| Jennifer Glick
Arizona State University
Family-school connectivity: Interactions leading to academic achievement for children of immigrants
FINAL REPORT
This study set out to examine the determinants of family-school connectivity among Mexican origin families in the United States whose children entered Kindergarten in the 1999-2000. The analyses employed four waves of the national Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Kindergarten cohort (ECLS-K). Children were identified by the ethnicity/race/nativity of their mothers. Children of Mexican immigrant mothers were compared to children of Mexican origin US born mothers, African American mothers and non-Hispanic white mothers. Several descriptive and multivariate analyses were conducted examining the role of this family-school connectivity on children’Äôs progress in math and reading over their elementary school years. Several characteristics of the family and school environment were included in the analyses and explain much of the mathematics achievement gap among children. Parental school involvement was not strongly associated with math achievement trajectories overall. However, children from non-English homes did experience some improvement in their math achievement over time when parents attended events at the school. The results suggest policies aimed at increasing parental involvement and improving academic success among children of immigrants in the United States may be effective. In particular, programs designed to reach out to parents in their native languages through bilingual staff or written communications may help parents who are already highly motivated to encourage their children’Äôs achievement. Black native parents, on the other hand, express considerable ambivalence about their welcome at their children’Äôs school and decreased their involvement over time.
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