Annotation from the Connection Collection
You are viewing a record from the Connection Collection, a searchable annotated bibliography database. It links you with research-based information that you can use to connect schools, families, and communities.
| Title: | Setting the stage for success: Bringing parents into education reform as advocates for higher student achievement |
| Author: | Kroll, J., Sexton, R. F., Raimondo, B. N., Corbett, H. D., & Wilson, B. |
| Year: | 2001 |
| Resource Type: | Report |
| Publication Information: | Lexington, KY: Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence |
| Full text: | http://www.pewtrusts.com/return_results.cfm?content_item_id=844. |
| Connection: | School-Family-Community |
| Literature type: | Research and Evaluation |
Annotation:
The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the work of the Prichard Committee's Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership and evaluate the model's strengths and areas for improvement. Specifically, the evaluators wanted to find out whether the Institute increased parents' understanding and participation in education improvement efforts, whether parents were able to use their skills to take on leadership roles, and to find out if the Institute worked equally well in diverse communities. Evaluators found that there are five ways that parents can reasonably be expected to promote educational change as a result of their leadership training. Parents can accept and communicate education messages, gather and present data related to schools, communicate effectively with both parents and educators about education issues, initiate activities to support parent engagement in education and schools, and leverage the contacts they make during training into additional resources. However, the Institute expectation that parents would take action to directly affect student achievement sometimes proved to be too high a standard. The evaluators also note "parents involved in the Institute far exceeded the kinds of actions they had previously taken in schools." The evaluation was conducted collaboratively between Institute staff and outside evaluators. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Data sources included school demographic data, Institute participant surveys and open-ended interviews, and interviews with principals from participants' school communities. The article also provides "lessons learned" for other groups wanting to promote parent involvement and information about how a program evaluation can facilitate program improvement. The results of this study are reported in general terms and it is primarily descriptive in nature.
Suggested Citation Style:
- Kroll, J., Sexton, R. F., Raimondo, B. N., Corbett, H. D., & Wilson, B. (2001). Setting the stage for success: Bringing parents into education reform as advocates for higher student achievement. Lexington, KY: Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. http://www.pewtrusts.com/return_results.cfm?content_item_id=844.