Low-Income Parents' Beliefs about Their Role in Children's Academic Learning

Author(s): Kathryn V. Drummond and Deborah Stipek

Source: The Elementary School Journal, Vol. 104, No. 3 (Jan., 2004), pp. 197-213
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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Low-Income Parents' Abstract

Beliefs about Their In individual telephone interviews, 234 low-

income African-American, Caucasian, and La-
Role in Children's tino parents rated the importance of helping
their second- and third-grade children in read-
Academic Learning ing, math, and homework and of knowing what
their children are learning. Parents reported
whether they had taught their child in math and
reading and read with their child in the past
week. They also answered open-ended questions
about the type of help they deemed appropriate.
Kathryn V. Drummond On questionnaires, teachers rated each student's
University of California,Los Angeles reading and math skills and noted whether they
had given a child's parent suggestions for help-
Deborah Stipek ing with either subject. Findings showed that
parents rated the importance of helping their
StanfordUniversity child with academic work very high. Parents of
second graders tended to rate the importance of
helping higher than did parents of third graders.
Similar to past research, ratings varied system-
atically as a function of parents' perceptions of
children's academic performance and as a func-
tion of whether teachers had offered suggestions;
however, parents perceived helping with read-
ing as more important than helping with math.
Findings implied that teachers who desire more
parent involvement might need to use different
strategies for the two subjects. In addition to spe-
cific approaches for helping with math, reading,
and homework, parents noted other activities
they believed would help their children succeed.

Parent involvement figures centrally in na-

tional goals for improving education (Na-
tional Education Goals Panel, 1994) and in
many current school reform models. Edu-
cators have proposed that increased parent
involvement can improve student achieve-
ment and, subsequently, the importance of
parent support has been emphasized in dis-
cussions about the achievement gap be-
The ElementarySchoolJournal tween economically disadvantaged and
Volume 104, Number 3
o middle-class children (e.g., Epstein, 1996a;
2004 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
0013-5984/2004/10403-0002$05.00 Henderson & Berla, 1994; Hoover-Dempsey

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198
& Sandler, 1997). Studies have shown that
low-income parents value education as a
route to economic and social mobility
(Delgado-Gaitan, 1992; Goldenberg & Gal-
limore, 1995; Scott-Jones, 1995), but their ac-
tual involvement often falls short of school
expectations (Casanova, 1996; Fine, 1993;
Lareau & Shumar, 1996; Olsen & Fuller,
1998). For example, Linek, Rasinski, and
Harkins (1997) found that a majority of
teachers were dissatisfied with parent in-
volvement, citing a general lack of interest
or concern about school matters. Height-
ened attention to parent involvement in the
public arena is indisputable (Department of
Education, 1998, 2000; Epstein, Williams, &
Nesbitt, 2002; Helfand, 2000), yet teachers
and administrators still believe that not all
parents are sufficiently involved (e.g.,
Baker, 1997; Eccles & Harold, 1996).
Because the perception persists that
there is a mismatch or even a clash between
educator and parent values regarding par-
ent involvement, in this study we assessed
how much parents valued helping their
children learn. A group of diverse, low-
income parents rated the importance of
helping their second- and third-grade chil-
dren in different subjects and answered
open-ended questions about the type of
help they deemed appropriate.
Research on Involvement
Low-Income Parents
The study focused on low-income par-
ents because their children achieve lower,
on average, than students from other in-
come levels, and research on parent prac-
tices has indicated that low-income parents
are less involved. A few studies that have
explored parents' beliefs have suggested
that low-income parents may resist direct
involvement. In an ethnographic study of
parent participation, Lareau (1987) com-
pared two first-grade classrooms, one in
a middle-class neighborhood and one in
a lower-income neighborhood. Although
teachers at both schools had similar expec-
tations, parents in the low-income commu-
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THE ELEMENTARYSCHOOLJOURNAL
nity were less familiar with school curricu-
lum, engaged less in teaching at home, and
were less likely to attend school events. The
lower-income parents explained that they
had less time and flexibility to meet in-
volvement expectations. A few of these par-
ents indicated that their responsibilities
were limited to meeting children's basic and
social-emotional needs, such as providing
clothing, emotional support, and socializ-
ing manners.
Other work has supported these find-
ings. In another ethnographic study (Lar-
eau, 1994), low-income parents reported a
lack of confidence about school matters and
usually deferred to teachers' expertise.
Based on a series of interviews with 12 low-
income parents of elementary school stu-
dents, Lareau and Shumar (1996) character-
ized these families as teacher supporters
who monitored and encouraged teacher-
chosen educational activities rather than as
teacher collaborators who might intervene
in or suggest student activities themselves.
These findings indicate a perception by
some parents that their role should be dif-
ferentiated from the role of teachers. Swap
(1993) suggested that some parents might
believe they are most helpful when they
urge their children to be autonomous in do-
ing their schoolwork. Overall, this research
suggests variation in parents' beliefs about
what parents can and should do to help
children succeed in school; this was the first,
broad area that we wanted to explore fur-
ther. We assessed five additional factors in
order to provide further guidance for efforts
to increase parent involvement. The ratio-
nale for including each of these factors is
summarized below.
Child's Grade
Previous studies of parent practices
have shown that parents of younger chil-
dren were more likely to be involved in
educational activities than were parents of
older children (Griffith, 1998; Stevenson &
Baker, 1987). This led us to wonder whether
parents of younger and older children hold
JANUARY 2004

different beliefs about the importance of in-
volvement.
Most studies that have illustrated age-
related differences in parent practices have
assessed a wide range of ages. For example,
in a longitudinal study of elementary par-
ents, Roeser, Patrick, Yoon, Anderman, and
Eccles (1994) found that parents tended to
decrease some types of involvement, such
as reading and practicing academic activi-
ties with their children at home, as their
children grew older. They increased other
activities, such as volunteering at school.
Similarly, in a second- to twelfth-grade sam-
ple, Cooper, Lindsay, and Nye (2000) found
that parents allowed their older children to
be more autonomous with homework.
Studies that included only a two- or three-
grade span have not assessed age differ-
ences (e.g., Grolnick, Benjet, Kurowski, &
Apostoleris, 1997; Okagaki, Frensch, & Gor-
don, 1995). In our study, if differences were
to be found in a narrow range of grades, we
expected beliefs about being involved to be
stronger for parents of second graders.
Child's Ethnicity
Some studies have suggested that cul-
tural norms may play a role in parent beliefs
about teaching and learning (reviewed in
Garcia Coll, Meyer, & Brillon, 1995; Hi-
dalgo, Siu, Bright, Swap, & Epstein, 1995).
Much of the empirical work has focused on
recent immigrant Latino families. For ex-
ample, Goldenberg and Gallimore (1995)
found that Latino parents defined educa-
tion more broadly than many teachers did,
extending education to areas of social and
moral development. Similarly, Reese, Bal-
zano, Gallimore, and Goldenberg (1995)
concluded that Latino parents emphasized
moral learning, believing that it was the
foundation for all other learning. Compared
to Mexican-American and Mexican immi-
grant groups, Anglo-American parents
have been found to rate cognitive traits in
children as more important, and motiva-
tion, self-management, and social skills as
less important (Okagaki & Sternberg, 1993).
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PARENTS'BELIEFS 199
Other studies have shown that Latino par-
ents distinguish themselves from parents of
other backgrounds by expressing concern
about showing respect to authority figures
(e.g., Holloway, Rambaud, Fuller, & Eggers-
Pierola, 1995) and may not become in-
volved in certain ways for fear of showing
disrespect to teachers. Thus, because re-
search has suggested the possibility of eth-
nic differences in parents' beliefs about the
role of parents in children's learning, we ex-
plored this possibility.
Subject Matter
Few previous studies have compared
parents' beliefs about their role in different
academic domains. In one cross-cultural
study, McGillicudy-DeLisi and Subraman-
ian (1994) asked mothers in the United
States and Tanzania to rate the importance
of the parent role and the teacher role in
teaching children in particular domains.
Both sets of mothers ranked the parent role
highest in teaching language, but American
mothers placed more importance on teach-
ing language. Neither Tanzanian nor Amer-
ican mothers rated their role in teaching
children math and science highly. The au-
thors reasoned that parents in both coun-
tries might have felt that the teacher's ex-
pertise was necessary to teach the methods
and technology required in the study of
math and science.
Differences in parents' beliefs with re-
gard to subject matter seemed important to
explore for three reasons. First, one study,
which focused on practices, found that par-
ents were more likely to report helping in
the subjects of reading and English than in
other subjects (Epstein, 1996b). We thought
that an understanding of parents' beliefs
about helping with math versus reading
might provide more insight to this area. Sec-
ond, general feelings of parent efficacy have
been tied to parent involvement (Hoover-
Dempsey, Bassler, & Brissie, 1992), and it
seemed likely that parents would feel more
efficacious in certain domains than others.
We assumed that parents would feel more
200
competent in assisting their children with
reading than with math because they are
less likely to use math in their daily lives.
Third, at any given time, certain subjects are
emphasized more by teachers, schools, and
in the public arena. Because reading is em-
phasized in schools as a foundational skill,
we expected parents in the present study to
rate parental involvement as more impor-
tant in reading than in math. To explore
possible subject-matter differences further,
we asked parents several questions about
the assistance they had recently given their
child with reading, math, and homework.
Child Achievement
Despite broad support for parent in-
volvement among policy makers and edu-
cators, empirical evidence on its effects on
student achievement is inconsistent. Some
studies have shown a positive association
between parents' involvement at school and
children's achievement (Miedel & Rey-
nolds, 2000; Stevenson & Baker, 1987). Par-
ent involvement may cause higher student
achievement, or perhaps it is easier and
more pleasant to become involved in chil-
dren's learning when they are performing
well. Other studies have indicated that par-
ent involvement is greater for children who
are achieving poorly (Delgado-Gaitan,
1992; Grolnick, Ryan, & Deci, 1991; Steven-
son, Chen, & Uttal, 1990), suggesting that
parents may intervene more when their
children are not doing well.
In the current study we examined asso-
ciations between parents' perceptions of
their children's reading and math achieve-
ment and their ratings of the importance of
their own involvement in their children's
academic work. Previous studies mostly
used school indices of children's achieve-
ment and measures of actual involvement
practices. Using parents' perceptions rather
than a teacher rating of achievement allows
a more direct test of the hypothesis that in-
volvement is, at least in part, a reaction to
the perception that a child needs help. We
did, however, obtain teacher ratings of chil-
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THE ELEMENTARYSCHOOLJOURNAL
dren's achievement to assess the validity of
parents' perceptions.
Teacher Communication
Previous research has suggested that
parents are more likely to become involved
when their child's teacher suggests that
they do so. In their model of parent involve-
ment, Eccles and Harold (1996) suggest that
teachers and parents reciprocally influence
each other's beliefs regarding parents' role
and involvement. Snow, Barnes, Chandler,
Goodman, and Hemphill (1991) found that
teacher-initiated contact with parents was
associated with more parent-initiated com-
munication with school, as well as with im-
proved student schoolwork and gains on
reading achievement tests. In an interven-
tion study (Ames, 1993), researchers trained
teachers to communicate with parents fre-
quently and to vary their communication
strategies throughout the year. Compared
to parents of children in control classrooms,
parents of children in the intervention class-
rooms rated teachers as more effective,
rated their own influence on their children's
learning higher, and reported higher in-
volvement.
Accordingly, in the present study we
asked teachers if they had given sugges-
tions to parents in the domains of reading
and math. We predicted that parents who
received advice or suggestions about help-
ing their children would rate the impor-
tance of parent involvement higher than
would parents who did not receive such
suggestions.
Study Purpose
The study was conducted to obtain infor-
mation about low-income parents' beliefs
about their role that could help guide future
efforts to increase or shape their participa-
tion. Specifically, our three objectives were
to learn: (1) how much parents from diverse
backgrounds value involvement in their
children's schooling; (2) what factors are as-
sociated with differences among parents
in their beliefs about involvement; and
JANUARY 2004

(3) what parents say, in their own words,
they should be doing to help their children
succeed in school.
The study adds to parent involvement
research by examining parents' beliefs
about involvement and differentiating their
beliefs about involvement in different do-
mains, using a rating scale and open-ended
questions. The sample for this study was a
group of low-income parents; many were
minorities, and some were new immigrants
and did not speak English. Previous re-
search has suggested that many teachers as-
sume that low-income parents do not care
or do not want to be involved, an assump-
tion we questioned. Most research on par-
ents' beliefs about being involved in chil-
dren's education has been ethnographic
and based on a small number (5-30) of par-
ents (e.g., Lareau, 1987; Lareau & Shumar,
1996). Many larger studies have examined
involvement practices, but parents' role
construction (e.g., Hoover-Dempsey & San-
dler, 1997) has not been studied as often. In
addition, previous research has commonly
limited parents to rating aspects of involve-
ment in a predetermined list of activities
(e.g., Epstein, 1986; Griffith, 1998; Kohl,
Lengua, & McMahon, 2000), or in activities
that take place at school (e.g., Grolnick, Ben-
jet, Kurowski, & Apostoleris, 1997; Steven-
son & Baker, 1987). Large-scale studies on
parent beliefs have examined such issues
as child-rearing, educational aspirations,
achievement orientation, and conceptions
of children's intelligence (Marjoribanks,
1995; Okagaki & Frensch, 1998; Wentzel,
1998), but they have not studied parents'
beliefs about their own role in their chil-
dren's education.
In interviews, over 200 low-income, eth-
nically diverse parents of second- and third-
grade children were asked to rate how im-
portant they believed it was for them to
play a role in several domains of their
child's learning. If they indicated that par-
ents did have a role in a particular domain,
they were asked to describe what they be-
lieved parents should do; if they indicated
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PARENTS'BELIEFS 201
that they should not be involved, they were
probed for the reasons. We assessed the fac-
tors that might relate to parents' overall be-
liefs about their role-their child's grade in
school, family ethnicity, subject matter, chil-
dren's achievement, and teachers' requests
for parent assistance. Also of interest was
whether parents' recent involvement in
their children's math, reading, and home-
work was related to their beliefs.
Method
Participants
All families in this study were involved
in a longitudinal study of children from
early childhood through elementary school.1
The subsample for the current study in-
cluded all the children who had just fin-
ished second (n = 80) or third grade (n =
201) for whom both parent interviews (98%
completion rate) and teacher questionnaires
(85% return rate) were complete. This re-
sulted in a sample of 234 children in second
(31%) or third (69%) grade. The children
were fairly evenly divided between boys
(52%) and girls (48%), and they were from
diverse ethnic groups (41% Caucasian, 36%
African American, 16% Latino, 2% Asian,
and 1% Native American). For analyses on
ethnicity, we considered the first three pre-
dominant groups.
The children lived in three geographical
areas: a rural community in the northeast, a
large urban northeastern city, and a large
urban west coast city. Participants were
originally recruited through a nationally
funded early-intervention program for low-
income families. At the time of the present
study, family income was still low, with 70%
of the families below an annual income of
$30,000. Specifically, 33% of the parents had
incomes less than $15,000, 20% between
$15,000 and $20,000, and 15% between
$20,000 and $30,000. An additional 17%had
incomes over $30,000, and 15% did not
know or refused to answer the question.
Educational levels of the parents were also
low: 9% of the sample had finished less than
ninth grade, 18% finished less than twelfth
202
grade, 31% completed high school but did
not attend college, and 36% had completed
some college, including 2-year degree pro-
grams.
Students' skill levels varied substan-
tially, although by national standards their
cognitive skills at school entry were low
(mean of 86.8 on the Peabody Picture Vo-
cabulary Test at age 5 years). For the current
study, teachers rated their students as fol-
lows for reading: below average (45%), av-
erage (35%), above average (19%);for math:
below average (37%), average (46%), above
average (18%). Fifty-one children (22%)
were receiving special education services.
Thirty (13%) did not speak English as their
primary language; of these, about 40% were
rated by their teachers as low or very low
in English proficiency.
The 234 child participants were distrib-
uted across 165 classrooms in 103 schools.
The modal number of participating children
per classroom was one. Schools varied con-
siderably in the demographics of their stu-
dent population, although they tended to
serve more children from low-income fam-
ilies than would be expected in a nationally
representative sample. The proportion of
children qualifying for a free or reduced-
price lunch in the sample schools ranged
from 0 to 100%,with a mean of 61%.Teacher
experience ranged from 1 to 37 years, with a
mean of 16.
Procedures
Teacher questionnaires. The question-
naire covered a range of topics, a few of
which were analyzed for this study. Teach-
ers rated children's current reading and
math skills relative to classroom peers and
predicted fifth-grade reading and math
skills on a five-point scale, from "well be-
low children this age" to "well above chil-
dren this age." Ratings in the two domains
were highly correlated (for reading, r = .82,
p < .001; for math, r = .96, p < .001), and
the average was used in analyses. Teachers
also reported whether they had given each
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THE ELEMENTARYSCHOOLJOURNAL
study child's parent "special suggestions"
regarding helping with math or reading.
In the spring the teachers of participat-
ing students received a mailing with a letter
describing the study and requesting their
participation and the questionnaire. Teach-
ers who agreed to participate answered the
questionnaire and mailed it back in late
spring. They received a modest stipend for
each completed questionnaire.
Parent interviews. Parent interviews
took place in the late spring and early sum-
mer, allowing parents to reflect on the entire
school year. The interviews were conducted
over the telephone at a time convenient for
the parent. Mostly mothers (90%) were in-
terviewed. Other adult relatives were inter-
viewed only if they had primary care-
taking responsibility for the child. For a few
parents who did not have a phone or for
those who requested it, a face-to-face inter-
view was conducted in the home. All inter-
viewers were trained graduate students or
professionals who had experience working
with children and families. Native Spanish
speakers conducted and translated inter-
views with Spanish-speaking parents.
Twelve percent of the interviews were con-
ducted in Spanish; the others were con-
ducted in English. The full interview took 1
hour, on average. The interviews were tape-
recorded with phone recording devices and
transcribed. Families were paid a small sti-
pend for the interview.
The parent interview covered a range of
topics, including demographic information
and parents' impressions of their child. For
the present study, parents rated their child's
abilities in math and reading on a five-point
scale. To assess parents' beliefs about
whether they should be involved in their
children's academic learning, parents heard
the following description: "Parents have
different beliefs about what is important for
parents to do to help their children succeed
in school. Some of the things that some par-
ents think they should do, other parents
might not think they should do. We aren't
JANUARY 2004

asking which of these you actually do, but
which you think are good to do."
Because the goal was to learn about par-
ents' values, questions were posed so par-
ents need not actually have engaged in an
activity they were asked about. Rather, they
were asked whether they thought they
should be involved. Questions concerned
four domains of involvement: homework in
general, reading, math, and being informed
about what their child was learning. Parents
were also asked a fifth question about
whether they thought they should help
their child learn other things related to
school.
To questions about involvement regard-
ing math, reading, homework, and know-
ing what their children are learning, parents
responded on a four-point scale ("definitely
should not," "probably should not," "prob-
ably should," and "definitely should"). If
parents answered negatively (definitely or
probably should not), they were asked,
"Why do you believe this?" If parents an-
swered affirmatively (probably or definitely
should), they answered the probe, "What
do you believe you should do?" If parents
answered affirmatively to the fifth question
about whether they believed they should
help their child learn other things related to
school, they answered the probe, "What do
you believe you should do?"
Parents were asked to think about the
previous week and whether they had done
anything to teach their child in math and
reading and whether they had read to their
child or listened to him or her read. They
were also asked how many times they had
helped their child with homework in the
past week.
Coding of open-ended questions. Re-
sponses from open-ended questions were
analyzed using grounded analysis, which
involves organizing categories based on
ideas that emerge from data by intensively
reviewing and sorting responses (Strauss,
1987). First, an inventory of broad catego-
ries was created to encompass the answers
parents gave. Next, we created a range of
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PARENTS'BELIEFS 203
specific categories and then combined
closely related categories.
Because negative parent beliefs (defi-
nitely or probably should not) were uncom-
mon, only four categories were needed to
describe all parent responses. For affirma-
tive parent beliefs (definitely or probably
should), we developed separate coding
schemes for giving help in homework, read-
ing, and math. Additional categories were
created for the ways in which parents said
they should find out what their child is
learning and for other things parents said
they should do to help their child do well
in school.
For each parent interview, trained cod-
ers marked every category in each domain
as either present or not present. Parents
were therefore given credit for as many
categories as they mentioned in response to
any one question. Reliability, calculated as
the number of agreements divided by the
number of agreements plus number of dis-
agreements, was assessed by having two
coders rate 24 interviews. Reliability for dif-
ferent questions ranged from .85 to .96 with
a mean of .89.
Results: Factors Associated with
Parent Involvement Ratings
Generally, parents rated involvement as
very important (see Table 1). A relatively
low alpha (.46) for the four specific areas
(homework and projects, reading, math,
and knowing what the child is learning)
suggests that parents did not rate the im-
portance of involvement the same in all ar-
eas. Parents' explanations for the fourth
broad, open category (help child learn other
things) are provided in the specific activities
section below.
Grade and Ethnicity
A beliefs (4) x grade (2) MANOVA in-
dicated a main effect of grade (0 = .96, F(1,
223) = 2.50, p < .05). Univariate analysis
revealed differences between grade levels
for math (F(1, 227) = 5.50, MSE = 2.20,
p < .05) and knowing what children are
204 THE ELEMENTARYSCHOOLJOURNAL

TABLE1. Means and Standard Deviations of Parent Belief Ratings in Five Domains (N = 234)

Second Grade Third Grade Total Sample

Domain M SD M SD M SD

Help with reading 3.86 .42 3.71C .68 3.77 .61

Help with math 3.81a .43 3.60ac .70 3.67 .64
Help with homework and projects 3.89 .36 3.82 .45 3.84 .42
Know what child is learning 3.93b .26 3.81b .41 3.85 .37
Help child with other things 3.63 .66 3.52 .73 3.55 .71

abSame subscripts denote significant difference between grade.

cSame subscript denotes significant difference between subject.

learning (F(1, 227) = 4.97, MSE = .68, p <
.05). In both domains, parents of second
graders rated the importance of being in-
volved higher than parents of third graders
(see means in Table 1). A beliefs (4) x eth-
nicity (3) MANOVA showed that parents'
beliefs did not vary significantly by ethnic-
ity.
Subject Matter
Paired t tests were used to compare par-
ents' ratings in math and reading. Because
math ratings were differentiated by grade,
we conducted separate analyses for parents
of second and third graders. Among second
graders, ratings for math and reading were
not significantly different (t = .94 (71), p =
.35). Among third graders, ratings for read-
ing were significantly higher than math (t
= 2.16 (157), p < .05), as shown in Table 1.
On the questions about parents' prac-
tices, differences again emerged between
reading and math. A paired t test revealed
that parents were more likely to report that
they had taught their child about reading
than about math (t = 8.04 (229), p < .001).
Parents were also more likely to report that
they had read or listened to their children
read than that they had taught them about
math (t = 2.62 (229), p < .05). Grade level
was not associated with reported helping
behaviors for reading or math. For reading,
there was a modest correlation between
parents' beliefs about the importance of
helping with reading and reported helping
the child read (see Table 2). For math, the
belief about the importance of helping was
correlated with reported helping behaviors
for parents of second graders but not of
third graders (see Table 2).
Child Achievement
Table 2 shows results of correlations be-
tween parents' and teachers' perception of
children's achievement, parents' beliefs
about how involved they should be, and
their reported practices related to reading
and math. For both subjects, there was a
high association between teacher and par-
ent ratings of child achievement. For read-
ing, correlations revealed that the lower
children's achievement ratings were, the
higher their parents rated the importance of
helping them learn to read. For math, cor-
relations were conducted separately for
each grade; there was no strong association
between teacher and parent achievement
ratings and parents' rating the importance
of helping children in math. There was little
relation between achievement and reported
practices for both reading and math.
Teacher Communication
To assess the association between
teacher communication and parent beliefs
about involvement, parents were divided
into two groups, depending on whether the
teacher responded "yes" or "no" to the
question about making special suggestions
to the parent for helping the child with
math and or reading. Teachers made special
suggestions about helping for 96 children
(41%) in reading and for 83 children (36%)
in math. Analyses of variance were con-

JANUARY2004

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 PARENTS'BELIEFS 205

TABLE2. Correlations among Achievement Ratings, Parent Belief Ratings, and Helping
Practices for Math and Reading

Grade

N 2 3 4 5

Math:
Second graders: 72
Achievement rating:
By teacher (1) .52*** -.02 -.12
By parent (2) -.12 -.03
Parent belief (3) .30*
Help child learn math (4)
Third graders: 162
Achievement rating:
By teacher (1) .58*** -.13 -.08
By parent (2) -.02 -.06
Parent belief (3) .04
Help child learn math (4)
Reading: 234
Achievement rating:
By teacher (1) .56*** -.21** -.07 -.04
By parent (2) -.18** -.01 0
Parent belief (3) .14* .05
Help child learn to read (4) .02
Read with child (5)

*p < .05.
**p < .01.
***p< .001.

ducted with teacher communication (yes or TABLE3. Means and Standard Deviations of Parent
Belief Rating by Whether or Not Teachers Gave
no) as the independent variable and par- Suggestions (N = 234)
ents' corresponding belief about the impor-
tance of their involvement as the dependent Suggestions
variable. Yes No
For reading, results indicated that par-
ents rated the importance of involvement Domain M SD M SD

higher when a teacher recommended that Reading 3.91a .28 3.63a .76
they help, F(1, 224) = 11.58, p < .01 (see Math:
Table 3 for means). For math, results re- Second grade 3.80 .48 3.82 .39
Third grade 3.81a .44 3.50a .80
vealed no significant main effect for teacher
recommendations for second graders, but aDenotes significant difference within row.
parents of third graders did rate the impor-
tance of involvement higher when a teacher
recommended that they help, F(1, 152) =
6.91, p < .01. Teacher suggestions to parents should not help their children, if that was
about helping were not associated with re- their response.
ported parent helping behaviors. Few parents claimed that they should
not help their child (homework, n = 3;
Beliefs about Specific Activities reading, n = 12; math, n = 13). When they
Recall that parents were asked a series made this claim, the most common expla-
of follow-up questions to find out what ac- nation was that they did not believe that
tivities they thought they should do to help their child needed help because he or she
their children, or why they thought they was already doing well (seven responses for

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206
reading, 11 responses for math). Parents in
this category gave responses such as, "She
already receives an A," "He is good at that,"
or "She's doing well." Eight parents re-
ferred to their own inadequacy in providing
help (one for homework, two for reading,
and six for math), stating, for example, "My
child knows more about reading than I do,"
"I do not know how to do his kind of math,"
"I did not learn this." Two parents thought
that they should not help with homework
on principle (e.g., "My child needs to do it
on his own"). One parent said she should
not help her child become a better reader
because he did not initiate such assistance
("He never asks for help").
Parents' responses when they were
asked what type of help they thought they
should give their children are outlined in
Tables 4 and 5. Some parents gave more
than one answer per question. Parents who
believed they should help often gave gen-
eral responses to the follow-up question
about what they thought they should do
(e.g., "help her" or "guide him"), although
interviewers asked follow-up questions.
These general responses were given by 56%
of the parents for homework, 21% for read-
ing, and 35% for math (see Tables 4 and 5).
For reading, many parents referred to hav-
ing someone read to the child or listen to
the child read (48%), or to engaging in
reading-related activities, such as word
games or phonics books (15%). For math,
answers most commonly related to giving
the child more math practice through drill
sheets, problems, or quizzes (24%) or to
math-related activities and assistance, such
as math games or tutors (18%).
For the question about knowing what
the child was learning, a majority of parents
(55%) referred to obtaining the information
from teachers or by going to school. An ad-
ditional 18% of parents suggested finding
out directly from the child, and 16% sug-
gested looking through their child's books
or homework.
Parents gave a range of answers for
"other" things they thought were important
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THE ELEMENTARYSCHOOLJOURNAL
for them to do to help their children succeed
in school. The most common answers were
again general ones that emphasized being
present and providing support (e.g., be
there for child, give the child whatever he
needs, prepare ahead for the child, 19%).
Teaching social skills (17%) and teaching
another skill, such as piano, computers, or
time management (15%), were the second
and third most common answers. A fourth
category (communicate/participate with
child, 14%) stressed communication and in-
teraction with their children. Answers in-
cluded, "Listen to music together" and
"Talk about age-related changes." In the
fifth most common category (12%), parents
suggested that the best way to help their
child would be to change something or
someone in their environment. Suggestions
in this category included, "Learn more for
myself so I can help child" and "Move to
better neighborhood."
Discussion
In this study we investigated whether eco-
nomically disadvantaged parents from di-
verse ethnic backgrounds believe it is their
responsibility to be involved in their chil-
dren's schooling. We found that most par-
ents strongly value involvement in their
children's learning. Means for questions re-
garding reading, math, helping with home-
work, and knowing what their child was
learning were all close to the top ("defi-
nitely should") of the four-point scale. This
is significant because, as Hoover-Dempsey
and Sandler (1997) asserted, parents' beliefs
about their involvement provide the drive
for their actual involvement practices. The
diverse contexts in which the parents
lived-including rural and urban areas in
three states and 103 schools-suggest that
our findings have broad generalizability.
Because other studies have suggested
that some parents' involvement falls short
of school expectations, there are likely ei-
ther additional barriers for parents in help-
ing their children learn or there is miscom-
JANUARY 2004
 PARENTS'BELIEFS 207

TABLE4. Examples, Frequency, and Percentage of Parents' Recommendations for Helping with Homework,
Knowing What Child Is Learning, and Other Ways to Help Child

Belief Category Example f %

Helping with homework:

Help/support Guide; help with unknown word 162 56
Supervise work Make sure work is neat 40 14
Explain technique/check for Show child way to do it; make sure child
understanding understands it 31 11
Check work/give feedback Look for right answers; point out weaknesses 32 11
Teacher involvement/go to school Talk to teacher about it 15 5
Motivate Get child to do her best 6 2
Parent development Learn how to do it so I can help child 3 1
Total 289 100

Knowing what child is learning:

School/teachers Ask teacher questions; go and find out 163 55
Asking child Ask child 54 18
Child Go through papers; keep an eye on homework 49 16
Conferences Attend conferences 17 6
General communication Ask; find out 14 5
Asking other siblings/parents Ask child's sister; ask neighbor 2 1
Total 299 100
Other ways to help:
Give help/support Be there; teach whatever child needs 44 19
Teach social skills Show how to get along; teach child to read people;
point out which adults will help 39 17
Teach specific skills Get piano lessons; involve in computers; help with
hygiene 35 15
Communicate/participate with child Work on relationship; play games together 32 14
Improve environment Get child to better school; move family to better
neighborhood 29 12
Communicate/participate with
school Go to school; attend field trips 19 8
Motivate Find ways for child to enjoy school; encourage to do
best 19 8
Warn about dangers Talk about drugs; warn about bad friends 8 3
Obtain material goods Buy him computer; get her new clothes 8 3
Total 233 99

NOTE.-Frequencies represent all the answers provided by parents who thought they should help children
with homework (N = 228), know what child is learning (N = 230), and do other things to help (N = 209). Some
parents gave more than one answer. The Other Ways to Help category does not add to 100% due to rounding.

munication about participation between Beliefs about Involvement

educators and parents. Although some
schools and programs are dedicated to ex-
ploring involvement pathways and com-
munication between educators and parents
(e.g., Epstein et al., 2002), there is clearly
more work to be done. Our results show
that low-income parents strongly believe
they should facilitate their children's suc-
cess in school. Findings discussed below
provide some further clues about parents'
beliefs and how schools might help parents
act on their beliefs.
Ethnicity. There were no significant dif-
ferences among groups from different eth-
nic backgrounds. Parents from all three eth-
nic groups, including Latino parents who
had limited or no English proficiency (16%
of the sample), thought involvement in
their children's learning was important.
This finding supports work suggesting that
diverse groups of parents value involve-
ment in their children's academic learning
and that suggestions to the contrary are in-
accurate or based on a singular concept of

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involvement (i.e., visiting the school, vol-
unteering in the classroom) (e.g., DeMoss &
Vaughn, 2000; Moles, 1993). Research sug-
gests there may be variation in how beliefs
are enacted among parents from different
cultural backgrounds. Differences in meth-
odology among studies may be important.
Past work on this topic has either been eth-
nographic or has compared different facets
of parents' own ratings (help in academic
domains vs. help in social domains, or par-
ents' ratings of their responsibility vs. teach-
ers' responsibilities).
Grade and subject matter. Greater ef-
forts on the part of educators may be re-
quired as children get older. Parents of third
graders in this study rate the importance of
being involved lower than parents of sec-
ond graders, at least with regard to being
informed of what their child is learning and
to helping with math. Studies of children
with wider age ranges have shown declines
in parent involvement as children advance
in school (Eccles & Harold, 1996; Stevenson
& Baker, 1987; Stevenson & Lee, 1990). Our
findings suggest that even a difference of
one grade can affect parent perceptions
about involvement and that teachers may
need to be more encouraging and explicit
about involving parents as children ad-
vance through the grades.
Why might parents believe they should
be more involved when their children are
young? Perhaps they believe they need to
monitor their children's schoolwork more
closely in the early grades, when children
are still adjusting to school and beginning
to develop study habits. Growing auton-
omy-promoted by teachers or desired by
children-may also contribute to the de-
cline. Parents of second graders may feel
more welcome to give help, either by teach-
ers or by their own children, than parents
of third graders.
The study also suggests that more ag-
gressive efforts to involve parents of older
children may be more important for math
than reading. Parents of third graders rate
the importance of helping in reading signifi-
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PARENTS'BELIEFS 209
cantly higher than the importance of help-
ing in math. Perhaps parents believe that
reading is a more critical skill to develop in
the early grades. Parents' emphasis on read-
ing may also be related to the considerable
public attention currently paid to literacy.
From local efforts, such as the Los Angeles
Times's "Read by 9" campaign, to the na-
tional Reading First grants, public cam-
paigns encourage parents to read to chil-
dren and to teach children to read. Math has
not received the same public attention.
Also, the different nature of reading and
math may be responsible. Much math work
leaves less allowance for spontaneous help
and requires more understanding of con-
tent.
Achievement and teacher communica-
tion. Differentiation between math and
reading persists regarding achievement rat-
ings and suggestions by teachers. Parents
who perceive their children's achievement
to be lower rate the importance of helping
them higher for reading but not for math.
Parents who feel their children are strug-
gling with math may think they are not
qualified to meet their children's needs. Par-
ents may feel less qualified to help with
third- than with second-grade math but
equally qualified to help with reading in
both grades. This seems plausible, given the
low education level of many of the parents
in this study, and that math, by nature, re-
quires knowledge of operations or equa-
tions in order to derive correct answers.
There are a few hints of feelings of in-
adequacy in some parents' responses to the
open-ended questions. Six of the 11 parents
who claimed that they should not help their
child in math said they feel restricted by
their own inadequate knowledge; no parent
said this about reading. For reading, many
parents (48%) feel they are helping by sim-
ply reading to their child or encouraging
the child to read. Most math-related help
involves working with the child, giving
problems, explaining techniques, doing
math activities, and the like. Finally, for
math, 11 (4%) of the suggestions were to
210
contact the teacher or school to find out how
to help; only one parent referred to contact-
ing the teacher with regard to helping with
reading. Parents' feelings of competency in
math versus reading warrant further con-
sideration because previous research shows
that parents' sense of efficacy for helping
their children can affect involvement (Eccles
& Harold, 1996; Hoover-Dempsey & San-
dler, 1997) and that parents who feel more
efficacious may use more efficient helping
strategies (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 1992).
In terms of teacher communication,
when teachers gave suggestions to parents
about helping children in reading, parents
rated the importance of giving help in read-
ing higher. For math, this pattern held true
only for parents of third graders. This find-
ing suggests that parents of older children
(whose beliefs about the importance of
helping in math are waning) may be par-
ticularly responsive to teacher suggestions.
Although we did not ask parents about the
nature of teachers' suggestions, it seems
practical for teachers to give parents specific
and easy-to-follow strategies. In a parent
survey, Epstein (1986) found that fewer than
30% of parents reported that teachers ad-
vised them on how to help their children in
reading and math; over 80% of parents said
they would do more if shown effective
learning activities to conduct at home. For
children who are achieving poorly, particu-
larly in math, parents may need more in-
formation about how to help children and
teachers and schools may need to be more
explicit and consistent.
Parents' Reports of Involvement
Practices
Additional support for the importance
of specific teacher suggestions or modeling
for math comes from parents' reports of re-
cent practices and responses about things
they should be doing. In general, reports of
giving help were higher for reading than
math. Rating the importance of helping
children with reading higher was associ-
ated with reports of having helped the child
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THE ELEMENTARYSCHOOLJOURNAL
with reading. Likewise, for parents of sec-
ond graders, rating the importance of help-
ing children with math higher was associ-
ated with reporting more helping behaviors
in math. Overall, though, the relation was
weak. Our questions about parent practices
were minimal, covered only a 1-week pe-
riod, and perhaps were too general to show
a strong association. It could also be that
these parents have difficulty turning their
beliefs into specific behaviors; in response
to the questions about what they should be
doing, many parents' responses were vague
despite interviewers' probes.
Parents reported a wide range of an-
swers when asked about "other things" that
they should do for their children, even
though the question was worded "related
to school." As a whole, the answers form a
picture of parents who see school success in
a larger context of community and family
support and their child's general well-
being. Parents refer to the importance of
maintaining good relationships with their
children and making sure their children
have good relationships with others. Par-
ents want to keep their children safe and
teach them new skills. Parents also express a
need to improve their living conditions and
family life, suggesting, for example, that
they should move to a better neighborhood
or spend more time with their children.
What Teachers Can Do
Our finding that over half of the parents
claim that they should go to the school or
ask their child's teacher to find out what
their child is learning in school suggests
that most parents view the school as a via-
ble source of information. Schools and
teachers need to remain committed to com-
municating with parents about children's
learning. Teachers should ask parents what
they are doing at home to help their chil-
dren academically and reinforce parents' in-
terest in helping their child. Newsletters
sent home to communicate about topics be-
ing covered in class can include information
about how parents can help children master
JANUARY 2004

material, practice skills, or relate new
knowledge to multiple contexts. Teachers
can also give parents directions on how to
model strategies for children. Suggestions
for how to help with homework could be
useful, for example, in teaching parents the
difference between assisting their child in
completing work and telling their child the
answers. Teachers can send materials home,
such as math games, so that parents can
play with their children.
Back-to-school nights or home visits can
involve subject matter, and teachers can do
more than simply report on what children
are doing in school. Parents can be given an
opportunity to engage in the kind of work
their children are doing to better under-
stand the skills children are developing and
the nature of school tasks. More individu-
alized instructions for helping students can
be given at parent-teacher conferences.
Teachers can suggest enrichment activities
for high achievers and ways parents can
help address problems if their children are
having difficulties. Book clubs and math
clubs that involve children and parents can
enable school personnel to encourage and
model practices that parents can use in the
home and at club meetings. Teachers can in-
form parents about neighborhood re-
sources-for example, grandparents who
provide after-school care or community
centers that run homework clubs.
We also suggest asking parents what
they need to know to be involved more ac-
tively in their children's learning. Although
more research on the barriers to involve-
ment would be useful, there is likely local
variation in the significance of barriers.
Transportation to the school and neighbor-
hood safety might be important factors in
one community, whereas language and cul-
tural differences may play a more important
role in another. Schools need to know what
inhibits parent involvement in their own lo-
cal context.
Study Limitations and Future Research
The study focused on parent beliefs and
was based primarily on telephone inter-
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PARENTS'BELIEFS 211
views. Because of our research method, we
could not trace whether parents' beliefs
about involvement changed over time
(from second to third grade). In addition,
this work only begins to differentiate par-
ents' beliefs about involvement across sub-
ject matter and grade level. The study did
not involve groups from different income
levels, so it is unknown whether variables
found to be significant with low-income
parents, such as subject matter or grade
level, would be significant in middle- or
high-income samples. Finally, the study
mainly addressed parents' beliefs, so reports
from parents on practices were minimal.
Future research should strike a balance
between sample scope and size and depth
in exploring parents' involvement. Re-
searchers need to examine parents' beliefs
in greater depth and look further at how
parents can better translate their beliefs to
practices. The findings from this study, that
very low-income parents believe they
should be involved in their children's learn-
ing, suggest that parents will be receptive to
efforts to help them translate their beliefs
into practice.
Notes
Correspondenceregardingthis articleshould
be directed to KathrynDrummond,4114 Davis
P1. NW #108, Washington, DC 20007. E-mail:
kscudder@ucla.edu
1. The principal investigators of the larger
School Transition study include Deborah Stipek,
Penny Hauser-Cram, Walter Secada, Heather
Weiss, and Jennifer Greene. Data collection for
the present study was funded by a grant from
the MacArthur Foundation.
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