Home-schooling as an extreme form of parental involvement

1. Home-schooling as an extreme form of parental involvement Christa L. Green

2. Purpose • To examine how parental belief systems may lead to involvement behaviors. • To examine what beliefs might be associated with a parent’s decision to home-school

3. Outline • Home-schooling - what is it? • Home-school literature • Parental involvement literature • Hypotheses • Methods • Results & Discussion

4. Home-schooling? What’s that? • Education of school-aged children at home rather than public or private schools • A growing trend in the U.S. • 1999: 850,000 students (1.7% of K-12 students) • 2003: 1.1 million students (2.2% of K-12 students) • Legal in all states since 1993. • “Permission” to home-school simple process for parents (Basham, 2001; Bielick, Chandler & Broughman, 2002; Princlotta, Bielick, & Chapman, 2004)

5. Home-schooling Literature • Largely ethnographic in nature • Literature suggests parents home-school for 4 reasons: • ideological beliefs • pedagogical beliefs • negative experiences with public schools • concerns about appropriate education for child’s needs (Basham, 2001; Bielick et al., 2002; Knowles,1988; and Van Galen, 1988)

6. Next steps for home-school researchers • More systematic investigation of home schooling • Focus on psychological variables influencing parent decision • Apply parent involvement literature to home schooling

7. Parental involvement literature • Involvement is best understood as parents’ investment of varied resources in children’s education (e.g. parent-child communication about schoolwork, supervision of homework) • Involvement is often motivated by: • Psychological processes • Perceptions of invitations from others • Perceptions of life context variables (Fan & Chen, 2001; Grolnick et al., 1997; Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1995, 1997; Kay et al., 1994; Sheldon, 2002.)

8. Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler’s model of Parental Involvement

9. Constructs In my study, I examined: • Psychological motivators • Life context variables (but NOT invitations for involvement from others) I will also be examining a new set of constructs: • Personal beliefs related to home-schooling

10. Constructs - Psychological motivators Role Construction - two approaches: • Role construction: activity beliefs and role valence • Role construction: patterns, including: • parent-focused • partnership-focused • Efficacy - parent beliefs about personal ability to help children succeed in school. (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997)

11. Constructs - Life Context • Perceptions of Time and Energy for Involvement - Important because home-schooling parents teach the child, supervise work, plan extracurricular activities • Perceptions of Knowledge and Skills for Involvement - Important because parents need skills necessary for teaching, knowledge about teaching methods

12. Constructs - Beliefs related to home-schooling From the literature: • Ideological Beliefs • Pedagogical Beliefs Constructs new in home-school literature: • Value Beliefs • Beliefs Regarding the Child’s Special Needs

13. Measures overview Psychological motivators: • Role Construction • Patterns: parent and partnership-focused • Activity beliefs and valence beliefs • Efficacy Perceptions of Life Context • Time & Energy • Knowledge & Skills Personal beliefs related to home-schooling • Ideological • Pedagogical • Value • Special needs

14. Hypothesis 1 Parents home-school for three major reasons: • psychological motivators encourage them to do so • life context variables allow them to do so • personal beliefs suggest the necessity of home-schooling

15. Hypothesis 2 • Home-school parents will have high scores (compared to a sample of public school parents) on psychological motivators and life context variables

16. Hypothesis 3 • Most home-school parents will have a parent-focused role-construction • These parents will report high levels of efficacy, knowledge and skills, and time and energy • Home-school parents who endorse a partnership-focused role construction will report high levels only of time and energy

17. Hypothesis 4 • Parents who hold a parent-focused role construction will be more likely to endorse personal beliefs related to pedagogical and special needs. • Parents who hold a partnership-focused role construction will be more likely to endorse value and ideological personal beliefs.

18. Methods - how do you recruit home-schoolers? Targeted, non-probability sampling through: • curriculum fairs • home-school support groups • national home education advocacy groups

19. Methods - sample • Surveys were sent to ~ 250 home-school parents of elementary school-aged children; 136 returned completed surveys. (54.4% response rate) • Previously collected data from a sample of 358 public school parents (see Walker et al., in press) were used to compare home-school parents with public school parents on • Psychological motivation • Perceptions of life context

20. Demographic • 95% of the sample were white. • 58% of the mothers had a college degree, 20% of whom held a degree in education. • Most of the fathers held jobs as “professional executives” (54%), and 56% of the fathers had a college degree. • Family income was on average over $50,000.

21. Scale reliability and validity • Psychological Motivators Example item:

22. Scale reliability and validity • Life Context & Personal Beliefs

23. Results - general Home-school parents recorded: • Highly active role beliefs: M = 5.57 (1-6), SD = .41 • High efficacy levels: M = 5.35 (2-6), SD = .51 • Positive perceptions of life context: • time and energy: M = 5.32 (2-6), SD = .54 • knowledge and skills: M = 5.32 (2-6), SD = .50. • Strong evaluations of the personal beliefs; e.g., • Value beliefs: M = 1.97 (1-6), SD =.85

24. Results - Hypothesis 1 • Parents home-school for three major reasons: psychological motivators encourage them to do so, life context variables allow them to do so, and personal beliefs suggest the necessity of home-schooling

25. Results - Hypothesis 1 Factor analyses suggested reconfiguring 3 original categories of constructs for this group of home-school parents: • What a parent can do • What a parent should do • What a parent has experienced

26. Results - Hypothesis 1

27. Results - Hypothesis 1

28. Results - Hypothesis 2 • Home-school parents will have high scores (compared to a sample of public school parents) on psychological motivators and life context variables.

29. Results - Hypothesis 2 • When compared to public school parents, home-school parents recorded large positive effects in role activity, efficacy, time and energy, and knowledge and skills. • Public school parents recorded a medium-large effect size in valence towards public schools when compared to home-school parents.

30. Results - Hypothesis 2

31. Results - Hypothesis 2 • Hierarchical regression indicated that parent perceptions of efficacy, time and energy, role activity beliefs and role valence accounted for a significant portion of the variance in whether a parent home- or public-schooled, adjusted R = .40, F = 80.762 p < .000

32. Results - Hypothesis 2 Overall, these results suggest that parents who home-school do so because: • they believe that they can (have ability, time, energy) • believe they should (role activity beliefs) • have had negative experiences with public schools (role valence).

33. Results - Hypothesis 3 • Most home-school parents will have a parent-focused role-construction. • These parents will have higher levels of efficacy, knowledge and skills than parents who endorse a partnership-focused role construction.

34. Results - Hypothesis 3 • More home-school parents endorsed a parent-focused role construction (74%) than partnership-focused role construction (30%) (endorsement defined as 5.5 or higher on the role construction pattern). • Parent-focused role construction was correlated with • time and energy (r = .54) • knowledge and skills (r = .40) • efficacy (r = .37) • Partnership-focused role construction was related only to time and energy (r = .30). All p<.05

35. Results - Hypothesis 4 • Parents who endorsed a parent-focused role construction will be more likely to endorse personal beliefs related to pedagogical and special needs. • Parents who endorsed a partnership-focused role construction will be more likely to endorse value and ideological personal beliefs.

36. Results - Hypothesis 4 ** p<.01, * p<.05

37. Results - Hypothesis 4 • So, this hypothesis was not fully supported • I examined parents’ explanations of why they home-schooled from the comment section of the survey

38. Results - Hypothesis 4 • Parent-focused role construction “People who do not home-school tend to assume it is done in reaction against institutional schooling…. To me, home-schooling was a positive choice rather than a reaction against the school system.”

39. Results - Hypothesis 4 • Partnership-focused role construction “When we began home-schooling, we lived within a public school that was extremely poor… we could not afford private schools… someone suggested home-schooling, we researched it and opted to try it.”

40. Summary • Parents decide to home-school for reasons related to psychological motivators, perceptions of life context and personal beliefs. • Many of these reasons are similar to those motivating many public school parents’ decisions about involvement in their children’s schooling.

41. Summary - continued BUT there are some differences: • Parents who home-school are motivated not only by the psychological and life-context variables, but also by their personal beliefs related to schooling.

42. Summary - continued These findings suggest that • parents’ choose to home-school for reasons that are more diverse than implied in earlier home-school literature • these reasons are more similar to public school parents’ motives for involvement than might have been anticipated

43. What’s the big picture? This study: • broadens our understanding of parental involvement in children’s education, as it highlights a population that is clearly involved in children’s education but in a very non-standard way • adds to the literature base on home-schooling by examining the home-school parents in a systematic, empirical manner • increases understanding of parents’ decisions about home-schooling

44. Next Steps • Continue to develop and refine concepts & measures for home-school parents • Apply home-school concepts and measures (e.g. personal beliefs) to a sample of public and private school parents • Continue to explore how parental involvement constructs might apply to many diverse groups

45. Thank you! • Thank you to all who helped with this research, including Howard Sandler, Kathy Hoover-Dempsey, Joan Walker, Kate Raser, and my office mates - Brian Verdine & Ally Presmanes