Teamwork Makes

the Dream Work:

A closer look at
the effects of
parent
involvement

University of South Florida

Wendy Baker, Jennifer
Burnette, Darryan Fitzpatrick,
Kristina Greenwood, Beth
Landy, Keith Laycock, Grace
Madden, Marc Summa, Carol
Tormoehlen, Tracy Wulf
Spring 2016

Description of inquiry

Perspectives of Principal, APTT

Champion, Classroom Teacher,
Parents
Roles and responsibilities of inquiry
team (Principal, APTT Champion,
Classroom Teacher, Pre-service
Teachers and Partnership Resource
Teachers)
Preliminary Findings

Principal: Mr. Laycock

Why move to Academic Parent Teacher

Teams?
An overview....

What is APTT?
New way to conference
Families and teachers work
together
Focus on grade-level
foundational skills
Assess skills and set goals
Practice skills with families
Celebrate achievement
Build community

Context
Partnership School

Context

Context

Rationale
The purpose of our inquiry is to discover
how Academic Parent Teacher Teams
(APTT) will affect the parent involvement
at our school. Due to a lack of parent
involvement with our school's previous
parent teacher involvement, we are
looking for ways to increase this deficit.
According to Bower and Griffin (2011),
Parental involvement is seen as an
effective strategy to ensure student
success... (p. 77). We are interested in
discovering if this new approach to parent
involvement at our school will also
increase student achievement.

Literature
Cotton & Wikelund (1989) identifies two barriers to
parent involvement as lack of planning and lack of
mutual understanding and provides guidelines for
productive involvement.
Dikkers (2013) identifies the six types of
involvement for parents, teachers, and community
members according to the National Network of
Partnership Schools (NNPS). Within each type of
involvement, Dikkers provides examples for
engaging stakeholders through this framework.
Tran (2014) suggests new culturally responsive
methods for creating parent, teacher, and
community member partnerships within the school
context to increase student achievement.
Sparks (2015) outlines the process of Academic
Parent Teacher Teams (APTT) as a new model for

Research Question
In what ways does the
implementation of the Academic
Parent Teacher Teams (APTT) model
impact parent involvement?

APTT Champion: Mrs.

Greenwood
ts
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n APT
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and graph
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ssful s
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Establ
dance
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ld
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APTT Process
e
iz
Organ
lies
p
p
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Welcome and Ice
S
r
e
d
Or

Breaker
Review Foundational
Skills
Review Student Data
Teacher Demonstrates
Skills
Parents Practice Skills

APTT Champion: Mrs.

Greenwood
During APT
T

Nights

Prepare
school
Ensure
fidelity throu
gh
coaching
Run a c
onference a
sa
classroom te
acher

ht
g
i
N
T
T
P
A
en
After
etwe
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n b Parenta
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sc
en
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Invo
fing
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d de
n
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t
t
A sions
ses

Classroom Teacher: Ms.

Tormoehlen

Training
Preparation
Conducting/gradin
g assessments,
making copies,
preparing parent
folders, etc.

Conference Night

Data Collection
Field Notes
Exit slips
Artifacts of student
performance

Data Analysis- Qualitative

First round APTT
September 24,
2015
5th grade parent
questions
Inductive reasoning
(Lichtman, 2013)
Codes

Yes/No questions
Clarifying questions

Second round APTT

December 3, 2015
K-5th grade parent
questions
Deductive and
Inductive reasoning
(Lichtman, 2013)
Codes
Yes/No questions
Clarifying questions
Student specific
questions
Information questions

Claim 1: Parent questions revolved

around clarifying questions.
For example, as I was reading the directions, as I hold up
the card, she has to give me the definition, meaning, and
sentence? (5th grade Parent, APTT 1, September 24)
In this case, what is the minimal or maximum for this
graph? (5th grade Parent, APTT 1, September 24)
How do you say the rhyming term? (Kindergarten Parent,
APTT 2, December 3)
How is the data formed? (Kindergarten Parent, APTT 2,
December 3)
What is the current expectation? (3rd grade Parent, APTT
2, December 3)
What can I take with me? (5th grade Parent, APTT 2,
December 3)

Claim 2: Parents asked Yes/No

questions.
Is she above 50%? (5th grade Parent, APTT 1, September
24)
Was this before prefixes were taught?(5th grade Parent,
APTT 1, September 24)
At home, should I correct place value mistakes? (1st
grade Parent, APTT 2, December 3)
That blue line at the top, is that the expectation of where
they should be by the end of the year? (1st grade Parent,
APTT 2, December 3)
In the state test, will they be given a question like this?
(4th grade Parent, APTT 2, December 3)
Do they have to know the definition? (4th grade Parent,
APTT 2, December 3)
With the post, is it exactly the same? (5th grade Parent,

Claim 3: Parents asked questions

specific to the student.
How do you see her doing? (2nd grade Parent,
APTT 2, December 3)
How is [student name] doing in reading? (2nd
grade Parent, APTT 2, December 3)
On these graphs, youre saying that the top lines
are the end of the year expectations, how can
their grade be lower even though they are
reading above grade level expectation? (3rd
grade Parent, APTT 2, December 3)
How is he doing? (4th grade Parent, APTT 2,
December 3)
What can prevent her from getting an n on her

Claim 4: Parents asked informational

questions.
You dont happen to have a way to text/email
each other to stay in touch (with the teacher)?
(3rd grade Parent, APTT 2, December 3)
This grade, how much is this going to decide if
they go on to the next year? (4th grade Parent,
APTT 2, December 3)
How can we have access to their grades? (4th
grade Parent, APTT 2, December 3)
What are the other tests that go into grades?
(4th grade Parent, APTT 2, December 3)

Data Analysis- Qualitative

First round APTT
Second round APTT
September 24,
December 3, 2015
2015
1st- 4th grade
K-2nd and 5th
parent exit slips
grade parent exit
Inductive reasoning
slips
(Lichtman, 2013)
Inductive reasoning
Codes
(Lichtman, 2013)
Yes/No responses
Codes
Students progress
comments
Materials comments
Learning ways to help
students improve
comments
Comparison to other
students comments

Time spent practicing

responses
Experience using
resources responses

Claim 1: Parents made comments

about learning the progress of their
student.
I am able to see where my daughter is
academically and where she should be at this
time of the school year. (5th grade parent, APTT
1, September 24)
To know what progress my child needs to make
to be on level for her grade. (4th grade parent,
APTT 1, September 24)
We learned a holistic view of his proficiency in
math and grammar. (5th grade parent, APTT 1,
September 24)
Learning about where my daughter is with math
and reading. (1st grade parent, APTT 1,
September 24)

Claim 2: Parents made comments

about being provided materials.
Very beneficial meeting, especially the material
that was provided to help my child in his problem
areas. (5th grade parent, APTT 1, September 24)
I like the fact that tools were given to help
parents at home with the children. (4th grade
parent, APTT 1, September 24)
Liked the visual aids and the cards to take home
for practice. (1st grade parent, APTT 1,
September 24)
I love the tools they provided to help assist in my
childs academic progress. (2nd grade parent,
APTT 1, September 24)

Claim 3: Parents mostly answered yes

to meeting their child's reading and
math goals.

Claim 4: Parents spent between 1-4

hours a week using the materials
provided.

Claim 5: Parents rated their experience

using the materials good or very good.

Data AnalysisQuantitative
Skills

APTT 1

APTT 2

APTT 3

Grade 2

Sight Word Fluency

Addition Facts 0-20

Sight Word Fluency

Addition Facts 0-20
Sight Word Spelling
Subtraction Facts 0-20

Sight Word Spelling

Subtraction Fact 0-20

Grade 4

Prefixes
Multiplication Facts

Prefixes
Multiplication Facts
Suffixes
Division Facts

Suffixes
Division Facts

Grade 5

Prefixes
Multiplication Facts

Prefixes
Multiplication Facts
Suffixes
Division Facts

Suffixes
Division Facts

Green = Pre-test; Orange = Post-test

Claim 1: Student achievement

increased

Conclusion
As members and facilitators of the Academic
Parent Teacher Teams, it is evident that APTT
has proved beneficial in increasing parent
involvement and student achievement. In
addition, the feedback received from parents in
the form of exit slips, questions, and comments
demonstrates that parents are eager to actively
participate in their students education given
the materials and support provided at APTT.
Data on student achievement shows that
students increased on the skills that were
practiced and assessed. General attitudes on
APTT were positive, however, data was not
collected on parents who did not attend.

Implications
Questions for parents and guardians on
the exit slips need to be more specific.
When presenting to parents, we need to
be more precise with the language used
regarding explanations of student
performance and instructions for
supporting students at home.

Future Wonderings
How could the APTT model be
effectively implemented in a larger
school?
How do we continue to increase parent
involvement through APTT?

Questions/Comments

Thank you
Our contact information is located at the
bottom of the exit slip handout

References
Bower, H. A., & Griffin, D. (2011). Can the epstein model of parental involvement work in a high-minority, high-poverty
elementary school? A case study. Professional School Counseling, 15(2), 77-87. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.5330/PSC.n.2011-15.77
Cotton, K. & Wikelund, K. R. (1989). Parent Involvement in Education. Education Northwest.
http://multiculturaleducole.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/55317746/ParentInvolvementiEducation.pdf
Reid, K. S. (2015). Parent engagement on rise as priority for schools, Districts. Education Week, 34(32), 9.
http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=706435c3-1651-4e11-963b-02aa05f05b38%40sessionmgr11
2&vid=1&hid=122&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=103040708&db=eft
Schools engage families to help turn schools around. (2015). Education Digest, 80(8), 57-60.
http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=554945a0-6e3d-49e7-a6cf-8c793509d211%40sessionmgr1
13&vid=0&hid=122&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=101787391&db=aph

Sparks, S. D. (2015). Parent-teacher conferences get a makeover. Education Week, (06).

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=027fbb5b-ebc1-4c30-9a72-eafc8a395237%40sessionmgr19
8&vid=0&hid=122&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=edsgcl.431358708&db=edsgov