The Goals and Expectations of Parents and Teachers: A Comparison of Two Schools

This study sought to assess the existence or absence of a gap between the goals and expectations of parents and those of teachers in the middle school classroom. The study went further to examine if affluence of the parent community determined the existence or absence of this gap. Different works over the past two decades which have touched on the relationship between home and school were explored. Two schools of different ethnic, socioeconomic makeup and ideology were used to study the degree of existence of this gap between parents and teachers. Although parent support of both the student and the school, and involvement in the middle school years had an undeniable influence and impact on the student’s success in school, the study points to the fact that parents are a difficult group to assess, as are teachers. There were differences in the backgrounds of parents in each of these two groups which contributed to different opinions and expectations of the intentions and outcomes of schools. The real value of the study, however, lies in the direction it lends to future studies as consideration of the degree of parent support of schools is becoming increasingly important to the success of schools and their education of students in the middle years