Effect of community type, parent trust and parent involvement in schools on academic achievement

Scope and Method of Study:Past research on the effects of community characteristics has shown that community characteristics (SES, ethnicity, and population density) will have adverse effects on education. These characteristics were claimed to negatively affect parent involvement in schools, parent trust in school and student academic achievement. Previous research also claimed that parent involvement would have a positive affect on academic performance. There has also been a myriad a research on the various positive effects of trust within organizations, more specifically schools. However, previous research has not examined these variables together. For this reason, a causal model consisting of six variables--socio-economic status, ethnicity, population density, parent involvement, parent trust in school, and academic performance--was developed to test the direct and indirect relationship between the above variables.Findings and Conclusions:This paper examines the effects of specific community characteristics (SES, ethnicity, and population density) on parent trust and parent involvement (in the home and at school) and the effect of all variables on student academic achievement