Having Their Say: Parents Describe Why and How They are Engaged in Their Children’s Learning

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that lead to successful edu-cational partnerships between school staff and families. The method for this investigation focused on asking parents how and why they were involved in their children’s education and what factors influenced their participation. The study was conducted at the Patrick O’Hearn Elementary School, in Boston, MA, where, according to yearly survey data collected by the school, at least 90 % of the parents participated in one or more of the home- or school-based family engagement activi-ties, despite the school’s urban, low socioeconomic setting. By gathering parents’ own descriptions of their participation in their children’s education, this research study sought to develop a deeper understanding of the parents ’ perceptions of involvement and explored whether their descriptions would match existing typol-ogies or fall outside existing definitions. Another goal of the research was to inves-tigate factors that influenced parents ’ involvement in their children’s education. The findings from this study strongly support prior research showing tha