| Summary: | Research conducted over the last twenty years has found that parent involvement in the education of their children has a direct and positive relationship with higher levels of student motivation and achievement. Some of that research has also found that evidence of parent involvement diminishes rapidly as students move through the grades, particularly in the transition from middle school to high school. It was the purpose of this study to examine student perception of parent involvement as it related to student attitudes, motivation, and achievement at this point of transition for middle school students. The study was designed as a blend of quantitative and qualitative research and involved a sample of fifty students from a total grade population of 175 students from one of three middle schools in a small southeastern Massachusetts city. The data were gathered over a period of time during which these students were in grades seven and eight as they remained on the same teaching teams with the same classmates. Utilizing grade point averages in four core academic subjects as the achievement measure, a sample was drawn from the total population of the highest achieving twenty-five students and the lowest achieving twenty-five students. Perception scores derived from a four item response scale were compared with actual and expected GPA scores to determine the relationship between student perception of parent involvement and student achievement. Data were also drawn from purposefully selected student and parent interviews and interviews of all involved teachers, using a standardized open-ended format. These interviews and two open-ended questions were designed to gather additional information regarding perceptions of parent involvement and expectations for student achievement. Student records were also examined to review data involving ethnicity, special populations characteristics, and family composition. While the analysis of the quantitative data indicated that there appeared to be no significant relationship between the level of students' perception of parent involvement and student achievement, the qualitative data revealed that parent involvement was very important to and highly valued by the students, parents, and teachers in this study. In their view, it was directly and positively related to student attitude, motivation, and achievement.
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