Breaking Down the Moral Parenting Approach: How Latino Parents Can Be More Involved in their Children’s Education

Parent-involvement is a verifiable predictor of academic success among primary school students (LeFevre & Shaw, 2011). And yet, Latino parents are less likely to reach out to teachers first because they find the U.S. education system to be daunting (Auerbach, 2004). Improving the parent involvement of minority groups, and more specifically, of Latino parents, is central as an increasing number of Latino-Language-Learners (LELs) with low-socioeconomic (low-SES) backgrounds continue to enroll in U.S. public schools. As of 2013, 25 percent of the students enrolled in traditional pubic schools were of Hispanic/Latino descent (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2017). My research aims to better understand the different ways Latino parents value education as well as their needs and wants from the school as vital roles in their children’s academic success. I seek to answer three questions to address this issue: first, how can Latino parents become more involved in their children’s education? Second, what do parents wish schools would communicate better? And finally, how can school employ these techniques to further bridge the communication gap between schools and (Latino) parents? Through this research, the local Charlottesville school system (where research will take place) will have a better understanding of Latino parent perspectives on their children’s education and parents will, in turn, understand more about their role in their children’s education. A semi-structured interview protocol will be used to ask parents about their connection with schools and about their suggestions to improve communication. Analysis of the data collected will immediately follow.