MOVED TO POSTER SESSION II, 189A, An Examination of Family Engagement across Elementary and Middle-School Students

Student’s academic and social/behavioral development is influenced by experiences across homes and schools. Family-school engagement practices (e.g., family-school partnerships and parental involvement) improve student’s social-emotional competencies, disruptive behaviors, academic achievement, and hold promise for promoting consistent and cumulative support across development.

Although benefits of family engagement across development are generally recognized in the educational community, most educational programs and policies are based chiefly on elementary students. Further, family engagement typically decreases upon student’s entry into middle school, as collaborative practices become more challenging to implement.

For families to maintain a significant and positive influence on student’s development as they get older, it is it is imperative that consideration is given to key contextual factors. The current study addresses these considerations by examining family engagement across and within both elementary and middle-school samples. Data were drawn from two randomized controlled trials (i.e., The Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management [IY TCM] and CHAMPS [Conversation, Help, Activity, Movement, Participation Success]). IY TCM is a comprehensive curriculum for improving elementary teacher classroom management skills. Participants in this group RCT were 105 teachers and 1817 students in kindergarten to third grade from nine urban schools in the Midwestern United States. CHAMPS is a teacher training program designed to promote effective classroom management skills in middle school teachers. Participants in this group RCT were 111 teachers and 1450 students in sixth to eighth grade across 2 school districts. The Teacher Observation of Classroom Adaptation – Revised (TOCA-R) family involvement subscale was used to assess teacher reported levels of family engagement. The TOCA-R assesses overall family engagement in addition to specific family engagement practices and beliefs.

Preliminary results revealed that levels of family engagement were significantly higher for the elementary sample in comparison to the middle school sample. Within the elementary sample, teachers reported significant increases from pre- to post-intervention regarding: (1) parents being supportive of their children’s education, (2) parent attendance at parent-teacher conference, (3) parent-teacher relationship, and (4) teacher ability to contact parents. Parent-teacher relationship was the only family engagement component that was found to significantly increase from pre- to post-intervention within the middle school sample. Taken together, these results further illustrate that family engagement often decreases from elementary to middle school. Further, the importance of parent-teacher relationships is highlighted across both samples. Future research is needed to determine specifics regarding how parent-teacher relationships can be maintained as students get older.