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Abstract
Given family-school engagement is correlated with student academic achievement, educational researchers have long been interested in the construct. However, measuring parental engagement is deceptively challenging. The concept includes school-based engagement, home-based learning support, and family-school communication. In this article we focus exclusively on measuring school-based family engagement. Examining this topic requires measuring parents' perceptions of their engagement with schools alongside the barriers that may limit their involvement. However, it is not obvious that barriers items should function like a traditional survey scale. We addressed these measurement challenges through a survey design process that synthesized academic theory with empirical findings from parent respondents, resulting in three survey tools: an engagement scale, a school invitational barriers sub-scale, and a non-school barriers composite measure. Three studies (n = 385; n = 266; n = 589) provide evidence that the school-based engagement tools effectively measure engagement patterns. We conclude by describing the potential uses of the tools for educators and researchers.
Key Words: family-school engagement, parent involvement, survey design, confirmatory factor analysis, parents, perceptions, tools
Introduction
Children whose parents are more engaged with their schools and their learning tend to perform better academically. A series of meta-analyses document that these children earn higher grades and scores on standardized exams (Fan & Chen, 2001; Hill & Tyson, 2009; Jeynes, 2003, 2005, 2007). Family-school engagement is also associated with effective school-level reform. The Consortium on Chicago School Research identified five commonalities between Chicago schools that experienced academic improvement over seven years, one of which was strong relationships between parents and educators (Bryk, Sebring, Allensworth, Luppescu, & Easton, 2010). Furthermore, a small but growing set of field experiments show a causal relationship between efforts to promote family involvement in children's learning and student success in school (e.g., Bergman, 2015; Harackiewicz, Rozek, Hulleman, & Hyde, 2012; Kraft & Dougherty, 2013; Kraft & Rogers, 2015). This evidence suggests that certain forms of family engagement have the potential to serve as a lever for increasing academic achievement.
The possibility that boosting family engagement may enhance student outcomes underlies the federal government's promotion of closer home-school ties. Districts receiving more than $500,000 in Title I funding through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act have been required to utilize at least 1% of these funds...