Assessing parents attitudes toward school effectiveness

The relationships among parents ' attitudes about school effectiveness, parent involvement, and-student achievement is investigated in this study. The Parent Attitudes Toward School,Effectiveness (PATSE) was_administered to 4,979 parents of children in grades K4 through 5 in an urban school district, yielding a retponse rate of 67 percent, or a final sample of 3,328 parents. Iowa achievement test scores of a random sample of 250 children in grades 1-5 were then matched-with their parents ' survey responses that had been classified according to level of involvement and attitudes about echool effectivenest. Findings indicate that involving parents in substantive ways in their children's schboling has a significant impact xi parents ' attitudes toward the school. A second finding demonstrates a direct relationship between parents ' attitudes toward the school and student achievement. Although not a causal relationship, findings demonstrate that increased parent involvemen