Parental participation in Mexican secondary schools that present high and low school results

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a research conducted in twenty Mexican secondary schools from 2006 to 2008. Its goal was to assess the involvement of parents in the schools their children attend. The school effectiveness and improvement approach, along with empirical evidence, allowed us to create three categories in order to analyze parental involvement.
Secondary schools whose students got better grades have parents that are more and better involved in the activities organized for them. They also participate more through the roles assigned to them, thus establishing effective communication channels between both parts. On the opposite side, educative institutions that present poor results have parents less and more limitedly involved. Despite the fact that from the before mentioned elements it can be inferred that more participation has contributed to better results, and that the conjunction of these two elements encourage institutions to implement changes, a deeper research is needed in order to know if that involvement is really a cause of improvement.