Date

12-19-2023

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education in Curriculum & Instruction (EdD)

Chair

Roger Stiles

Keywords

parent involvement, attendance at school events, pester power, school communication

Disciplines

Education | Marketing

Abstract

This quantitative, quasi-experimental static group comparison study aimed to determine parents' perspectives on their school involvement and the effects of student influence on parent attendance at school events when communication methods included students and parents. Communication about ways parents can become involved with their student's school is vital in improving the connection between parental involvement and student achievement. Sample participants included the parents of 381 elementary school students (Kindergarten-Fifth Grades) of one public charter school. The parent involvement events consisted of two asynchronous parent involvement videos, one for reading and one for math, delivered through the Family Involvement Questionnaire emailed to parents from the school. Questionnaire data about parents' perceived school involvement was collected via Google Forms, downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet, then uploaded to SPSS for data analysis through two independent samples t-tests and two Chi-squared tests. The findings suggest that when students are included in the communication about parent events, students' "pester power" positively influences parent attendance. Therefore, school personnel can improve parent attendance at parent involvement events by including students in the marketing-motivated communication about the events. The researcher recommends strengthening this study's findings by replicating the study, post-pandemic, in different settings such as in-person, synchronous, and asynchronous; rural, suburban, and urban; in districts with varying socioeconomic statuses and diverse enrollments; and in varying school district types, which provides a larger sample size.

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