Promoting Parental Involvement in Schools : Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments
Parental involvement programs aim to increase school-and-parent communication and support children's overall learning environment. This paper examines the effects of low-cost, group-based parental involvement interventions in Mexico using data...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/217141604002474535/Promoting-Parental-Involvement-in-Schools-Evidence-from-Two-Randomized-Experiments http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34729 |
| Summary: | Parental involvement programs aim to
increase school-and-parent communication and support
children's overall learning environment. This paper
examines the effects of low-cost, group-based parental
involvement interventions in Mexico using data from two
randomized controlled trials. The first experiment provided
financial resources to parent associations. The second
experiment provided information to parents about how to
support their children's learning. Overall, the
interventions induced different types of parental engagement
in schools. The information intervention changed parenting
behavior at home -- with large effects among indigenous
parents who have historically been discriminated and
socially excluded -- and improved student behavior in
school. The grants did not impact parent or student
behaviors. Notably, the paper does not find impacts of
either intervention on educational achievement. To
understand these 0 effects, the paper explores how social
ties between parents and teachers evolved over the course of
the two interventions. Parental involvement interventions
led to significant changes in perceived trustworthiness
between teachers and parents. The results suggest that
parental involvement interventions can backfire if
institutional rules are unclear about the expectations of
parents and teachers as parents increase their involvement
in schools. |
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