Increasing Involvement and Communication with Parents of Somali Secondary Students

Term

Summer 12-15-2014

Capstone

Thesis

Degree Name

MAT

Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair

Kimberly Johnson

Secondary Advisor/Reader One

Kathryn Heinze

Peer-Reviewer/Reader Two

Jennifer Smith

Abstract

The research question addressed in this project was, how does increasing informal parental involvement and teacher-­‐parent communication with parents of Somali secondary students impact parents’ comfort with the school and teachers? This capstone documents one teacher who uses informal ways of communicating with Somali speaking parents over the course of a four-­‐week term to determine if there is a difference in their levels of comfort by the end of the term. Key influencers in this study were the students whose parents were not involved and a principal at a former school who implemented a policy for teachers to engage parents and saw great results. The author communicates with parents using a pre and post survey that measures their comfort levels and keeps in touch with them with a phone call weekly. The author finds that the parents’ comfort levels do increase by the end of the project.

Keywords

ESL/ ELLs, Parent Involvement

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