Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

African American children--Education--Louisiana--New Orleans; Education--Parent participation--Louisiana--New Orleans; African American children--Education; Education--Parent participation; Louisiana--New Orleans;

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe attitudes of minority parents who have children in primary and secondary schools in New Orleans. This study was conducted to examine how parents believed they were perceived by teachers and school administrators of the New Orleans school system. The subjects selected were 130 Afrikan-American parents of children in grades K-12. The sample population was selected based on the random intercept method. This survey method lets the researcher select adults walking in the general area randomly {by choice). This survey was conducted in the New Orleans central Business/Medical district. The adults walking in this area were asked a qualifying question "Do you have children in public school? Those answering yes to the question were given a self-administered survey and instructions on how to complete it. A Likert scale format was use for all responses except for the open enrollment question which was yes or no. The Likert scale questions ranged from (1)--strongly agree through (5)--strongly disagree. The test statistics used to evaluate the data were frequency responses, crosstabulations, bar charts, and chi-square tables. {Crosstabs and Chi-Square tables appear in Appendix B). Results of the responses indicate the following levels of education: 72.0% with 4-years of college and above and 53.8% of respondents had income levels above the $30,000 range. The statistics also indicated that 93 respondents (71.5%) were in the 30-49 year age range and that more than 75% of the respondents (n = 100) were female. Less than half the people queried (47.7%) believed their values and culture were being considered when decisions were made. An overwhelming majority, (87.7%) believed that parent teacher organizations (PTO) are a absolute necessity for the evolution of any home, school, and community relationship, while 59.1% participated in parent-oriented school organizations. The majority of parents (66.2%) had a positive meeting with a teacher, and 53.1% believe minority parents have a voice in parental education programs at their child's school. These results indicated mainly positive perceptions by ethnic minority parents, but several areas of school-parent interaction have much room for improvement.

Year of Submission

1994

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

School of Health, Physical Education, and Leisure Services

First Advisor

Sue A. Joslyn

Second Advisor

R. Forrest Conklin

Third Advisor

Thomas M. Davis

Comments

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Date Original

1994

Object Description

1 PDF file (102 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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