The Self-Efficacy of Rural Middle School Teachers Working with Families in Relation to Student Achievement

Parental involvement in the education process is known to increase student achievement. Many barriers to parental involvement exist including the self-efficacy of teachers’ working with families. The purpose of this correlational study is to determine if a relationship exists between the self-efficacy of rural middle school math and English teachers working with families and student achievement in their classroom. Working with Families Self-Efficacy Scales (WFSES) will be used to determine the self-efficacy of teachers working with families. Participants will be middle school teachers from five different middle schools in one rural school district on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The questionnaire was completed online, and results remained confidential. Student achievement was assessed using Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) standardized scores. This study used three different Pearson Product Moment correlations to determine if a relationship exists between the self-efficacy of teachers’ working with families and student achievement overall in their classrooms, if a relationship exists between the self-efficacy of rural middle school math teachers working with families and student achievement in their math classrooms, and if a relationship exists between the self-efficacy of rural middle school English teachers working with families and student achievement in their English classrooms. There were three significant findings produced from the study. There was a statistically significant relationship between the self-efficacy of teachers working with families and student achievement overall, between the self-efficacy of math teachers working with families and student achievement, and the self-efficacy of English teachers working with families and student achievement