Using Motivational Interviewing to Improve Parent Engagement in Student Attendance Improvement Conferences

This dissertation in practice focused on the use of Motivational Interviewing in the school environment between school staff and families. More specifically, this program evaluation sought to see if the use of Motivational Interviewing by school staff could improve parent participation rates in student attendance improvement conferences (SAICs). Motivational Interviewing is an evidence-based practice to help people prepare for a change in behavior (Herman et al., 2014). Parents assert they would be more involved in school functions if they genuinely felt more welcomed by school personnel (Sheldon, 2007). Thus, the hypothesis of the program evaluation was that Motivational Interviewing might be a systematic strategy school personnel could use with families to improve building rapport and communication. The following questions guided this study. 1. Through professional development sessions, did staff learn the basic tenets of Motivational Interviewing techniques? 2. What content is most difficult for school staff to master? 3. Do school staff feel more confident collaborating with families after receiving training in motivational interviewing techniques? 4. Compared to prior semesters, did more families attend SAICs once training began? 5. Once trained, did staff report changes in family engagement during SAICs? Participants in this study included four school personnel who frequently communicate with families regarding student attendance. The participants completed a three-module professional development course. Participants completed pre- and post-quizzes after each module, and quiz results were analyzed for content mastery. Participants also completed surveys regarding their comfort level using Motivational Interviewing, which were analyzed for growth. The study established that all participants mastered the content taught during the professional development modules, and all participants rated growth. Findings from this small sample and the limited-scope study showed that the professional development did improve educators’ skills with Motivational Interviewing but did not necessarily improve family participation in SAICs