Hispanic parent monitoring of seventh-grade mathematics homework assignments and relationship with achievement and self-esteem

The purpose of this dissertation was threefold: To determine if parental involvement in monitoring mathematics homework of seventh grade Hispanic students improved their achievement, to assess the effects of parental homework monitoring on the students\u27 self-esteem and to determine if the students\u27 perceptions of their teachers, their parents and their own involvement in mathematics homework changed after the monitoring experience. A total of 28 families/31 students participated in the study. A pretest-posttest control group design was used. The experimental group subjects\u27 parents received training in homework monitoring. The Computation section, Level 2 of the Mathematics subtest of the Stanford Achievement Test, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventories and, a Student Mathematics Homework Perception Scale constructed by the researcher were used for pre and posttest measures of achievement, self-esteem and students\u27 perceptions. The students\u27 grades and the percentage of homework they completed and returned for the first three quarters were obtained from their mathematics teachers. Ten of the experimental group subjects\u27 families were interviewed at the end of the study. Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences between either the computation or the self-esteem posttest scores of the two groups. No significant differences were obtained for teachers\u27 grades and the percentage of homework completed and returned. However, the grades and percentage of homework completed and returned by the experimental group showed a trend in the expected direction. A significant difference was found (p $\u3c$.05) in the perception posttest scores of teacher involvement in mathematics homework. Significant negative correlations were found between parent level of education (p $\u3c$.05) and self-esteem measures and between teachers\u27 grades and self-esteem measures (p $\u3c$.05) for the experimental group. The home interviews revealed: Positive feelings and sense of closer relationship between parents and students, a heightened sense of responsibility for mathematics homework by parents and students in their respective roles, and conflictual issues between parents and students in following the homework monitoring program. Educational implications and suggestions for further research are discussed