Promoting Parental Involvement in Schools: Evidence from Two Randomized Experiments

Abstract

Parental involvement programs aim to strengthen school-home relations with the goal of improving children’s educational outcomes. We examine the effects of a parental involvement program in Mexico, which provides parent associations with grants and information. We separately estimate the effect of the grants from the effect of the information using data from two randomized controlled trials conducted by the government during the rollout of the program. Grants to parent associations did not improve educational outcomes. Information to parent associations reduced disciplinary actions in schools, mainly by increasing parental involvement in schools and changing parenting behavior at home. The divergent results from grants and information are partly explained by significant changes in perceptions of trust between parents and teachers. Our results suggest that parental involvement interventions may not achieve their intended goal if institutional rules are unclear about the expectations of parents and teachers as parents increase their involvement in schools.

The Role of Coherence in Strengthening CommunityAccountability for Remote Schools in Indonesia

“…Unlike the other interventions mentioned in this paragraph, the parent training sessions in Barrera-Osorio et al (2021) did not improve student learning. However, they had the positive effect of reducing disciplinary actions in schools.…”

“…Thus, together with the prior analyses of KIAT Guru, this paper contributes to the growing body of research on interventions that aim to improve education service delivery in developing countries by empowering parents and local communities. These include interventions that target parents' awareness of how to improve educational quality (for example, Barrera-Osorio et al [2021] on providing training sessions to parent associations in Mexico); 2 interventions that improve parents' access to information on student and school performance (for example, Andrabi, Das, and Khwaja [2017] on school report cards in Pakistan); and interventions that improve parent-teacher communication (for example, Islam [2019] on parent-teacher meetings to discuss student progress in Bangladesh).…”

School committee composition: Exploring the role of parental and female representation in India

“…While national governments took the initiative in some cases, international development agencies played a major role in the popularization of SBM reforms in LMICs, often making decentralization reforms a precondition for financial aid (Bjork, 2006). Barrera‐Osorio et al (2009) reported that SBM projects constituted about 10% of all World Bank education projects and 18% of its total education financing between 2000 and 2006. Consequently, Caldwell (2005, p. 3) observed that “school‐based management has been evident in policy and practice for more than three decades to the point that there are now few nations that have not moved down this track.”…”

“…Although there had been previous models of SBM in which control over school management was awarded solely to school principals and/or teachers, most SBM reforms in LMICs prioritized the involvement of parents and the local community. Barrera‐Osorio et al (2009, p. 17) noted that “SBM in almost all of its manifestations involves community members in school decision making.” The rationale for this was to bypass higher levels of educational administration by creating a “short route” to accountability (World Bank, 2003): one in which parents, who have a large stake in improving the quality of the school that their children attend, were empowered to have a say in school management. In this respect, SBM reforms were seen as part of a wider movement to improve public services by strengthening community‐based accountability mechanisms.…”

“…SBM reforms have been adopted in Latin America (including Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua), sub‐Saharan Africa (including Gambia, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, and Uganda), and Asia (including India, Indonesia, Philippines, and Sri Lanka) (Carr‐Hill et al, 2018). Advocates of SBM base their support on the notion that there will be greater school accountability and improved school management when those most familiar with the school (school principals and teachers) or most affected by the quality of its educational service (pupils' parents or guardians) are given a role in overseeing the school (Barrera‐Osorio et al, 2009; World Bank, 2003).…”