Effects of parental involvement on student achievement: traditional versus theme schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among student achievement and parental involvement, school leadership, effective teaching, and the socioeconomic status of parents. Specifically, it was intended to determine if student achievement was related to parental involvement in theme and traditional schools in a metropolitan school district in Georgia and to determine if there was a significant difference in reading and math scores among fourth grade students as measured by the Criterion-Referenced Test. The sample population for the study consisted of 397 parents from theme and traditional schools. Parents or guardians completed surveys conveying their thoughts to specifically designed questions. The nine hypotheses of the study were tested using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and the procedures used were Frequency, Pearson Correlation, ANOVA, Factor Analysis, and the Regression Statistical procedures. Data revealed that there is a significant difference between theme schools and traditional schools as related to student achievement. However, there is an inverse relationship in student achievement and parental involvement and it is not relative to school type. The results indicate that free and reduced lunch and school type (theme and traditional) are related to student achievement