Date of Award

Spring 2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Curriculum, Instruction, and Leadership

First Advisor

David Gullatt

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of parents of middle school students in Louisiana about the (a) culture; (b) climate; (c) leadership; (d) curriculum, instruction, and assessment; and (e) level of parental and community involvement at the schools that their children attend as it relates to school performance. The instrument used in this study was the Parent Questionnaire developed for the Louisiana Needs Analysis (LANA). Designed by the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE), LANA is an internet-based tool provided to assist school administrators in evaluating school performance and planning for improvement.

During the data analysis, Pearson correlations were calculated. Additionally, the researcher conducted a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by a post hoc Tukey HSD. The alpha level for the statistical analyses was p < .05. The findings from this study indicated a significant and positive relationship between school performance and each of the previously mentioned predictor variables. In addition to being highly correlated with school performance, school culture; curriculum, instruction, and assessment; family and community relations; school climate; and school leadership were also found to be highly correlated with each other.

The findings from this study support the previous findings of research about effective schools. Due to the focus on parental perceptions, these findings also reveal the impact of communication and collaboration between educators and parents on parental perceptions. These findings further imply that invitations for parental involvement from school personnel may be the key to improving communication between home and school and to building more effective home-school partnerships.

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