Perceived Effectiveness of Parent and Teacher Use of K--12 Teacher Web Pages for Enhancing Communication in a Southern Rhode Island Public School Dist (Paperback)

Throughout the country partnerships between schools and families have been developed to improve home/school communication. A southern Rhode Island suburban public school system investigated progressive alternatives to improving communication through the use of technology between parents and teachers. The purpose of this research study was to evaluate perceptions of the effectiveness of the use of teacher web pages to contribute to the enhancement of home and school communication. The research questions investigated the teachers' and parents' perceptions of the effectiveness of the use of teacher web pages to improve home/school communications, which could promote enhanced student success (Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Stufflebeam's CIPP model was used to provide the evaluation framework; a mixed-methods case study with teacher and parent surveys, interviews, and focus groups was used to gather data. Teachers from grades K-12, including specialists (N=142), and parents with students in grades K-12 (N=163) participated in the study. The use of descriptive statistics, thematic analysis of the interview transcripts and the focus groups, and field notes were triangulated to assist in prioritizing and reporting the important outcomes. The quantitative and qualitative findings suggested that there were no differences between teachers' and parents' perceptions of the effectiveness of the use of teacher web pages to improve home/school communications. The quantitative findings indicated that both parents and teachers supported teacher web pages as an alternative method to enhance communication, indirectly contributing to student achievement. According to the qualitative findings, parents and teachers were frustrated with the use of teacher web pages; yet, different frustrations. Parents were frustrated by the inconsistent maintenance of the teacher web pages. Teachers were frustrated by the lack of guidelines, which would outline the expected content of the teacher web pages. In addition, the definition of communication: being informed, was the primary theme emanating from the data from the parent (N=6) and teacher ( N=4) focus groups. The statistical and substantive significance of the findings were useful in examining the effectiveness of teacher web pages, which allowed the findings to be generalized to other school districts that are more proximally similar to the Study Site (Trochim, 2006).