School Routines of Family Engagement and Advancing Educational Equity

This dissertation explores the extent to which school opportunities for family engagement—or the school-level routines and practices that build relationships with families— address or exacerbate challenges to family engagement. The three studies use data from the nationally representative Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010-11 and various structural equation modeling (SEM) methods.<br><br>The first study uses parent data and path analysis to examine how family characteristics, including race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES), relate to family engagement and the barriers confronted by families. The findings suggest that scheduling and environmental barriers negatively mediate the relationship between family background and family engagement practices conducted at school; barriers are unrelated to family engagement practices conducted at home. Schools may be systematically excluding some racialized and lower-income families by emphasizing school-based practices.<br><br>The second study uses school-level data and latent profile analysis (LPA) to categorize schools with similar opportunities for family engagement. The LPA identifies four different approaches that schools take with family engagement: fewer routines and no PTO/PTA (Profile 1); fewer routines and PTO/PTA (Profile 2); more school-based routines (Profile 3); and more outreach and home visits (Profile 4). The four profiles reveal variations in the quantity and types of family engagement practices emphasized by schools.<br><br>The third study, using multi-group path analysis, explores how the relationships identified in the first study differ across the school profiles identified in the second study. Analyses indicate that schools with high outreach to families may reduce associations between family background characteristics and barriers, suggesting a reduction in the systematic exclusion of minoritized families.<br><br>These studies suggest that when schools thoughtfully and critically implement family engagement—particularly by focusing on outreach to families—school-based family engagement experiences may become more equitable. Schools should also recognize and encourage the home-based practices that are already conducted by minoritized families and are less hindered by barriers.