The Nature of Parental Interactions in an Online Charter School

The Nature of Parental Engagement at an Online Charter High School

“…For instance, 79 parent survey respondents reported spending nearly 1.5 hours per week interacting with their students regarding their learning in a freshman English course at a cyber high school (Borup, Graham, & Davies, 2013). Parent responses varied greatly, resulting in a standard deviation (74.3) close to the mean (86.0).…”

“…For instance, Litke (1998) in part blamed poor course outcomes on parents who underestimated student needs and failed to provide them with adequate support. More recently, parents in Borup et al's (2013) research rated their motivational impact on student learning at a cyber high school significantly lower than the impact that their students reported. Parents' underestimating their potential impact helps to explain Boulton's (2008) case study of British high school students enrolled in a two-year online certificate program.…”

“…This analysis found a positive relationship between parents' reported level of student praise and their child's academic achievement but a negative relationship between parents' reported levels of instruction and their child's academic achievement. Similarly, Borup et al (2013) identified negative correlations between parents' reported levels of interaction with their cyber school student and student learning outcomes. However, these researchers warned against interpreting the negative relationships too simply by concluding that parents do not have a significant impact on student learning.…”

“…However, these researchers warned against interpreting the negative relationships too simply by concluding that parents do not have a significant impact on student learning. Borup et al (2013) explained, "If a large portion of parental interaction occurred in reaction to poor student performance, the correlation that results from examining a large group of students could mask the true benefit of parental involvement on individual student learning" (p. 52). Also, Borup et al measured only the total time that parents spent interacting with students, not the intended purposes of those interactions.…”

“…These growth trends have occurred despite attrition rates that are higher than those found in traditional brick-and-mortar schools (Freidhoff, 2015;Miron & Gulosino, 2015;Watson, Murin, Vashaw, Gremin, & Rapp, 2013). Although the solution to narrowing this achievement gap is multifaceted and complex, some researchers have focused on the need to more fully engage parents in the learning process-especially in cyber schools where students spend all or most of their time studying at home (Borup, Graham, & Davies, 2013;Liu, Black, Algina, Cavanaugh, & Dawson, 2010). However, little research exists that has examined parental engagement in cyber schools, and the existing research has focused largely on parental engagement in online elementary school settings (Hasler Waters, Menchaca, & Borup, 2014).…”