Action Research Proposal

Shi~Kia T. Carter

Educational Research

Ashford University

"When parents are involved in their

children's education at home, they do

better in school. And when parents are

involved in school, children go farther in

school and the schools they go to are

better."

-A New Generation of Evidence: The

Family is Critical to Student Achievement.

(Henderson & Berla, 1994)

Students with parents who are involved in

their school tend to have fewer behavioral

problems and better academic

performance, and are more likely to

complete high school than students whose

parents are not involved in their school.(1)

Involvement allows parents to monitor

school and classroom activities, and to

coordinate their efforts with teachers to

encourage acceptable classroom behavior

and ensure that the child completes

schoolwork.(2)

Area of Focus

The area I want to focus

on is how to get parents

more involved with the

education of their

children.

Explanation of Problem

Parents often do not feel welcomed at

school. They feel that what they may have

to offer is unimportant and unappreciated.

(Dixon, 1992; Vandergrift & Greene,

1992).

The question is how can we incorporate

Epstein’s Types of Involvement in one place.

The answer is Social Media.

Innovation

I want to conduct a research study on

what parents, students and educators

would like to have included in a school

application for smart phones. The

application would be supported on the

Android platform, IOS platform (IPhone)

and Blackberry. This application would

improve communicating with parents,

guardians and the community during the

school year.

Variables

Parents

Students

Teachers

Research Questions

1. What information must be included in a

school mobile application to keep parents

informed about events at the school and

information deemed vital by educators and

students?

Group membership

Team leader

Create the surveys, collect data and produce the final results.

Technology Department

Provide technical assistance.

Provide advice to feasibility.

Cost analysis.

List service providers.

Service provider (if needed)

Workshop for usage and adding additional content.

Creation of application.

Provide service to application.

Negotiations

The parents and students will be made

aware that their responses are confidential

and no names will be used. The cost of

the service provider may be negotiated.

Ethics

The data that I will be collecting will be

genuine responses, not data that will serve

the purpose of one single entity.. The

intervention will be comprised of

responses from concerned parents that

want the best education possible for their

children and to remain informed about the

happenings at the school in spite of their

busy lives.

Timeline Creation of surveys and checklists- one week

Distribution of checklists to parents and

student-one day (during homeroom)

Distribution of surveys to teachers- one day( via

e-mail)

Students can complete the checklists during

homeroom- two days

Parent responses will be expected back within

one week.

Teachers will have one week to return surveys.

I will need one week to analysis the data and

compile reports and other data.

Statement of resources

Copy paper for the surveys and checklists.

Postage for mailing selected surveys to

parents.

Computer access.

Possible funding for mobile application, if

not feasible through the Technology

department.

Data collection

Survey A brief survey of the teachers about

what they would like to see in the

school’s mobile application.

A survey that will be place on the

shared drive to be completed by the

teachers within a week.

Checklist A checklist given to the parents about

what information they would want in a

school mobile application.

A checklist that will sent home with

the students, emailed or mailed home

and to be returned within two weeks.

References (1) Henderson, A. T., and Berla, N. (1994). A new generation of evidence: The family is critical to

student achievement. Washington, DC: National Committee for Citizens in Education.

(2) Hill, N., and Taylor, L. (2004). Parental school involvement and children's academic

achievement: Pragmatics and issues. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13(4) 161-164.

Jeynes , W. H. (2007). The relationship between parental involvement and urban secondary

school student academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Urban Education,42(1),82-110.

Stewart, E. B. (2008). School structural characteristics, student effort, peer associations, and

parental involvement: The influence of school- and individual-level factors on academic

achievement.Education and Urban Society,40(2), 179-204.

Martyn Shuttleworth (Sep 16, 2009). What is a Literature Review?. Retrieved Oct 21, 2013 from

Explorable.com: http://explorable.com/what-is-a-literature-review

Vandergrift, J., & Greene, A. (1992, September). Rethinking parent involvement. Educational

Leadership, 57-59.

Epstein, J. L. (2010). School/family/community partnerships: caring for the children we share:

when schools form partnerships with families and the community, the children benefit. These

guidelines for building partnerships can make it happen.(Kappan Classic)(Report). Phi Delta

Kappan, (3), 81.