Abstract
The academic achievement gap continues to be a critical issue in the education of minority and economically disadvantaged students (Bemak, Chung, & Siroskey-Sabdo, 2005; College Board, 1999; Flores, 2007; Yaffe & Educational Testing Service, 2011). Due to an increase in poverty in the U.S., many more students are more likely to experience an education that is characterized by the academic achievement gap. In comparison to students from higher-income backgrounds, students from low-income backgrounds are more likely to fall behind in various areas of academic achievement. The lower levels of academic achievement among low-income students often result from the lack of access to adequately resourced schools and equal opportunities to learn (Flores, 2007). The ability for low-income middle school students to be academically successful despite their educationally disadvantaged environments has been attributed to many individually-based factors (Elliott, DiPerna, Mroch, & Lang, 2004). However, current research has found that parental involvement and perceptions play a key role in determining academic achievement for low-income students (McCoach et al., 2010). Many parents are aware that they play a role in their child’s academic success. However, some parents are often unsure of the specific things they can do to support their child’s academic success (West-Olatunji, Sanders, Mehta, & Behar-Horenstein, 2010). Therefore, it is important to help parents in low-income families understand how their involvement plays a vital role in promoting the academic achievement of their students. A workshop was created that focused on parental involvement as an environmental factor that promotes academic achievement in low-income students. The researcher collected evaluations on each day of the workshop. The aim of the evaluations was to provide the researcher with feedback on the effectiveness of various aspects of the workshop. The evaluation consisted of checklist, Likert-Scale, and open-ended questions. Analysis of the evaluation results allowed the researcher to determine workshop effectiveness. After completion of the two workshops, findings showed that the workshop effectively provided low-income parents with research-based involvement practices shown to support academic success and help reduce the academic achievement gap for low-income middle school students. The information gained from this workshop will help low-income parents know how to be more involved in the academic achievement of their student. Additionally, the effective design of this workshop will be useful in the planning of future parental involvement workshops.