School Achievement : From Deficient Dialects to Domestic Dialogue / Jean Ann Linney.

The low level of family involvement in school affairs has become a predominant explanation for a wide variety of school problems. Although there is little data to support the two underlying assumptions of this causal relationship, i.e., a decrease in family involvement, and the efficacy of parent participation in enhancing student performance, there is potential in the intervention implications stemming from this hypothesized relationship. Most intervention efforts have focused on increasing parent participation, however, in the absence of any serious analysis of the content and purpose of that participation. Changing family conditions are repeatedly scapegoated in these discussions, yet the changing social conditions are a reality, and should generate a new level of discussion about home-school relations and alternative mechanisms to accommodate them. The "victim blaming" implicit in deficient parent participation explanations threatens to divert attention from collaborative home-school efforts and fruitful change. (JAC)

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