Abstract
The goal of this study was to investigate how parents from minority and non-minority groups construct their expectations of academic achievement and the impact these expectations have on academic success for the student within a learning environment. Quan-qual mixed methods was used to investigate the relationship between parental expectations and academic success for their children. The variable of socioeconomic status (SES) was a consideration throughout this study. The research data was gathered by using The Parent Survey of Family and Community Involvement in the Elementary and Middle School Grades (PSFCL) (Sheldon, S.B & Epstein, J. L., 2007) with 131 parents of fourth grade students in one suburban school in Southwest Florida. The results of the survey were compared to testing data from 3rd grade FCAT reading scores from the year 2009-2010. For the qualitative phase of the study, an open ended questionnaire was conducted to the same convenience sample of parents. The quantitative and qualitative findings were merged for the final interpretation of this research study. The quantitative phase of this study aimed to answer 1) Do measures of parental involvement at school differ by minority and non-minority status? 2) Do measures of parental involvement at home differ by minority and non-minority status? 3) What is the relationship between overall parental involvement and academic achievement? The hypotheses were 1) Mean Parent Involvement at School (PIS) scores will be statistically significantly different among parents of minority and non-minority groups. 2) Mean Parent Involvement at Home (PIH) scores will be statistically significantly different among parents of minority and non-minority groups. 3) There is a positive correlation between Overall Parent Involvement (OPI) and the FCA T Reading Developmental Scale Scores (DSS). The findings suggest that there is a weak effect of minority status on academic achievement as measured by the reading FCA T DSS. Though the results also suggest there is no effect of minority status of parental involvement in school, there was a significantly statistical difference found in parental involvement at home (PIH) based on minority status. These quantitative statistical findings were supported by the qualitative data. The two qualitative research questions for this study were 4) How does cultural and socioeconomic status (SES) influence parents' educational and career goal expectations of their children? 5) How are parents' academic expectations related to their children 's achievement? Three themes emerged during the qualitative phase of the study; education and career expectations, parenting styles, and social networking. Minority and non-minority subgroups stressed the importance of their child completing college to better their child's future however, parents of the lower SES subgroup also stated that completion of high school would be acceptable for their child as long as they could find a job. Parenting styles varied from authoritarian for those students exceeding competency levels, to more of a collaborative style of parenting for the students meeting academic competency levels. Parent communication and modeled goal-setting strategies also revealed an implementation difference between minority status and SES status.