Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Education (Ph.D)

Department

Administrative and Instructional Leadership

First Advisor

James Reed Campbell

Second Advisor

Rosalba Del Vecchio

Third Advisor

Edein Tjoe

Abstract

It is a belief that when parents participate in the transition process of school choice for their children’s secondary schooling, parental involvement increases the likelihood of their youngsters graduating from high school, having opportunities for selecting the best colleges, and a trajectory for greater success in the career opportunities of their children. This study examined transition-focused parents to understand what factors affect their satisfaction with the college and career transitions in grades 9 through 12.

The 66,202 parent participants in this study were from the northeast region of the United States. The children are enrolled in public schools, and they have transitioned from eighth grade to secondary schools (grades 9–12). This study examined the data from 334 schools (grades 9 through 12) and using instruments from the 2018 New York City Parent Survey, the New York State Education/Enrollment Data, and the Epstein framework, and it describes the responses from the parent participants to construct factors to show the interactions of each variable in a model named the “path model.”

The ethnicity of the schools in the research was 32.16% African American, 45.97% Hispanic or Latino, 10.45% Asian or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islanders, 8.94% White American, and 1.37% Multiracial. Descriptive statistics show that the average value of the highest poverty rate in the survey was 78.71%.

There are countless studies on parental involvement and school choice. This study provides recommendations to practitioners and policymakers in the field of education, which emanated from the findings of the study of parental involvement, parent-teacher partnerships, and economic diversity, using the path model of the transition-focused parents as the endpoint. Again, the research focus, what factors had an effect on transition-focused parents, and the outcome of this study contribute to the expansion of the research literature review.

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