children's elementary and secondary school teachers, and the public school system as a whole. An awareness of those variables can enable educators to get a head start not only on hearing the concerns of African American parents but also on improving their relations with these parents and seeking effective ways to improve the quality of education that they offer to African American students.
Method
I collected quantitative and qualitative data from African American parents and guardians who participated in a larger study. I designed the larger study to give African American parents and guardians of school-aged children an opportunity to describe many aspects of their children's schooling experiences. A press release describing the study was published in three southern California regional newspapers that target African Americans. Also, a local radio talk show reporter described the study and invited African American parents who were interested to contact me. I also attended or sent a representative to four predominantly African American community-based events, including two graduations at predominantly African American schools. As a result, 129 African American parents and guardians participated in the quantitative phase of the study; 23 of these were interviewed for the qualitative phase. I used questionnaire data pertaining to variables that predict how parents and guardians rate their children's teachers and the public school system.
For the present study, the self-selected group of parents and guardians can be categorized as a purposive sample who met the following inclusion criteria: (a) They identified themselves as African Americans. (b) They were the parents and guardians of school-aged children. (c) They were willing to participate in the study. As with any nonrandom sample, questions about the "generalizability" of the results arise. However, the facts that (a) the participants were diverse in age, gender, highest level of education attainment, and SES and (b) they represented multiple school districts increase the likelihood that they were representative of the diversity that exists among the general African American population. Nevertheless, this and other limitations are addressed in the Discussion section of this article.
The Questionnaire
An original questionnaire was distributed to the self-selected sample. The questionnaire consisted of 39 Likert-type, dichotomous, and open-ended questions. In addition to demographic information, the survey instrument included questions pertaining to children's elementary, middle, and high school experiences; racism at school; how parents and guardians perceived school personnel, suspension, and expulsion; attitudes about college; literacy issues; academic problems; and specific ways in which parents and guardians assist their children academically. The questionnaire was field tested and approved by an institutional review board. A test of interitem reliability of the dependent variables yielded an alpha coefficient of .87, indicating high internal consistency. Also, a comparison between the questionnaire and interview responses of the parents and guardians who participated in both phases of the study resulted in a high level of test-retest reliability.
Data Analyses
I used a standard statistical software program (SPSS) for the social sciences to analyze the questionnaire data. Bivariate correlations and stepwise multiple regressions were run. Mean substitution was used for missing data. I controlled collinearity problems by excluding variables that had a tolerance level below .30. To enter the equation, a variable had to be significant at .05 or less. Variables were dropped from the equation if their p level was .10 or greater.
Participants
African American parents and guardians of school-aged children in 11 southern California school districts participated in the study. However, 74% of the parents and guardians had children in one school district. Statewide, African American children constituted 8% of the students in public schools (California Department of Education, 2001); in the one school district, they constituted 12% of the total student population. Nevertheless, they were represented disproportionately among the students who did not fare well academically. For example, the African American students had lower average standardized tests scores than did their peers of other racial or ethnic groups in the school district and higher suspension and expulsion rates. When the new state-mandated High School Exit examination was given in 2001, the majority of African American students who took the test failed the mathematics portion, and nearly half failed the English-language arts section (California Department of Education, 2001).
Approximately 80% of the parents and guardians who participated in the present study were women. Parents (78%), versus guardians (22%), accounted for the largest group of participants. The average parent and guardian had two school-aged children, but 33% of them had three or more school-aged children. Sixty-seven percent had at least one child in elementary school, 43% had at least one child in middle school, and 36% had at least one child in high school when the study was conducted. Moreover, many of the parents and guardians who had school-aged children also had adult children who had already graduated from public high schools.
Results
Ratings for Elementary School Teachers
Sixty-nine percent of the African American parents and guardians gave their children's elementary school teachers an excellent or good rating, and only 14% gave them a low rating of poor or needs to improve (see Table 1). I created a regression model to identify the variables that were most likely to predict how African American parents and guardians rated their children's elementary teachers.
Eight variables (expulsion from school, experiencing racism at school, being retained or failing courses, suspension from school, parents' and guardians' beliefs about how teachers had treated their children, the value that parents and guardians placed on their children's elementary course work, how parents and guardians rated their own academic assistance to their children, and number of school-aged children in the family) were insignificant. However, four variables were significant and accounted for 45% of the variance in the dependent variable. The variable representing how parents and guardians rated the public school system made the strongest contribution to the equation, contributing 30% to the R². The second strongest predictor was the variable representing parents' and guardians' perception of the benefits of their children's elementary school homework. The variable representing whether parents and guardians believed that most public school teachers cared about their students was the third strongest predictor. Children's elementary track (Special Education, Basic, G.A.T.E.) entered the equation last and added an additional 2% to the equation (see Table 2).
Ratings for Middle School Teachers
Sixty-six percent of the parents and guardians who had children who were in middle school when the study was conducted or who previously had had children in middle school rated their children's middle school teachers as excellent or good. Only 11% of the parents and guardians gave the middle school teachers a low rating (see Table 3). When a stepwise regression model was developed, six independent variables (parents' and guardians' beliefs about whether most school administrators cared about students, parents' and guardians' beliefs about whether most school administrators and counselors had treated their children fairly, children's experiencing racism at school, children's suspension from school, parents' and guardians' beliefs about whether teachers cared about students, and parents' and guardians' beliefs about whether teachers had treated their children fairly) were insignificant. Six variables were significant and accounted for 42% of the variance in the dependent variable.
The variable representing the level at which students had been retained or failed courses entered the equation first and accounted for 16% of the R². The type of school (public or private) that children were attending was the second strongest predictor. The variable representing having children in elementary school at the time that the study was conducted was the third strongest predictor, but it accounted for only 3% of the variance. The variable indicating that a student had a problem with social studies added slightly less than 3% to the R². The variable indicating that a student was struggling with mathematics was the only one that was a negative predictor, and it accounted for 2% of the variance. The variable indicating that parents and guardians assisted their children academically by contacting teachers on a regular basis entered the equation on Step 6 (see Table 4).
Ratings for High School Teachers
Forty-nine percent of the parents and guardians who had children in high school or who had been in high school previously rated their high school teachers as excellent or good. Twenty percent of those parents and guardians gave the high school teachers a low rating (see Table 5).
The stepwise multiple regression results indicated that four independent variables (parents' and guardians' beliefs about whether most school administrators cared about students, the value that parents and guardians placed on their children's education, parents' and guardians' perception of the benefits of their children's elementary school homework, and their perception of the benefits of their children's middle school homework) were insignificant. However, eight variables were significant and, when combined, accounted for 55% of the variance in the dependent variable.
The strongest predictor was the rating that parents and guardians gave to their children's elementary teachers, which accounted for 26% of the R². The second strongest predictor was parents' and guardians' beliefs about the benefits of their children's high school homework. Parents' and guardians' beliefs about whether most teachers had treated their children fairly was a negative predictor. The variable representing whether parents and guardians had assisted their children academically by serving as classroom volunteers was also a negative predictor. The variable representing children's attitude about reading accounted for less than 3% of the variance. Parents' and guardians' perception of the benefits of their children's high school course work added less than 2% to the R², as did the variables represent grade-retention-course-failure level and the rating that parents and guardians give to themselves for assisting their children academically (see Table 6).
Ratings for the Public School System
Nearly 60% of the parents and guardians rated the public school system as excellent or good (see Table 7). When a stepwise multiple regression model was created, eight independent variables (parents' and guardians' beliefs about whether administrators had treated their children fairly, expulsion from school, retention-course failure, suspension from school, parents' and guardians' beliefs about whether teachers cared about students, parents' and guardians' beliefs about whether teachers had treated their children fairly, parents' and guardians' perceptions of the benefits of the elementary homework their children received, and perceptions of the school district's racial climate) were insignificant. Four variables were significant and when combined, accounted for 41% of the variance in predicting how African American parents and guardians rated the public school system.
The strongest predictor of how parents and guardians rated the public school system was the rating that they gave to their children's elementary teachers, which accounted for nearly 30% of the total R². Parents' and guardians' beliefs about whether most school administrators cared about students was the second strongest predictor. The third strongest predictor, which was negative, was the variable representing whether parents and guardians stated that their children had experienced racism at school. Parents' and guardians' perception of the benefits of the elementary course work that was assigned to their children entered the equation last (see Table 8). Table 9 contains all of the variables that entered the four regression equations.
Discussion
The results of the present study indicate that some variables have a greater impact on African American parents' and guardians' satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their children's teachers and the public school system as a whole. The majority of parents and guardians gave high ratings to their children's teachers and to the public school system, but a higher percentage of parents and guardians were more dissatisfied with secondary school teachers than with elementary teachers. The parents' and guardians' satisfaction with the public school system was consistent with that found in other research. Rose and Gallup (2001) reported that about half of the respondents who participated in a national poll gave high ratings to the public school system but that a higher percentage of parents of public school students did so.
In the present study, of the four independent variables that surfaced as predictors of how parents and guardians rated their children's elementary school teachers, three of the variables combined (beliefs about the benefits of their children's elementary school homework, beliefs about whether teachers cared about students, and their children's elementary school track) accounted for only 15% of the total R². The rating that the parents and guardians gave to the public school system accounted for 30% of the variance, which suggests that there is a positive correlation between African American parents' and guardians' satisfaction with their children's elementary school teachers and their overall satisfaction with the public school system as a whole. Parents and guardians whose children had excellent and at least good elementary teachers were more likely to also believe that the public school system was doing an excellent or good job of educating their children. Conversely, parents and guardians who believed that their children's elementary teachers did a poor job or needed to improve were likely to believe the same about the public school system.
Of the six independent variables that emerged as predictors of how the African American parents and guardians rated their children's middle school teachers, a combination of four variables (having elementary schoolchildren in the household, having a child who was struggling with social studies or with mathematics, and saying that they contacted their children's teachers on a regular basis) explained only 10% of the variance. However, two variables combined, students' grade-retention-course-failure level and the type of school that they attended, accounted for 31% of the variance. That finding suggests that the African American parents and guardians of children who failed middle and high school courses were more likely than the parents and guardians of children who did not fail secondary school courses to rate their children's middle school teachers as excellent or good. One plausible explanation is that those parents and guardians might have associated course failure with higher' academic standards, challenge, and rigor. Therefore, they might have assumed that if their children failed middle or high school courses, they had better teachers. Another possibility for that finding is that the parents and guardians might have believed that their children deserved to fail courses because of a lack of effort. When rating middle school teachers, the parents and guardians might have considered other variables pertaining to their adolescent children who failed courses. In addition to the developmental changes, peer pressure, and increasing demands of schoolwork that all adolescents experience (Barr & Parrett, 1995), African American adolescents also must contend with a growing awareness of the existence of racism and issues pertaining to what it means to be an African American in the United States (Corbin & Pruitt, 1999; White & Parham, 1990). Subsequently, the African American parents and guardians may have attributed their children's course failure to these variables, instead of to their teachers. That theory is supported by other research. For example, Thompson (2002) found that some of the African American teenagers who participated in the interview phase of her study attributed their course failure in middle school, high school, or both, to personal circumstances or a lack of effort. Another plausible explanation is that the parents and guardians might have excluded from their rating of middle school teachers the teachers whose courses their children failed. The survey question asked, "How would you rate how well MOST of your child's/children's middle school teachers have taught your child/children?" Therefore, parents and guardians might have focused on the efficacy of "most" of their children's teachers and excluded those associated with their children's course failure.
The second finding pertaining to middle school teachers indicates that the African American parents and guardians who had children in private school when the study was conducted were more likely than the parents and guardians of public school children to rate their children's middle school teachers as excellent or good. That finding validates the pervasive, but not necessarily true (Ingersoll, 1999), assumption that children in private schools tend to have better teachers than do children in public schools.
Eight variables predicted how African American parents and guardians rated their children's high school teachers. When combined, six of the variables (parents' and guardians' perceptions 'of how teachers had treated their children, whether parents and guardians had served as classroom volunteers, children's attitude about reading, parents' and guardians' beliefs about the benefits of their children's high school course work, grade-retention-course failure level, and parents' and guardians' self-rating of how they had assisted their children academically) accounted for 16% of the variance. Two other variables, how parents and guardians rated their children's elementary school teachers and their beliefs about the benefits of their children's high school homework, accounted for 39% of the variance. Those findings underscore the important role that elementary school teachers play in influencing African American parents' and guardians' satisfaction with subsequent teachers. Furthermore, the findings suggest that when African American parents and guardians believe that their children are being assigned meaningful and beneficial high school homework, they are also more likely to believe that their children have excellent or good high school teachers.
Of the four variables that predicted how African American parents and guardians rated the public school system, a combination of three variables (parents' and guardians' beliefs about whether most public school administrators cared about students, whether their children had experienced racism at school, and parents' and guardians' beliefs about the benefits of their children's elementary school course work) accounted for less than 12% of the variance. The strongest predictor, however, was how parents and guardians rated their children's elementary teachers, which accounted for more than twice as much of the variance as the other three variables combined.
Throughout this study, although many variables surfaced as predictors of how African American parents and guardians rated their children's teachers and the public school system, a recurring theme has been that the quality of their children's elementary school teachers had a strong impact on the parents' and guardians' satisfaction with teachers and the public school system. Moreover, at least five of the variables that entered the equations pertained to elementary school. One conclusion that can be drawn is that to increase African American parents' and guardians' satisfaction with teachers and the public school system, the education system must provide their children with outstanding elementary teachers. The dismal National Assessment of Educational Progress reading and mathematics scores of the average African American fourth grader (U.S. Department of Education, 2000) are strong indicators that teacher quality must improve at the elementary level (Drew, 1996). Highly qualified elementary teachers who provide African American children with the strong literacy and mathematics skills that they will need to succeed at subsequent school levels can be critical in closing the historic achievement gap.
One of the most important findings is that there are many other variables that were not identified by this study that must be explored. Each of the regression equations explained only a fraction of the variables that predicted the ratings that African American parents and guardians gave. Therefore, other variables should be examined in additional studies. A larger sample of African American parents and guardians of private school children and a larger sample of parents and guardians from many school districts (instead of primarily from one district) could allow researchers to uncover important information. Moreover, explanations should be explored for the finding that the parents and guardians of children who failed middle school and high school courses were more likely to give a high rating to middle school teachers. Furthermore, the fact that the majority of African American parents and guardians gave high ratings to the public school system and to most teachers, yet the public school system continues to fail a large number of African American children--as illustrated by the Black-White achievement gap--is perplexing. One possible explanation is that the results might have been different if the majority of the parents and guardians had had children in high school rather than elementary school, because parents and guardians of elementary school-aged children have had less time to evaluate the public school system in relation to their children. This is a plausible explanation because the parents' and guardians' public school system rating was predicated primarily on how they rated elementary school teachers.
Moreover, the findings that parents' and guardians' perception of whether most administrators cared about students was the second strongest predictor of their public school rating and that racism surfaced as the third predictor indicate that teacher quality is not the sole variable that affects African American parents' and guardians' perception of the public school system's efficacy. Qualitative studies that permit African American parents and guardians to elaborate might be useful in addressing some of the issues that were raised. Finally, although the participants in the present study appeared to have been representative of the diversity that exists among the general African American population, the fact that the participants constituted a nonrandom sample raises a question about the generalizability of the results. That is another reason that further research is warranted.
In spite of the limitations of the present study, it can be used to inform policymakers and educators who seek feedback from African American parents and guardians. Because researchers have found that parent involvement correlated positively with children's achievement (Clark, 1983: Comer & Poussaint, 1992; Floyd, 1995; Thompson, 1998; Wilson & Allen, 1987), and because the new No Child Left Behind legislation (U.S. Department of Education, 2001b) promises to empower African American parents and guardians as never before, policymakers and educators must continue to seek ways to improve their relations with African American parents and guardians and to give them additional opportunities to discuss issues pertaining to their children's schooling. Further research that gives African American parents and guardians opportunities to explain some of the findings in the present study and to share new information might move the goals of No Child Left Behind further from being perceived by some educators as "the latest political rhetoric by a new administration" and closer to the reality of the eradication of the Black-White achievement gap
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