Apply research to support learning in a technology-enhanced environment.

1. Action Research Proposal
Shi~Kia T. Carter
Educational Research
Ashford University

2.  "When parents are involved in their
children's education at home, they do
better in school. And when parents are
involved in school, children go farther in
school and the schools they go to are
better."
 -A New Generation of Evidence: The
Family is Critical to Student Achievement.
(Henderson & Berla, 1994)

3.  Students with parents who are involved in
their school tend to have fewer behavioral
problems and better academic
performance, and are more likely to
complete high school than students whose
parents are not involved in their school.(1)

4.  Involvement allows parents to monitor
school and classroom activities, and to
coordinate their efforts with teachers to
encourage acceptable classroom behavior
and ensure that the child completes
schoolwork.(2)

5. Area of Focus
 The area I want to focus
on is how to get parents
more involved with the
education of their
children.

6. Explanation of Problem
 Parents often do not feel welcomed at
school. They feel that what they may have
to offer is unimportant and unappreciated.
(Dixon, 1992; Vandergrift & Greene,
1992).

8.  The question is how can we incorporate
Epstein’s Types of Involvement in one place.
The answer is Social Media.

9. Innovation
 I want to conduct a research study on
what parents, students and educators
would like to have included in a school
application for smart phones. The
application would be supported on the
Android platform, IOS platform (IPhone)
and Blackberry. This application would
improve communicating with parents,
guardians and the community during the
school year.

10. Variables
 Parents
 Students
 Teachers

11. Research Questions
 1. What information must be included in a
school mobile application to keep parents
informed about events at the school and
information deemed vital by educators and
students?

12. Group membership
 Team leader
Create the surveys, collect data and produce the final results.
 Technology Department
Provide technical assistance.
Provide advice to feasibility.
Cost analysis.
List service providers.
 Service provider (if needed)
Workshop for usage and adding additional content.
Creation of application.
Provide service to application.

13. Negotiations
 The parents and students will be made
aware that their responses are confidential
and no names will be used. The cost of
the service provider may be negotiated.

14. Ethics
 The data that I will be collecting will be
genuine responses, not data that will serve
the purpose of one single entity.. The
intervention will be comprised of
responses from concerned parents that
want the best education possible for their
children and to remain informed about the
happenings at the school in spite of their
busy lives.

15. Timeline
 Creation of surveys and checklists- one week
 Distribution of checklists to parents and
student-one day (during homeroom)
 Distribution of surveys to teachers- one day( via
e-mail)
 Students can complete the checklists during
homeroom- two days
 Parent responses will be expected back within
one week.
 Teachers will have one week to return surveys.
 I will need one week to analysis the data and
compile reports and other data.

16. Statement of resources
 Copy paper for the surveys and checklists.
 Postage for mailing selected surveys to
parents.
 Computer access.
 Possible funding for mobile application, if
not feasible through the Technology
department.

17. Data collection
Survey A brief survey of the teachers about
what they would like to see in the
school’s mobile application.
A survey that will be place on the
shared drive to be completed by the
teachers within a week.
Checklist A checklist given to the parents about
what information they would want in a
school mobile application.
A checklist that will sent home with
the students, emailed or mailed home
and to be returned within two weeks.

18. References
 (1) Henderson, A. T., and Berla, N. (1994). A new generation of evidence: The family is critical to
student achievement. Washington, DC: National Committee for Citizens in Education.
 (2) Hill, N., and Taylor, L. (2004). Parental school involvement and children's academic
achievement: Pragmatics and issues. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13(4) 161-164.
 Jeynes , W. H. (2007). The relationship between parental involvement and urban secondary
school student academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Urban Education,42(1),82-110.
 Stewart, E. B. (2008). School structural characteristics, student effort, peer associations, and
parental involvement: The influence of school- and individual-level factors on academic
achievement.Education and Urban Society,40(2), 179-204.
 Martyn Shuttleworth (Sep 16, 2009). What is a Literature Review?. Retrieved Oct 21, 2013 from
Explorable.com: http://explorable.com/what-is-a-literature-review
 Vandergrift, J., & Greene, A. (1992, September). Rethinking parent involvement. Educational
Leadership, 57-59.
 Epstein, J. L. (2010). School/family/community partnerships: caring for the children we share:
when schools form partnerships with families and the community, the children benefit. These
guidelines for building partnerships can make it happen.(Kappan Classic)(Report). Phi Delta
Kappan, (3), 81.