Engaging Parents

Abstract

In my third and fourth month of working in Wright and Pulaski, I conducted four parent interviews in each of the four classrooms, sixteen interviews in total. It was my original intention to work with teachers to schedule parent interviews throughout the day. However, only one classroom had four parents willing to commit to prescheduled interview times. Instead, at the suggestion of the Pulaski teachers, I arrived at the sites early so that I could interview parents at drop-off. As parent interviews only took between five and fifteen minutes, several parents in each classroom were willing to stay for an interview. Consequently, my sample of parent interviews consists largely of parents who had some free time in the morning before work or, primarily at Pulaski, parents who tended to stay to volunteer.