Evaluating School Policy on Parents Working With Their Children in Class

The author presents findings of an attempt by a primary school in Cyprus to implement a policy on partnerships that encourages parents to work with their children in school. Before the introduction of the school policy, student attainment was similar to that of students at a primary school that did not introduce a partnership policy. Six months after the partnership policy was implemented, students at the experimental school had higher attainment in each core subject. In a value-added analysis of the educational progress of students at the experimental school in each of the 3 core subjects, the author found that all students had improved the quality of their academic work in Greek language, social science, and mathematics, irrespective of socioeconomic background. An examination of parent and student attitudes toward school policy revealed that both groups developed positive attitudes toward the partnership policy. Moreover, parents claimed that their classroom visits contributed significantly to improved teacher communication and to student behavior at home. Implications for development of research and evaluation on partnerships are reported.