Date of Award

1-1-2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

Morgridge College of Education, Teaching and Learning Sciences, Child, Family, and School Psychology

First Advisor

Gloria E. Miller, Ph.D.

Keywords

Family involvement, Family-school partnership, Preservice educators, Scale development

Abstract

There are many positive effects that family, school, and community partnerships (FSP) have on student achievement, behavior, and social-emotional development (Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003; Epstein, 1994, 2011; Graham, 2011; Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Jeynes, 2005, 2007; Ulugag, 2008). Due to the many benefits FSP have on student educational outcomes, current education reform efforts and legislation have mandated the implementation of FSP practices in schools. Additionally, legislation has called for increased accountability efforts to ensure that educators have appropriate levels of FSP skills and competencies (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education, 2016). As such, the Family-School Partnering and Collaboration Scale (FSPCS) was developed to assess preservice educators' self-reported perceptions of roles, responsibilities, and barriers to implementing FSP; attitudes about the importance of collaborating with families; and self-efficacy beliefs related to FSP.

The purpose of this study was to develop and initially validate the FSPCS. After an extensive review of the literature related to FSP and an expert panel review, a pilot version of the FSPCS was administered to preservice educators taking a course on FSP practices. Following the pilot study, a supplemental literature review was conducted along with a second expert panel review and cognitive interviews with preservice educators before the final version of the FSPCS was administered to 155 preservice educators from different education training programs throughout the state of Colorado. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, Rasch modeling, reliability analysis, and comparison tests were performed on the scale data. The results indicated that the items factored into a 4-factor solution appropriately with the three most pronounced domains being Perceptions, Attitudes, and Beliefs and the fourth factor, Perceptions of Barriers being viewed as a sub-class of Perceptions. The scale was found to be reliable: the domains of Perceptions of Roles and Responsibilities (Cronbach's alpha: .92), Attitudes about the Importance of Collaborating with Families (Cronbach's a: .73), and Self-efficacy Beliefs Related to FSP (Cronbach's a: .94) had high internal consistency values. The sub-class factor of Perceptions of Barriers to Implementing FSP was low (Cronbach's a: .58). Study findings, limitations, and recommendations for future research are discussed.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Carly Anne Sorenson

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

205 p.

Discipline

Educational tests & measurements, Education

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