Rice study shows minority administrators, school personnel key to engaging immigrant parents

A new study by Rice University, the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and Vanderbilt University demonstrates that minority principals and other administrative personnel at elementary and high schools play an integral role in implementing policies and practices aimed at engaging immigrant parents of students.

Researchers focused on the manner in which schools in districts with immigrant populations address low levels of parental involvement in their children’s education and what measures they take in providing opportunities for engagement and support.

The study will be published in the March edition of Social Science Quarterly. It compared 447 schools in districts that have established immigrant populations with 685 schools in areas that have rapidly expanding immigrant populations.Researchers based their analysis on data from the 2003-2004 National Center for Educational Statistics Schools and Staffing Surveys.

Co-authored by Paru Shah of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and Katharine Donato of Vanderbilt University, the study was funded by the Russell Sage Foundation and the National Science Foundation.