The Call for Parent Involvem~nt in Rural Communities:

Taking a critical perspective on the literature that calls for greater parent involvement in rural schools, this study analyzes the relationship between place ofresidence (rural, urban, suburban) and levels ofparent involvement in schools. Invoking a series of relevant individual and contextual control variables, we find that parent involvement in schools varies little in relationship to place of residence. Moreover, the negligible effects of the control variables suggest that parent involvement in schools is an elusive phenomenon, perhaps summoned up prematurely as a remedy for low achieve-ment levels in impoverished rural schools. As a consequence, the califor increased parent involvement ought to be treated with circumspection. This caution is particularly germane in light ofthe strong ties that already exist-or once existed-between residents in many rural communities and their small, local schools. Efforts, both recent and historical, to remove small schools from their local communities seem to run counter to the rhetoric calling for increased levels of parent involvement. Background We situate the discussion of parent involvement in ru-ral schools within a context that accounts for competing interpretations of what constitutes parent involvement, on the one hand, and what results from it, on the other. Cen-tering on a multiple regression analysis using the NELS88 data set, our discussion confronts the conventional logic that (a) defines parent involvement as activity in support of a consensually determined vision of school improvement, (b) links levels of parent involvement to levels of student achievement, and (c) identifies rural areas as locations where there are lower than desirable levels of parent in-volvement in schools. On conventional interpretations of the research, par-ent involvement in education significantly improves stu-dent motivation and achievement (e.g., Epstein, 1995). These interpretations tend to credit types of parent involve-ment that support efforts undertaken by the schools rather than those arising from parents ' interactions with either their children or their communities (see Hoover-Dempsey &amp