School and family influence on student commitment

The primary purposes for conducting this study were to examine fifth-grade students\u27 commitment to their education, to survey the students\u27 perceptions of teacher and parent commitment to student learning, and to determine what, if any, relationship school-family partnerships had to student commitment. Demographic information about the students was also collected. The Quality of School Life Scale, a group survey instrument, was used to gather data from 213 students from a mid-sized, midwestern community, to report student commitment and students\u27 perceptions of teacher commitment to students\u27 education. A researcher-designed instrument to evaluate students\u27 perceptions of parent commitment was also administered by the researcher at the time of the group survey. A published questionnaire selected to measure school-family partnerships was mailed to parents of the 213 students in the sample. Descriptive statistics, non-parametric chi-square, correlations, and multiple regression were used to analyze and compare the data. Major findings of the study were: (1) Students\u27 perceptions of teacher and parent commitment were related to student commitment; the relationship of teacher commitment to student commitment was the stronger. Students\u27 perceptions of teacher commitment and students\u27 perceptions of parent commitment accounted for 54 percent of the variance in the analysis. (2) When controlling for demographics of gender, socioeconomic status, and race, students\u27 perceptions of teacher commitment and parent commitment accounted for even more of the variance, 58 percent. (3) Males comprised 28.8 percent of those students having high student commitment and 78 percent of those students with low commitment. (4) Race was not a significant variable when analyzing the total sample. However, when analyzing the extremes, minority students made up 4.1 percent of the students identified with high student commitment while accounting for 11.9 percent of students identified as displaying low student commitment. (5) Parents reported (and students confirmed) that they cared about their children\u27s learning. However much they cared, most parents did not practice careful monitoring and specific support of their children\u27s education. (6) Twenty-two out of 33 students with high commitment reported high teacher/parent commitment; 44 of 57 students with low student commitment reported low teacher/parent commitment