The effects of Latino parent engagement on the number of Latino students attending four-year universities

Thesis (M.A., Education (Higher Education Leadership))--California State University, Sacramento, 2014.Much of the literature on parent involvement from the educator???s perspective focuses on programs designed to include parents in the process of schooling (Cutrona, Cole, Colangelo, Assouline, & Russell, 1994). That is, parental involvement from most educators' points of view is about how to get parents into schools, or how parents can support the school's efforts at home by doing things like reading to their children. Many efforts are directed toward "training" parents about the American system of schooling and how parents can help their children succeed in that system (Bermudez, 1996; Epstein, 1992; Rioux & Berla, 1993). The goal of most educational research on parental involvement efforts is to find out how to make children more "ready" for school and how to improve academic achievement by supporting more rigorous school initiatives at home.\ud The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact parent engagement has on the academic performance of Latino students attending a 4-year private institution.\ud A quantitative multiple-choice questionnaire was given to 139 Latino students from University of the Pacific. By surveying Latino students enrolled at a private 4-year university, the researcher aimed to identify if certain aspects of parental engagement impacted their perceptions of their own ability and desire to pursue a college degree. Descriptive statistics were compiled from the data into graphs. \ud Different families may require different responses or treatments from an institution to become more engaged. If policy and practice are designed to serve only one type of parent???namely, parents who are eager to be involved???others, such as parents of first-generation college students, may be left out. Those left out could provide an important source of support for their students in college.Education (Higher Education Leadership