AN mmmmou or AmTUDEs or 5 V- _' 1{  , 23;;E
mam TRAINEES maximum: . ‘ r —. ‘
in HOME vssmmusm ‘ ‘ ‘

FGUR URBAR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

 

Thesis for the Degree of Ph. D.
WCHEGAN STATE UNIVERSITY '
PETER PAUL MURK ~ ’
1973 ' ’

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LIBRAITY .1
Michigan State 5

University ”(1‘

 
 
 

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it? :3 This is to certify that the
thesis entitled

AN INVESTIGATION OF ATTITUDES OF TEACHER TRAINEES
PARTICIPATING IN HOME VISITATIONS. IN FOUR
URBAN- ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.

presented by

Peter Paul Murk

has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for

_&.D___degree in Administration and
Higher Education I

' * //s§2,\%¢//s/» . 7 -
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ABSTRACT

AN INVESTIGATION OF ATTITUDES OF TEACHER TRAINEES
PARTICIPATING IN HOME VISITATIONS IN
FOUR URBAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

By

Peter Paul Murk

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the
Urban Tutorial Students of Education 482 participating in home visitations
and parental involvement measures in four urban elementary schools. This
study attempted to answer the following questions:

1. Will the tutors' attitudes toward the students, the parents,
the Parents TeachingggeadiggjProgram, the community, and their supervising
teachers be more positive as a result of this project?

2. Will the parents' attitudes about the school, the staff, and
the tutors be more positive as a result of their involvement in teaching
reading skills and the tutor's home visitations?

3. Will there be any significant relationship between the
covariables of race, age, sex, and grade level tutored for the attitudes
of the urban tutors of the experimental and the control group?

4. Will there be any significant gain in the child's reading
achievement as a result of the tutor's home visitations and involvement
of the parents teaching reading skills to their children?

5. What will be the reactions of the school staffs to the project?
Will the administrators and teachers observe any significant achievement

gains of the children participating in the project?

Peter Paul Murk
Procedures For The Study
In order to determine and measure relationships among the variables

of this study, two instruments were used. The Student-Tutor-Questionnaire

 

was selected to provide a measure of the extent to which the tutor's
attitudes about their rapport with students, rapport with parents, under-
standing of the Parents Teaching:Readinngrogram, community understanding,
and rapport with their supervising teacher deffered between the experimental
and the control group of tutors. The assessment of tutor reactions to

these five dependent variables was accomplished through the use of the
Student-Tutor-Questionnaire, written especially for this study. A Hoyt
Reliability check of internal consistency on this instrument from a pre-
test of 25 subjects correlated at .64.

The Parent Attitude Questionnaire also developed for this study by
the author, attempted to determine the parent's reactions to the home
visitations by the tutors, their role as parent-teachers for their children,
and whether their child had greater achievement in reading and in his
other subjects as a result of the project. The assessment of parental
attitudes was accomplished through interviews with the twenty parents upon
the completion of the project.

The volunteer tutors of the experimental group made a total of six
after-school visitations to their students' homes to explain and to instruct
the parents regarding the six units of the P.T.R. materials. The children
selected to participate in the project were screened by their second or third
grade teachers as being behind one-to-two months reading achievement. Their
parents were asked to cooperate in the project by their four school adminis-
trators; stating that they would be present when the urban tutors visited.

The data gathered were analyzed by an "F-Test" of multivariance of analysis

Peter Paul Murk
procedures between the mean scores of the experimental and control groups

of tutors.

Major Finding:9f The Study

1. A significant difference was found between the 20 tutors of the
experimental group and the 35 tutors of the control group in attitudes. An
overall difference between group means on five dependent variables concerning
tutors' rapport with students, rapport with parents, understanding of the
Parents Teaching Reading Proggam, community understanding and rapport with
supervising teachers was significant at the .05 level of probability.

2. A Dunnet Post Hoc Test determined that dependent variable III,
tutors' understanding of the Parents Teachinijeadi g Program, highly
correlated with the significance of the dependent variables on the Student-
Tutor-Questionnaire.

3. No significant relationship was found between the covariables of
race, age, sex, and grade level tutored and the overall attitudes of the urban
tutors toward the dependent variables on the Student-Tutor-Questionnaire.

4. There was a significant and positive reaction of the parents to
the project. Eighty-five percent of the parents felt their child improved
in reading as a result of the home visitations and parental involvement as
parent-teachers. Seventy-five percent of the parents felt there was an
overall improvement of their children's scores in other subjects. One hundred
percent of the parents felt the tutors instructed them clearly in the use of
the P.T.R. materials. Ninety-five percent of the parents had more positive
feelings about the school, the staff, and the tutors as a result of the
project. However, only fifty-five percent of the parents felt they could
become involved with the school as aides and volunteers as a result of the

project.

Peter Paul Murk

5. There were positive reactions by the school staff about the
project. The four principals and the school staff observed noticable attitu-
dinal changes on the part of the participating children and parents.
However, they felt that six weeks was too short a duration in which to
measure significant reading achievement results.

6. Extremely positive reactions were expressed by the tutors in
their evaluations of the project concerning home visits and involvement of
parent-educators. Ninety-five percent of the tutors felt that their educa—
tion had been enriched by the experience. Ninety-five percent of the tutors
believed that their interaction with the parents and children had resulted

in significant reading and learning achievement.

Questions For Further Study

1. If the project of home visitations and parent-educators had been
extended longer than the six weeks period, would the tutors' attitudes have
been the same or different?

2. WOuld significant reading achievement of the children result, if
the parental involvement aspect had been extended to a semester or a full year?

3. Did the subjective opinions of the parens given during the inter-
views actually reflect their attitudes toward the school, staff and tutors?

4. If the administrative and teaching staffs' reactions had been more
negative than positive, what impact would it have had on the project and findings?

5. If all the tutors were required to make home visitations and
participate in the project instead of volunteering what impact would it have
had on the project?

6. WOuld the replication of this study with a different group of
tutors, a different group of parents, and different schools in a different

geographic location and procedures produce significantly different results?

AN INVESTIGATION OF ATTITUDES OF TEACHER TRAINEES
PARTICIPATING IN HOME VISITATIONS IN

FOUR URBAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

By

Peter Paul Murk

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Educational Administration and

Higher Education

1973

,/,2
Md" 1
To Martin and Dorothy Panchula, dedicated parents and

friends; to their children and grandchildren

ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It is with deep appreciation that I acknowledge the guidance,
support, and encouragement given to me by my chairman, Dr. Louis Romano.
His good counsel, quick wit, and sensitivity made a very difficult
task.much easier and more meaningful.

I wish to thank Dr. Clyde M. Campbell, whose foresight, ideals,
patience and cooperation have been invaluable to me. Additionally, I
wish to thank Dr. Alexander Kloster for serving on.my committee and for
providing his editorial pen and generous support for my thesis. And
to Dr. Donald Nickerson and Dr. James McKee for also serving on my
committee and for providing encouragement and assistance whenever needed.

Appreciation is extended to the entire Mott Institute staff for
their support and cooperation. In particular, I would like to thank
Dr. Howard Hickey, the director, for permission to complete the study
with the Urban Tutorial Students. To Ms. Elaine Weber for her valuable
assistance and direction given to me in matters of reading and techniques
for instruction of the Parents Teaching;Reading materials which she co-
authored. Thanks also to Dr. John W; Mehl for his support in matters
of research and statistical analysis. John was a fellow Mott Intern
and true friend.

Thanks to my fellow Interns, Pat Giardini, Lou Tasse, Everett
Williams, Willard Roberson, Chuck Ladley, Ray Gatza, Tom Sanglier, Lou
Carenza, and Jack Winters who shared the yearly experiences with me.

A special thank.you is extended to the four elementary principals,

their teachers, students, and parents who really made this study possible.

111

My sincere gratitude is extended to the C.S. Mott Foundation
for providing the Opportunity and financial assistance which were
necessary to complete this program.

To Fran Fowler, my typist and friend, thanks for a job well
done.

To my mother, and the residents of Rock Street, whose zeal for
life and love for education have been a source of inspiration md
dedication throughout my life -- thank you.

The most important acknowledgment is made to my wife, Dorothy,
whose unfailing love, relentless confidence, and unwavering support
have been my source of strength and purpose, and to my three lovely
daughters, Karen, Diane, and Laurie, who are my three greatest joys.

You four have made the greatest sacrifices.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES
Chapter
I O m P ROBLm O O O O O O O O O O O O O I O O O O O 0

Introduction. . . . . . . . .
Purpose of the Study. . . . . .
Need for the Study. . . . . . .
Restatement of the Problem. . .

Theoretical Foundations for he Study

Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . .

Limitations of the Study. . . . . . .

Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hypotheses and Related Research Questions
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

noooo
oooo

oooo

oooo
oooooooo
oooooooo
oooooooooo
oooooooooo
oooooooooo

II. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Studying the disadvantaged child -- A
challenge for teacher education and community
education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Teacher Training Programs . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pre-Service Education For Inner
City Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Examples of Pre—Service Education Programs. . .
Home Contributions to Learning --
Or Partners for Progress. . . . . . . . . . .
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

III. THE DESIGN AND PROCEDURES . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Introduction. . . . . . . . . .
The Setting . . . . . . . . . .
Characteristics of the Samples.
Procedures. . . . . . . . . . . .
Instrumentation . . .
Analysis of the Data. .
Summary . . . . . . . .

IV. ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF THE DATA . . . . . . .

InterCtion O O O O O O O O O O I O O O O O O 0
Research Questions Pertinent to the
Hypotheses and the Study. . . . . . . . . . .

PAGE

vii

C O O O O O C O O O
H
N

. 20
. 22

. 33
. 35

. 41
. S4

57
57
60
62
63
65
67

TABLE OF CONTENTS -- continued

CHAPTER

Student Tutor Questionnaire . . . .
Cell Identification and Frequencies
Cell Means and Dependent Variables.
Null Hypothesis 1 . . . . . . . . .
Research Questions Converted into
Null Sub-Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . .
Analysis of Covariants: Race, Age, Sex
and Tutor's Grade Level Taught. . . . .
Null Hypothesis 2 . . . . . . . . . . . .
Parental Interview Questions Following The
Completion of the Home Visitation Program
Profile of Parental Responses . . . . . .
Administrative and Teacher Comments
Regarding the Efficacy of the Project .
The Urban Tutor's Comments and Reactions
to the Efficacy of Home Visitations and
the Parents Teaching Reading Program. .
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

V. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS . .

Summary . . . . . . . . . .
Purposes of the Study . .
Limitations of the Study.
Review of the Literature.
Design of the Study . . .

Conclusions . . . . . . . .
Questions for Further Study
Reflections . . . . . . . .

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A. The Student-Teacher-Questionnaire . . . . . .
B. The Student-Tutor-Questionnaire . . . . . . .
C. Parental-Interview Questionnaire. . . . . . .

D. Parents Teaching Reading Materials - Unit I .

vi

PAGE

72
73
74
76

. 85

. 87
. 91

103
103
103
104
104
106
108
109
110
112
118
119
126
131

133

TABLE

2.1

4.1

4.2

4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9

4.10

LIST OF TABLES

Parental Involvement Model Used At Flint,
Michigan's Martin Luther King School. . . . .

Cell Indentification, School Code, And
Frequencies of Occurance. . . . . . . . . . .

Cell Mean Scores And Five Dependent
Variables of the Student-Tutor-Questionnaire.

 

Mean Scores of the Experimental And The
Control Groups And The Difference As Recorded
On The Student-Tutor-Questionnaire. . . . . .

Dunnet Post-Hoe Test For Comparison of

 

Intervals For The Dependent Variables. . . . .

Results of a Multivariate Analysis of
variance Between The Attitudes of the

Tutors of the Experimental Group And The
Control Group, on the Student-Tutor-
Questionnaire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Results of a One-Way Analysis of Variance

on the Dependent Variable: TUtor's Rapport
With Students on the Student-Tutor-
Questionnaire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Results of a Oneiway Analysis of Variance
On The Dependent Variable: Tutor's Rapport
With Parents on the Student-Tutor-Questionnaire.

Results of a One-way Analysis of Variance

On The Dependent Variable: Tutor's Understanding
Of The Parents Tgaching Reading Program On

The Studentggutor-Questionnaire. . . . .. . . .

Results of a One-Way Analysis of Variance
On The Dependent Variable: Tutor's Understanding
Of The Community On The Student-Tutor-Questionnairg

Results of a Onedway Analysis of Variance

On The Dependent Variable: Tutor's Rapport
With The Supervising Teacher On The Student-
Tutorfigggstionnaire. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

vii

PAGE

48

73

74

75

77

78

79

80

81

82

82

LIST OF TABLES -- continued

TABLE

4.11

4.12

PAGE
Test of Significance of Cannonocal
Correlations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Step-Wise Regression Table To Analyze
The Contributions of Each Independent
Variable To The Five Dependent Variables . . . 85

viii

Chapter 1

THE PROBLEM

Introduction

Every age brings its own kind of pressures upon the school and
the educational system. The pressure of accountability for teachers to
insure and measure the student's educational growth is prevalent through-
out many school systems. There is the need for better qualified,
trained teachers who should understand the youngsters and community in
which they teach. There is a strong need to look at the present educa-
tional structure of teacher training programs in the light of community
needs, if the educational system is to survive and flourish.

The education of children and adults results from the

composite effects of their experiences within the

family, the general community, and the urban setting

as well as the school. Therefore, schools subscribing

to the practice of community involvement must seek, in

concert with the total community to alter and to shape

all the facets of community life so that they contribute

in a demonstrable way to the educational goals

desired.1

Teachers must become adequately prepared to teach children who
live in an urban school area and who have special educational barriers.

It takes a "good urban teacher" to understand, to empathize, and to

teach the children of an urban heritage who so desperately need . . .

 

1Arnold Birmingham, "Rationale of Oak Community School", Pilot
Study Project, September, 1971, pp. 2-5.

-The teacher /who/ must be able to understand the

student's world. Teachers currently build barriers

between themselves and the students and the communities

in which they 11ve.2

Teachers must be adequately prepared to assist the disadvantaged
children and their parents to deal with and to overcome several common
educational barriers of the urban community. Several of these barriers
are: poor reading habits, poor housing and low expectations for
success.

There are inherent weaknesses in the present teacher education
systems. In an editorial on teacher education, George Denemark cites
ten areas of weakensses the teacher education program that result in
the poor preparation of teachers.

1. Inadequacies and irrelevance of much that presently

constitutes the general studies or liberal education

component.

2. The hostile academic atmosphere in which teacher education
is conducted.

3. Lack of conceptual framework for teacher education.
4. Simplistic view of teaching and teacher education.

5. Inadequate interlacing of theoretical and practical study
of the student and community.

6. Continued acceptance of the single model, omnicapable teacher.
7. Low selection and retention standards for teacher candidates.

8. Schedule regidities and combersome procedures for curriculum
change and community involvement.

9. Absence of student opportunities for exploration and
inquiry.

 

2Teachers For the Real Werld, American Association of Colleges
of Teacher Education, Washington, D.C., 1969, p. 9.

10. Schizophrenic role expectations for teacher education
departments.3

If teachers in their preparation would go beyond the current
procedures utilized by many universities -- that is, classroom observa-
tion, subject area methods, participation in classrooms as aides and
the student teaching experience -- one would discover the climate and
understanding of the educational needs and learning problems of urban
children and their parents by getting invovled with them in a demonstrable
basis.

Some current writers have suggested that one basis for relating
more effectively with youngsters is to understand their surroundings
and home environment onamore interpersonal basis.

The public schools are not implementing programs called for by
recent research findings such as:

l. The interaction between the child and other adults, the
mother in particular, in the first few years of life
crucially affects the language development and cognitive
styles of learning.4

2. Significant gains in cognitive development can be made
by children who are taught in their homes by their
parents, who are guided by educators.5

With this need for updating the teacher preparation programs in
response to the needs of the urban community, universities began to

respond. Among the common elements of all the "new models" found

by Jay Mbnson in his article, "The New Models in Elementary Teacher

 

3George W. Denemark, "Teacher Education: Repair, Reform or
Revolution?" Educational Leadership, 27:539-42, March, 1970.

aBasil Bernstein, "Social Class & Linguistic Development: A
Theory of Social Learning," Education, Economy & Society, New York:
The Free Press, 1961, pp. 423-38.

5David P. weikart (et al.), "Perry Pre-School Progress,"
monograph from the Ypsilanti Public Schools, Ypsilanti, Michigan, 1965,
p. 17.

4

' were, (1) greater stress on individualization and flexibility

Education,‘
in the form of self-pacing, self-evaluation and added self-responsibility,
(2) earlier experience with children and the community -- and often more
and varied experiences than in present programs, and (3) highly selected
laboratory experiences, simulations, micro-teaching and internships.6

Of particular significance to this study is that Michigan State
University was one of those universities that, through its own desire
to improve the quality of teacher education and in response to the
concern of the United States Office of Education, developed and submitted
a new model entitled the Behavioral Science Teacher Education Program
(nsrsr).7

In the overview of the project, it is described as follows:

BESTEP emphasizes developmental experiences which begin

in a prospective teacher's freshman year of college and

extend throughout pre-service education into the initial

years of teaching. The program encompasses content

and modes of inquiry of the behavioral sciences, perfor-

mance criteria, single purgose modular descriptions, and

a full year of internship.

Located at the College of Education at Michigan State University
where the BSTEP model was developed, is the Mott Institute for Community
Improvement (MICI). This institute, established in August, 1965, when
the Mott Foundation of Flint, Michigan awarded a ten year grant of
funds to Michigan State University, has focused its efforts to improve
education by carrying out experimental projects. These projects include

experiments in the teaching of reading (PATTR Program), teaching methods

 

6Jay A. Munson, "The New Models In Elementary Teacher Education,"
Phi Delta Kappan, 51: 101, October, 1969.

7Michigan State University, Behavioral Science Teacher Education
Pro am, (East Lansing: Michigan State University; 1969), p.“5.

8Ibid., p. 6.

5
and materials (Detroit and Pontiac E.I.P. Teacher Centers), differentiated
staffing projects (Lansing, Grand Rapids, Flint) and experimental programs
for the preparation of school personnel.

In 1968, an experimental program was introduced to the teacher
education program at Michigan State University. This course, Education
482, the Urban Tutorial Program, is being administered by the Mott
Institute for Community Improvement, and jointly funded and supported
by the Department of Elementary and Special Education.

This three credit course, open to all class levels of the college
and university, is comprised of two experiences. One, a four-hour-per-
week field experience, is designed to place each enrollee in an urban
elementary or junior high school in a one-to-one tutorial relationship
and engage the participant in the performance of teacher aide tasks. The
second experience, a bi-monthly seminar, is concerned with urban
education problems. A guest speaker who possesses expertise in urban
education conducts each of the seminars.

The objectives of the course are: (1) to create a greater
awareness of urban problems, education and otherwise, through participa—
tion in urban education settings and through participation in urban
related seminars; (2) to provide one-to-one tutorial assistance to
underachieving elementary and junior high school students; and (3) to
provide the Michigan State University student with a comprehensive
view of the teaching role by permitting the teacher to utilize them as

teacher aides in the performance of teacher defined tasks.9

 

9Clarence R. Olsen, Ag:Urban Tutorial Program (East Lansing:
monograph, The Mott Institute For Community Improvement, 1970), p. 3-5.

0f concomitant important to the participants of Education
482 - The Urban Tutorial Program Students - is the early experience
afforded them on which they may later base career decisions and develop
realistic and positive attitudes toward children and the teaching role.
The introduction to the study points out the new dramatic role
which should be adopted by teacher trainees of child orientation, need
for parental involvement in the education process of their children,
and service attitudes by home visitations and community awareness for
the school. The teacher trainees will accept this new role of involve—
ment in the community utilizing the parents to assist in the educational

process of their children.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This study has four main purposes:

1. To describe the attitude of urban tutors of Education
482 as they make home visitations to their student's
homes. ‘

2. To identify and measure the effect of the home visits-
tions on the elementary underachieving students'
achievement in school.

3. To evaluate the effectiveness of the project in the
attitudinal and action domains on the tutors, the
tutees, and their parents.

4. To describe and to measure the effect of the home
visitations on the parents' attitudes toward school.

NEED FOR THE STUDY

The importance of early teaching-related field experiences
in teacher preparation needs to have been clearly defined. Not only

does this experience allow the participant to begin collecting career

choice data, but along with his university program in professional
education, permits him to begin to grow professionally.

John F. Etten in a study of student teacher development at
Northeastern Illinois State College points out the need for utilizing
the Urban Tutorial Program as a Operational experience and discovery
of community problems:

A recent study of a selected sample of student teachers

indicated that student teaching taken by a senior who

has had an educational field experience course and a

course in introduction to education prior to student

teaching, related better in the classroom than student

teachers who lacked these experiences.10

Teacher-related experiences like the urban tutorial program
expose the candidates to the community and the urban setting. James
M. Stephens emphasized the need for teacher-community involvement
when he stated:

The school ought to do whatever needs to be done but

which no other agency is adequately doing. . . The school

(the teacher) begins where the home leaves off.11

The author wondered about home-school communications and the
extent of home-school involvement on the part of teacher trainees. So
he conducted a survey of opinions and understandings of student
teachers stationed at centers in Flint, Detroit, Pontiac, and Lansing,
Michigan. All the student teachers were Michigan State University

students. A total of 100 questionnaires were sent out and a total of

87 were returned. All students were elementary education personnel.

 

10John F. Etten, "Flexible Programming in Student Teacher
Preparation," Peabody Journal of Education, 46:216, January, 1969.

11James M. Stephens, The Process of Schooling, Holt and
Winston, 1967, p. 43.

8

There were three sections to the survey: Section I called for
personal demographic data information; Section II asked for optional
information that the student teachers need not respond; Section III
requested attitudes of home, student, and community understanding and
involvement. The findings of the questionnaire are quite interesting
and indicate a definite need for the study to be undertaken.

A composite profile of Section III follows:

The majority of students taught for ten weeks and their working
relationship with their supervising teachers was extremely good; their
working relationship with children was indicated as being very good;
and they expressed that they related very well to the student needs.
Sixty percent felt the purpose of student teaching was to understand and
to assist their students and twenty percent felt the purpose was to
prepare for teaching. Seventy percent of the teacher trainees worked
in the inner city areas, and they felt the greatest learning difficulties
of children were poor reading habits and the lack of home support for
learning. Most candidates felt the greatest family problem stemmed from
economic difficulties and the absence of a father in the home. Sixty
percent of the teacher trainees understood their students fairly well;
however, fifty percent felt they did not understand the parents at all.
In addition, however, most student teachers expressed that there was
little or no home-school communication on their part. The majority
never had made a home visit; and their supervising teachers did not
make home visits either. Most did not make home visits because they
were not required to make them by their supervising teacher and that

they had no transportation or no time in their schedule. Ninety-four

9
percent wanted to make home visits in the future and sixty percent felt
that home visits should be made part of the student teaching experience
and also part of the College of Education's Teacher Training Program.
For a detailed analysis of the questionnaire, turn to Appendix A.

Therefore, from the indications based on the student teacher
survey and supportive research cited previously; there was an apparent
need for better home-school communications and involvement on the part
of teacher trainees. The task of better home-school communications
and understandings of the home, student, and community on the part of
teachers trainees is the basis for the study. The procedures for the
study were to have teacher trainees make a concentrated six weeks effort
by direct involvement with the parents of the children through home
visitations and communicate the goals of the school and needs of the
children and parents.

In recent years, educators have emphasized the importance of
developing an educational program in terms of the setting of the
community. Even a moment's reflection substantiates the desirability
of this approach.

School is not alone in providing an educational

experience for children; the home, the community

and society also provide inputs of ideas and

learning experiences.12
Boys and girls have many worthwhile experiences and learning opportunities
through the home, neighborhood, and community other than through the

school itself. Teachers and trainees should be informed about the

community and its resources and the learning opportunities it offers.

 

12Robert Strom, Teaching In The Slum School, 1965, pp. 30-47.

10
The educational system has a challenge —- to understand the

workings of community life and to utilize them to better prepare teacher
trainees to teach today's urban children. What is being suggested for
the study is to have teacher trainees go beyond the ordinary method of
urban tutorial programs and have them go out into the homes and
community to work with mothers of deprived and underachieving students.
The tutors by assisting the mothers would enhance the children's
opportunity to unlock the doors of poverty, prejudice, and unemployment
through reading achievement and better understandings of their role of

society.
RESTATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The problem was to conduct an investigation of attitudes of
urban tutors in Education 482 as they helped and assisted students and
their parents from.four elementary school communities using the
Parents Teachinijeadi g Program and home visits.

The major thrust of the study was to have the tutors go one
step further to becoming more effective teachers. They would be helping
their tutees by helping the parents teach their children reading. The
urban tutors visited the homes with the assistance of the principals,
supervising teachers, and the coordinator of urban tutorials for a
period of six weeks during the ten week winter term of classes at
Michigan State University. The children have been diagnosed as under-
achievers by the Stanford Achievement Tests in May, 1972. They will
be identified by their principals and classroom teachers. The tutors

will visit the homes of the parents who wish to take part in the study.

11
The tutors will volunteer for the study and their attitudes and
understandings will be compared to the tutors who did not wish to
make home visitations. The tutors will spend one hour of their four
hours a week at the parent's home. They will spend the other two
hours working with their students. The last hour will be spent in
transportation to and from school, home, and university. The mothers
will work daily with the youngster improving his reading achievement
from the Parents Teaching_Reading Booklet for six weeks.

As teacher preparation programs undergo evaluation and subsequent
change, it becomes necessary to determine their value in the new
teacher preparation scheme.

Education 482, the Urban Tutorial Program, is an experimental
program that has existed as an elective part of the teacher preparation
program at Michigan State University since 1968.

One of the objectives of the study perhaps the most important,
is to provide the prospective teacher with an early association with
the children and parents through planned home visits. The expected
results will be a better understanding and more positive attitudes
toward the home, the child, and the teaching role.

The attitudes of the participants will be measured after the
experiment and contrasted with non—participants after their regular
tutorial program. Home, student, and community attitudes and under-
standings will be measured to determine any changes in attitude,

the nature of any changes and the permanence of any changes.

12
Theoretical Foundations For The Study
l3 14 15
Current writers, including Brookover, Rosenthal, Combs
and others have suggested that a child's mastery of academic ability is
significantly correlated with significant others and school achievement.
When the child's self-concept improves, a significant increase in his
rate of achievement occurs.

Therefore, as proposed for the study, three main objectives
will coincide with self-concept improvement and academic achievement
should be mentioned:

1. Teacher trainees (Urban Tutors) would be acquainted

with the home environment and some of the educational
barriers of the children and their families by
becoming involved with the members of the community
through home visitations.

2. The aspirations of parents will be raised for their
children by becoming involved with tutors, supervising
teachers and school staff.

3. The attitudes of children toward school will be changed
thereby raising the academic achievement of the children
participating in the study.

Other secondary objectives, yet very important ones would be
realized. There would be better home-school communications. The
school staff would be able to convey information to the parents
through the tutors. The parents, after having been exposed to the

tutors and school staff, may volunteer their time and talents as aides

and helpers for the school.

 

13Wilbur Brookover, School And Society, Allyn & Bacon, p. 48.

1“Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, Pygmalion In The
Classroom, (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968).

15Arthur W. Combs, Perceiving, Behaving, Becoming, Washington,
D.C.: A.S.C.D. for National Education Association, 1966, p. 51

 

13

The proposed program of home involvement for the urban tutors
may add a new dimension to the teacher training program at Michigan
State University and other universities who assist in preparing teachers
for urban education programs.

Current writers, such as Webster and Strom, have supported the
concept that community understanding is related to academic achievement
Of children.

Webster summarizes the literature as he states in Educating the
Disadvantaged Learner, Part III:

The most important aspect Of the slum teacher training

program is that the teachers who work in the slum

school must be helped to become home and community

minded. They must know the community's values, interests,

and problems.16

Once a teacher begins tO understand and tO appreciate the
community he is less likely to condemn and to reject the children
because they are not what he thinks they "ought to be" based on his
own values and beliefs. He accepts them for "what they are". Thus
he is in a better position to be able to reach and teach them.

Strom indicates that many Opportunities for teaching and
guidance are forfeited because teachers lack understanding regarding
the customs, mores, and values that govern behaviors, which are the
mechanisms through which children are most influenced.17

SO in the final analysis, teacher trainees can understand the

slum problems. Teachers can be trained to understand the disadvantaged

youngster's home environment. Children can raise their academic

 

16Stalen W. webster, Edugating the Disadvantaged Learner, Part

III, "The Disadvantaged Learner," Chandler Publishing CO., 1966, pp. 256-58.

17Op. Cit., Strom, Teaching In The Slum School, p. 35.

14
achievement if they are helped by the parents and the teachers; and if
they have understanding teachers and parents. Teachers can be equipped
to help the underachieving youngsters if they are prepared beforehand
through home contacts with the parents and they understand the home
situation and environment.

Further basis for the theoretical orientation and supportive

research is established in ChapterIJ of this study.

Definition of Terms

For purposes of clarification, the following terms are
defined:

Attitude: Attitude entails an existing predisposition to
respond to social objects which, in interaction with situational and
other dispositional variables, guides, and directs the overt behavior
of an individual.18

Underachiever: A pupil whom a classroom teacher defines as
achieving below grade level and whose achievement, as measured by a
composite score on the Stanford Achievement Test, is two months below
grade level at the time of administration of the test.

Teacher trainee -- urban tutor: Defined as a non-certified
person who is enrolled in Education 482 for three hours credit; but
who also volunteers his services to work with an assigned underachiever
on a one-to-one basis.

Teacher Trainee's Attitudes: Defined as psychological constructs,

inferred from observable responses to stimuli. They may be inferred

 

18J. A. Cardno, "The Notion of Attitude," Psychological Reports,
I (1955), p- 345.

 

15
from expressive or symbolic behaviors in which overt choices are implied

19 The teacher trainees'

or indirectly expressed by questionnaires.
attitudes will be measured by The Student-Tutor-Questionnaire and by
formal interview questions after the study in regard to the merits

Of home visitations and the special reading project.

Parent's Attitudes: Defined as psychological constructs,
inferred from observable responses to stimuli. These attitudes and
reactions will be measured by in—depth interview questions following
the project.

Community: A concentrated settlement of people in a limited
territorial area, within which they may satisfy many of their daily
needs through a system of interdependent relationships.20

P.T.R. - Parents Teaching;Reading Booklet: Six units developed
and designed by Elaine weber and Betty Jennings. The P.T.R. is a
special reading tutorial program of the MOtt Institute staff. This is
a self-directed program to assist mothers to work with their children
in develOping and improving skills. The length of the program is
six weeks.

Home Visits: The time spent in the home of the parents of the
children who are underachievers and are in need of special one-to-one
reading help. The urban tutors will be assisting the parents in the

methodology of using the P.T.R. materials. There will be a total Of

six home visits of no longer than one hour per visit per week.

 

19L. L. Thurstone and E. J. Chave, The Measurement of Attitude,

Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1929, p. 6.

20Chester W. Harris, (edit.) Encyglopedia of Educational
Research, New York: MacMillan Company, 1960, p. 103.

16
Limitations Of the Study

It is not the purpose of this study to recommend any scheme for
restructuring the entire teacher training program at any university.
This study delimits its scope to include only one aspect of the teacher
education program in the College of Education at Michigan State
University: Education 482 - The Urban Tutorial Program.

This study will concern itself only with changes of attitude of
volunteer tutors participating in the Urban Tutorial Program for the
winter term, 1972-73, as they make home visitations and participate
in the P.T.R. Program as a new dimension for teacher training.

This study is limited to describing the attitudinal relation-
ships incurred as a result of the tutors working with the parents and
children in four urban elementary schools in Lansing, Michigan.

Attitudes and understandings of persons can be modified.
Therefore, this study should be applicable only to the setting in
which the measures were administered.

The findings of the study will be correlational and not viewed
as cause and effect and therefore correlational relationships will be
drawn.

However, generalizations and predications based on gathered
data and the analysis of it may be applicable to other teacher
training programs at other universities and institutions of teacher

education.

Assumptions
In this study it is assumed:
l. Underachieving behavior is amenable to change.

2. Home-school communications can improve with involvement
through home visitations with the parents.

l7
3. Attitudes of teacher trainees are amenable to change.

4. Home and community understanding is an important aspect
of teacher training.

5. At the time the two instruments were administered, and the
interviews are given; the attitudes are accurately
measured.

The Hypotheses and Related Research Questions

HO1 There will be no difference in attitudes for tutors between
the experimental group and the control group as a result
of the project of home visitations and parental involvement,
as measured by the Student-Tutor-Questionnaire.

R.Q.1 How do the urban tutors' understandings of the
school, of the students, of the home, and of the
community and rapport with the supervising teachers
compare with the urban tutors not participating
in the home visitations and the Parents Teachigg
ReadingiPrgggam?

R.Q. Will responses from the Student-Tutorjguestionnaire

 

2 and evaluations who significant attitudinal
differences between tutors in the experimental group
and those in the control group?

R.Q.3 Will there be any significant relationship between

the covariates of sex, age, race, and grade level
tutored between the experimental group and the
control group of tutors?

HO There will be a negative reaction in parental attitudes
toward the school, the staff, and the tutors as a result
of the home visitations and involvement with the P.T.R.
Program.

R.Q.1 Will there be an improved home-school communication
as a result of the project and treatment?

R.Q. Will there be a greater home-school involvement

as a result of the treatment as manifest in the

parents working as aides, volunteers, and the like?

2

OVERVIEW

It has been the intent of Chapter I to introduce the proposed

study; to state the purposes; to carefully establish a rationale and

18
need for the study. Concepts and objectives vital to the understanding
of the study have been explained and defneded on the basis of writings
of several authors and a preliminary questionnaire.

A description of the pilot project and the change in attitudes
it will produce in teacher trainees (Urban Tutors), parents participating
in the project, and underachieving students will be the thrusts for the
study. The limitations of the study were mentioned, terms defined, and
supportive research to the Hypotheses posed.

Chapter II, the literature related to the study will be explored
for its pertinence to the study. A study of current teacher training
programs will be studied along with the effects of home visitations.
Chapter III will discuss the sample, the setting, instrumentation, type
of research and techniques of analysis will be reviewed. Chapter IV
will describe the examination of the results of the data collected and
relate them to the hypotheses and research questions. Chapter V will
summarize the conclusions of the study and the implications for further

studies will be discussed.

Chapter II

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

 

A review of the literature for the study necessitates an inves-
tigation Of the previous research done in the area of teacher education,
teacher training, home contributions to learning; all related to working
with the disadvantaged youth living in the urban, inner city area.

Section I established the foundation of community education
as the basis for the new education that must be adopted to be relevant
for the disadvantaged youth living in inner-city areas.

Section II reviews the present teacher training programs
existing; especially as they relate to disadvantaged youth.

Section III deals with pre-service and in-service training
programs as they relate to better preparation of teachers to serve
disadvantaged youth. Also several innovations are reviewed regarding
the role of student teaching programs.

Section IV reviews the literature regarding three models of
parental involvement in the school's function to become "Partners For
Progress." The three models include Florida's Parent-Educations'
Program; Hazel Park, Michigan's Home Visitations and Volunteer Program;
and Flint, Michigan's Home Visitations, Accountability MOdel and

Parental Involvement.

19

20
A review of the literature presents a conceptual framework
whereby the subsequent examination of data pertaining to the role of
student teachers in schools, parent involvement and changes of attitude
and reading achievement can be viewed with greater clarity. Human
relations in the schools can be achieved if teachers, administrative
staff, student reachers and parents can work together as partners to
assist in the educational process of educating children to the best of
their ability no matter where they live. Furthermore, the review of
the literature is intended to serve as a basis for looking at the
importance of human relations pertaining to the effectiveness of analyzing
the results of a program with the component parts of parents, teachers,
and student teachers working together on the common goal -- the
successful education of the disadvantaged child.
Studying the disadvantaggd child -- A challengg
for teacher education and community education
In order for our educational system to adequately deal with the
disadvantaged child and for parents and school Officials to work together
in the community on this task, one should have a profile of the disadvan-
taged child. ,Kerber and Smith define the disadvantaged child as those
handicapped in their social competency and cultural functioning in our
modern complex society.

In general, these children do not know enough Of our
cultural heritage, do not have possessions, rewards, compe-
tencies of knowledge which are too much taken for granted
by everybody in the American Society. He comes from a
blighted, segregated or socially disorganized area. His
family has little education and are often hostile and

abusive. The social-economic status of the home is low.
Employment and mOney to pay bills are constant insecurities.

21

The cultural traits of home and neighborhoods...the arts,

additional resources, social organizations and recreational

outlets and esthetic surroundings are squalid and inadequate.

The cultural environment conditions him to violence and

degradation. He has few opportunities to experience the

meanings of the spoken American Ideals.

The encounter with the disadvantaged is calling into question
the whole structure and functioning of teacher education and community
education. Nowhere can one see the centrality of the role of the teacher
as when one Observes teachers at work with inner city children. It
becomes obvious that the primary factor in the success of the teacher
are personality, attitude, respect for the child, faith in the child
and affection for him. Present teacher education has very little
provision for growth of our prospective teachers in these qualities.

The concentration of teacher education is on what the teacher should
know rather than on what he should do or even more importantly, what
he should be!2

Finally, one cannot study the inner city schools closely without
reaching the conclusion that no matter how we improve the school from
8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., we cannot meet the challenges of the disadvantaged.
The disadvantaged home has already limited the child. He is already
damaged. The damage is cumulative, the damage at home and in the
community exaggerates the damage done by the negative influences of
the school itself. If we are to stand any change of helping inner
city children to grow, we must help the parents to improve the home

and the community.3

 

1August Kerber and Wilfred R. Smith, Educational Issues in a
Changing Society, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1964, p. 155.

2V. M. Kerensky and Ernest 0. Melby, Education II - The Social
Imperative, Midland, Michigan: Pendall Publishing CO., 1971, p. 39.

3Ibid., p. 40.

22

Secondly, we must change the attitudes of the teachers who
teach in culturally disadvantaged schools. Teachers in many of our
publis schools do not appear to have accepted the premise that an
individual's self emerges from interaction with his society and that
all he is or ever will be, depends upon this interaction.4

Thirdly, teachers must work with community resources to assist
children in inner city schools so that the students will have a better
change for success if they are motivated; they are challenged; if their

thirst for knowledge is quenched and reinforced by the home.5
TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMS

Most Observers of the urban school scene seem to be convinced
that the teacher is the crucial variable in reversing the retardation
of the slum school pupil, and in the face of manifest complexity of
the training task involved in providing first-rate, quality teachers.

Ira J. Gordon and Leonard Kaplan from the University of Florida,
Gainsville, summarize their findings on the inadequacies of properly
trained inner-city teachers as they cite five measures for improvement:

1. Teachers of inner city children are inadequately prepared.

The assumption that education for teaching the city child
is the same for any other child is, in today's world
unsound.

2. Teachers have historically been prepared to look at the

method rather than the conceptual development of content.
This has led them to be victims of bandwagon pressures

instead of providing them with the intellectual tools
for decision making.

 

4V. M. Kerensky and Ernest O. Melby, Op. Cit., p. 40.

5C. M. Campbell, Community School and Its Administration,

" Vol. 10, No. 8, April, 1972.

A‘-
--

 

 

 

23
3. Teachers are poorly prepared to understand and use the
environmental forces which affect children. For years,
education has talked of a closer home-school relationship,
and yet school people know little about the educational
and social values of the home, and ways to work effectively
with parents.
4. Teachers are unprepared to work with paraprofessionals.
The use of non-certified personnel in the classroom must
know how to make effective use of other classroom personnel.
5. Teachers are unprepared to work with parents in a joint
effort at modification of the school as an institution
in constructive ways.6
Campbell writing in the Community School and Its Administration
clarifies the problem which should be examined in this paper as:

Education at its highest and best should serve everyone,
not just certain sections of society alone.

Truly, it seems the part of wisdom for school patrons,

school administrators, and school teachers to seek new

ways and means to help those from the lower echelons of
society.7

Campbell also mentions that just a few generations ago pupils
who were inept at learning were pressured to drop out of school and a
large number came from the poor and black families.

Today the attitudes of educators have changed so that even
destitute fathers and mothers are being encouraged to believe that their
children can become good learners if they can receive proper nurute in
their homes and good teaching in their schools. A large number of scholars

such as James Coleman, Thomas Pettigrew, and Wilbur Brookover believe that

so called disadvantaged homes can reach almost very substantial and positive

 

6Leonard Kaplan, "Impact of the Florida Model Follothhrough
Program on a Sponsoring Institution," a paper presented at the American
Psychological Association Meeting, Miami Beach, Florida, September 3, 1970.

7C. M, Campbell, The Community School and Its Administration,
Vol. X, No. 10, June, 1972.

24
heights if such children receive good family care and then later put
forth a sustaining and compelling drive to master that which is taught
them.8

This study of the literature reveals that if teachers and
parents can work together as partners for progress for the youngsters
to achieve academically, they will. Human relations in the school can
be achieved if teachers, administrative staff, student teachers and
parents can work together as partners to assist in the educational
process of educating children to the best of their ability no matter
where they live. I

The perspective of teacher education should broaden its
objectives to include work within the home. Teachers should go beyond
the ordinary classroom experiences. They should study the home
environment, relate school experiences to community and home experiences,
and change their attitudes to positive reinforcements of learning
experiences. Lastly, the major thrust Of education today should be to
encompass the community within the school's experiences and curriculum.9

Many psycholgists and sociologists, including Brookover, Erickson,
and others believe and continue to believe, that as a child develops
he models himself after significant adults in his environment. Many
have assumed that the significant adult being model is the parents and

classroom teachers. Since the teacher is in direct contact with the

child eight hours of the day, it is safe to assume that the attitudes

 

8Campbell, The Community School and Its Administration, Vol. X,
NO. 10, June, 1972.

9Haskew and Hamma, The Community School, 1963, pp. 134-139.

25

and concerns of the teacher will directly influence the child. However
one knows that the first five years of a child's development is crucial
in his personality development. One also knows that within the first
five years, much of what the child will accomplish has already been
determined. It therefore follows that the child will be modeling a
vareity of adults, but in large measure he will be modeling the adults
of the home. The school and the home have joint responsibilities for
the education of the child. Unless this joint responsibility is assumed
one will fall short in educating today's young people. The responsibility
of working with the home and preparing the home wo work cognitively with
children is in the school. Most of the expertise is there at the school.
This expertise is in the form of knowledge of human growth and develop—
ment, methodology and the development of curriculum. The challenge,
therefore, that controls the school is not whether one should involve
the parents, but how the parents should be involved in the education of
their children.10

The school and the home have a joint responsibility to help
educate the child and it is imperative that efforts be developed to
clarify this home-school objective.

Ira J. Gordon at the University of Florida, Gainsville, Florida,
through the Infant Stimulation Project and the Florida Parent Education
Project, proposes a Teacher Corps — Follow Through Program. The basic

objectives of the program are fivefold:

 

10Leonard Kaplan, Associate Professor, University of Florida,
Gainsville, Florida, "Effective Use of the Paraprofessional in the
Classroom," a paper delivered in 1970, pp. 17.

26
1. To prepare teachers to teach children effectively.

2. To prepare teachers to think for themselves in
curriculum and instructional development.

3. To prepare teachers to work with parents and other
community agencies to strengthen the learning environment
of the child.

4. To prepare teachers to work with paraprofessionals.

5. To prepare teachers to cooperate competently with parents
and Others in institutional change.1

Gordon further elaborates the major elements of the program
as:

1. The training of mothers (two to each classroom) in the
role of combined parent educator and teacher auxiliary.

2. The training of teachers in the use of paraprofessional
personnel.

3. The development Of materials for family use which takes
into account not only the school's goal for the child,
but also and equally, the family's expectations, goals,
life style and value system.

4. The involvement of the Policy Advisory Committee in all
phases of the program.

In recent years a considerable amount of research information
has suggested that a child's achievement in school can be directly
related to how the home perceives learning. This suggests that the
attitude of the parent toward school will, in a large way, determine

the entering behavior of the child. It has been suggested that

 

11Leonard Kaplan and Ira J. Gordon, University of Flordia,
Gainsville, Florida, "Parents' Involvement in early Childhood Education,"
1971 paper, pp. 3-20.

lzlbid , pp. 7-90

27
children's successes in school are usually the successes of a devoted
teacher, while the failures can be traced to a poor home environment or
a lack of father image at home.13

It seems that everyone wants to capitalize on the successes of
a child in school, however no one wants to take the blame for a failure
of a child. It is important to note that the parents have a significant
role in the education of their child. It is important to realize that
parents to play an important role in the early education - home training
and in the development of the most opportunistic climate for the child's
learning.

Whatever peripheral aid may be supplied by classroom auxilaries
and aides, the more fundamental problem persists of an adequate supply
of relevantly trained professionals.

One excellent idea that has been successful is that of the
Teacher Corps Program. It was inspired by the success of the Peace
Corps. The proposal was to recruit the same type of dedicated youth
to serve in a national corps of teachers. Most of them would be assigned
to urban ghetto schools.

The clearest emphasis is to provide actual experience with
disadvantaged children in slum school settings. There is a conviction
among teacher trainees, supported by numerous reports from beginning
teachers, that it is necessary to prepare classroom neOphytes for the

"culture shock" of the lower class schoolrooms.14

 

13Leonard Kaplan, "Parents Involved in Early Childhood Experiences,"
8 paper given in 1971, p. 10.

14Harry Miller and Roger WOOk, Social Foundations of Urban Education,

1970, p. 293.

28

Participants in four regional conferences directed by Kenny,

Bartholomew, and Kvaraceus, for student teachers and beginning teachers

of the disadvantaged recently produced suggestions for teacher-training

programs at the college level: the key factor was experiences in urban

settings and the results are embodied in the following proposals:

1.

Beginning in the freshman or sophomore year, students
interested in becoming teachers should work with children
as aides, teacher assistants, tutors, or recreation aides
through school and community based programs. A case
study of one child involving discussions with the child's
teacher, as well as home visits to the parent's homes
should be an easily planned introduction into the
practical realities of teaching.

Early experience should be more than simply learning about,
it should involve the student in serious effort to provide
genuine success.

A community "live-in" experience should be made available
for all students in those communities which present a
social context different from the student's social back-
ground and own experiences.

Experience should be planned for all grade levels, to allow
the students to get a first-hand view of the general
development of the child.

Observations of, if not direct contact with, children with
special problems -- the mentally retarded, the physically
handicapped, the emotionally disturbed should be provided.

The experience Of student teaching should be subjected to
immediate analysis and evaluation for the student's own
use in learning about himself as a teacher. Videotaping,
role playing, student observations of other students are
some ways in which a dynamic evaluation program could be
developed to effect a continuous interaction between the
student teacher and his teaching coach.

The bulk of the teacher training time should be spent on
the actual scene of the future teaching experience. The
schools themselves should become the college laboratories
and it there that the teachers of teachers should be
located.

Student teaching assignments should be the result of a joint
decision of the individuals concerned -- the student teacher,
the college coordinator, the school administrator and the
supervising teacher .

29
9. The student teacher should be treated as a full member of
the professional team, contributing as much as possible
within the limits of his professional skill and abilities.
10. The student teaching experience should be as long as
possible -- a year, ideally and remunerated, particularly
if it is set up as fifth year or internship program.15
Some of the most effective experimental programs in this area
have involved an enrichment of the student teaching sigment of the college
program. The "120 Project" at Hunter College was one of the earliest of
these, and it was based on a close and continuing relationship between
Junior High 120 and the college student. Students beginning their
student teaching semester were permitted to volunteer to have their
practicum experience at that school, with the understanding that when
they graduated they would accept a teaching assignment there. In
addition to the normal supervision provided by the school, a college
faculty member spent much time at the school meeting with students at
lunch and for more formal conferences taking them on field trips to
meet knowledgeable members of the community and to become acquainted
with its resources, giving support, guidance and giving counsel. Over
a period of years, a large portion of the school's faculty came to be
made up of Hunter students who had been a part of the 120 Project, and
the turnover problem of students was much improved.16

Aside from student teaching, the trend in preservice training in

the colleges has been to increase field work experience in the slum

 

15Helen J. Kenney, Polly Bartholomew, and William C. Kvaraceus,

Teacher Education: The Young_Teacher's View, (Project Report NO. 2
NDEA National Institute For Advanced Study in Teaching Disadvantaged
Youth, July 1968), pp. 9-11.

16Miller and Woock, Social Foundations of Urban Education,
pp. 296-297.

30

schools (tutoring, classroom observation, community home-visits, etc.)
and to shift the emphasis in some of the academic work to a consideration
of the many and varied problems of the lower class child and the community
in which he lives. Many courses in both the social and psychological
foundations of education now focus on applicable generalizations from
the behavioral science, and few colleges offer sensitivity-training
experiences. Some current planning is in the direction on constructing
special tracks within the general teacher training curriculum which Offer
students intending to teach in the urban slum schools a sequence of
academic work and field experiences tailored for them alone.17

At Michigan State University, attempts are being made through
Norman Kagan's course to have videotape vignettes of simulation experiences
of working in an inner city environment and linked up with the College
of Education's course Education 200, "Individual and School." The
results from this pilot project involving undergraduate students have
been successful. However, this is only a start in a renovation of
experiences that would involve Inner City teachers and students of the
Inner City classrooms.

Robert Strom suggested that the summer after graduation and just
preceeding the teacher's first classroom experience is a crucial period
of time for specific preparation for the slum.school assignment. During
the summer of 1966, Strom conducted a pilot program to test the idea
in Columbus, Ohio. The major portion of the program consisted of a
six-week summer session that included a variety of lectures on poverty,

the lower-class family, self concept and motivation. A two-week team

 

17Miller and WOock, Social Foundations of Urban Education, pp. 297-8.

31
teaching experience with eighteen children from a disadvantaged area;
visits with a welfare worker; and a visit to a juvenile court. The
project did accomplish a shift in attitudes toward the assignment itself
and attitudes were positive toward an inner-city school situation.18

The number one problem in American education today is the
effective teaching of the "disadvantaged", the culturally different
youngsters who attend our inner-city urban schools. At first glance,
urban education seems to consist of specialized subject matter concerning
various aspects of non-middle class culture taught to teachers. However,
the teacher does not learn it to teach it, but to use it as a sort of
sensitizing catalyst in education.

While efforts continue along these traditional lines, one should
attempt to change teachers' attitudes by changing the teachers them-

19
selves -- gradually.
The necessity to improve the education of children

of the poor seems to have been accepted. However, selection

and training programs for teachers of poor children have

not yet been satisfactorily developed. The idea is to equip

prospective inner-city faculty with the confidence, attitudes,

and understanding; to provide teachers a chance for a

rewarding classroom situation, and therefore their students

with opportunities for a better education.20

Strom and Larimore indicate that teachers should be ready for

the inner city school, embracing appropriate goals, persisting rather

than dropping out, and achieving some degree of success is the imperative

 

18Robert D. Strom, The Preface Plan, Journal of Experimental
Education, Vol. 38, NO. 4, Summer, 1970, pp. 70-76 (H.E.W. Project 6-1365).

19Eugene Krusznski, "Inner City Teachers for Urban Youth,"
School and Society, Vol. 99, pp. 511 and 513.

20Robert D. Strom and David Larimore, "Predicting Teacher
Success: The Inner City," The Journal of Experimental Education,
Vol. 38, NO. 4, Summer, 1970, p. 72.

32
for teachers as well as students. The necessity of success in working
in the inner city schools is the change of attitudes of the student
teachers and teachers that will be working in the school themselves.21

James A. Johnson from Northern Illinois University, surveyed the
teacher training institutions to discover innovations in working with
inner-city youngsters and how relevant methods and techniques could be
developed to assist in the better preparation for teachers to work with
inner-city schools. Following is a list of some innovations that were
developed from a variety of colleges and universities -- concerned with

better preparation of inner city teachers:22

1. Central Missouri State College Inner-city program, pre-
Warrensburg, Missouri student teaching experience
followed by special student
experiences in the schools.
Video tape recorders used.

2. Colorado State College Internship Program for the
Greeley, Colorado Senior Year.

3. Glassboro State College Inner City semester with the
Glassboro, New Jersey disadvantaged youth.

4. Michigan State University Elementary Intern Program for
East Lansing, Michigan Junior and Senior Years.

Cluster student teaching
approach for more individualized

instruction.
5. Mt. Angel College Sequential laboratory exper-
Mt. Angel, Oregon ience leading up to student
teaching experience.
6. North Carolina University Study of the community in
Raleigh, North Carolina which a student teacher is

assigned to help plan the
instructional program in terms
Of local situation and
community needs.

 

lebid, p. 73.

22
Student teacher training innovations were taken from James

Johnson, Northern Illinois University, Research Project, O.E.0. & H.E.W.
6-8182, October, 1968.

33

7. Wayne State University Elementary student teaching
Detroit, Michigan centers. Special center for
inner city teacher
preparation.
8. University of Oklahoma Human relations workshop
Norman, Oklahoma concerning on disadvantaged
youngsters and University
children.
9. Other Colleges Observations, video taping,

some laboratory training,

team-teaching, teacher aides,

micro-teaching experiences.
Pre—Service Education For Inner City Teachers

The one continuous theme that prevades programs designed to
improve the education of inner city children is the importance of the
teacher. Along with the recognition of the great need for teachers with
the knowledge, experience and attitudes required for working with inner
city children is an increasing awareness that such teachers are not
available, in any great numbers and that very little is being done to
help prospective teachers acquire the needed competencies. Most pre-
service programs for inner city teachers are still largely piece-meal
attempts to provide some information concerning the life styles and
growth patterns of inner city children.

The American Association of Colleges For Teacher Education
conducted a survey of the ten major producers of certified public school
teachers in the United States.23 This survey revealed that less than
three percent of the 15,000 teachers produced by these colleges and

universities had been enrolled in or exposed to programs designed to

 

23American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Teacher
Productivity, 1966, Washington, D.C., AACTE, 1967.

34
provide well-trained competent teachers for students in inner city
communities. Robert Green points out that when this situatios in con-
trasted with burdening urban population it appears that inner city
schools will continue to be staffed with teachers untrained and Often
uncommited to educate poor students.24

A recent survey by Grade Teachers Magpgine found that only
twenty-three percent of graduates entering teaching considered professional
challenge as the most important factor in accepting an assignment. These
graduates were found to be more concerned with salary than academic
challenge. Only thirteen percent indicated that they planned to teach
in the inner-city schools.25

The conspicuous absence of the life style and cultural patterns
of inner-city children from the curriculum of most teacher training
institutions provide the strongest evidence for program revision. This
revision is necessary if teacher training institutions are to realistically
face the problem of providing quality teachers for inner-city youth. The
Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development reports that
modification of existing teacher training programs to incorporate
experiences relevant to inner-city children has generally taken a form

of changes in course offerings, direct experiences and in organization

and structure.26

 

24Robert L. Green, "Crisis In American Education: A Racial Dilemma,"
National Conference on Equal Education Opportunity In America's Cities,
1967, p. 13.

25PeterJanssen, "The School Crisis," Newsweek, September, 1967.
26Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Educating

the Children of the Poor, Washington, D.C.: National Education Associa-
tion, 1968.

35

Kloph and Bowman conducted Project Aware, a nation-wide research
project designed to assess the preparation of school personnel for
working with urban children. They found that sixty percent Of the 122
colleges and universities had incorporated inner-city education courses
into their curriculum.27

In some cases courses such as Urban Sociology, Educational
Sociology, Anthropology, and Community Psychology were added to the
curriculum. The intent of these courses were to give the student some
background information. Some schools rather than add new courses modify
existing courses which resulted in course titles such as -- Methods of
Teaching in Urban Schools, Teaching Reading to the Disadvantaged, and
Curriculum and Organization in Poor Areas.

Other colleges placed their emphasis on diagnostic and remedial
procedures, methods and materials for individualizing instruction,
strategies of classroom control, and personal and material resources.
Kloph and Bowman found that the specialized method courses were almost
exclusively taught by former elementary school teachers or supervisors
from the local school and, as a result, were oriented to a series of
prescriptive admonitions concerning how to survive and conform to

regulations in a particular school system.28

Examples of Pre—Service Education Proggams
Milner stated that the Urban Education Program at Syracuse

University makes extensive use of direct experiences intended to provide

 

27Gordon J. Kloph and Cards W. Bowman, Teacher Education In A»
Social Context, New York: Mental Health Material Center, 1966.

281bid., pp. 284-49.

36
first hand contact for prospective inner city teachers.29 These
experiences are expected to develop skill in performing the tasks involved
and to develop a positive attitude. This program is a fifty-year
program supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation. Students are
placed into the classroom situation during an orientation summer session.
The demonstration school which is organized and operated by the program
is housed in Croton Elementary School, a neighborhood school that is
located primarily in a predominantly poor black area. The students spend
each morning during the summer orientation session in their assigned
classrooms under the guidance of selected, experiences teachers who
compose the demonstration school faculty. This provides the students
with the opportunity to observe and experience directly the kinds of
pupils and instructional problems they will encounter as interns in their
classrooms during the regular school year that follows.

Project True, developed at Hunter College, combines theory,
observation, laboratory experience, and practice teaching; followed by

two years of full-time teaching in New York City schools.30

The developers
of this program operated on the assumption that prospective teachers
receive instruction on the income level, education background and the
cultural-language differences of the children.

Rivlin instituted a program at Fordham University that relied

primarily on direct student experience.31 The students work one semester

 

29Ernest J. Milner, "Preparing Teachers For Urban Schools: The
Syracuse Program," Clearing House on Urban Teacher Education Report II,
No. 1, (Spring, 1966) pp. 24-26.

30Milton J. Gold, "Programs for the Disadvantaged at Hunter College,"

Phi Delta Kappan, March, 1967.
31Harry N. Rivlin, Teachers For Our BigyCity Schools, New York:
T

Anti—Defamation League of B'nai B rith, 1964-65.

37
as a volunteer community service side and one semester as a paid school
aide during their junior year. In the senior year, the students are
assigned to a specially selected classroom teacher as an assistant
teacher for three hours a day for a full year. The responsibilities of
the student include clerical tasks, teaching individual pupils, small
groups and the whole class. Students receive twenty-five percent of the
annual salary of a beginning teacher for their services. During the
fifth year, the teacher education student is appointed to an internship
and is assigned full-time to a particular school. The prospective teacher
is responsible for only hald the work load of a regular teacher and for
this service receives fifty percent of the regular teacher's salary.
Programs of this type make an attempt to being preparation nearer to
reality, while providing the beginning teacher the opportunity to achieve
professional stature.

Project Y—003 conducted at Coppin State College in Baltimore,
Maryland, was developed to determine if cultural misunderstandings in
inner-city schools could be eliminated by seeking out prospective
functions from among the ethnic and cultural groups served.32 The
students selected for this one year experimental program were those
perceived to have the academic and personal characteristics necessary
for quality teachers. These students were given courses in Sociology
of the City, Minority Peoples, The History of the Negro in America,

Education of the Culturally Different, and other courses relating to

the disadvantaged people. Field experiences and experiments were also

 

32L. D. Reddick, Better Teachers For Inner-City Schools,_Y-003

Final Report, Baltimore, Maryland; Coppin State College Press, 1967,
Pp 0 38-42 a

38
provided as part of the curriculum. The program featured a curriculum
designed to increase understanding of the values of American subcultures.
Lectures by members of minority groups were given at the seminars held
for the prospective teachers. Inner-city parents and leaders of the
communities were invited to the lectures. The supervising teachers who
participated in the program were enrolled in a summer institute which
addressed itself to their attitudes and behavior toward inner-city
youth. Students who completed their training during the academic year
were assigned to inner-city schools and appeared to be working successfully.

Programs both at the graduate and undergraduate levels designed
to prepare teachers for inner-city teaching positions have been developed
at Western Michigan University, the nation's fourth and foremost largest
producer of initially certified teachers. Both programs provide course
work and field experiences that bridge the gap between theory and
practice. The undergraduate program places students in urban schools on
a half-time basis. This program also prepares students to work with
migrant children in addition to focusing on the learning problems of
inner-city youth.33

Michigan State University, East Lansing, has initially started
some innovative inner-city student teaching programs. The College of
Education in cooperation with the Matt Institute for Community Improvement
structured a program for elementary education majors with an emphasis on
teaching in inner-city schools. For two terms the prospective teachers

worked in inner-city schools located in Detroit, Flint, and Pontiac, Michigan.

 

33Robert L. Green, loc. cit., p. 13.

39
The first term methods instruction is provided by university personnel
and inner-city master teachers. The schools served as laboratories
allowing the students to observe and to assist in the classrooms where
they will do their student teaching and later experiences. Students
teach full-time the second term under the watchful eye of the master
teacher.34

Ursuline College offers a pre-service education program

developed cooperatively by the Education and Sociology Departments of
the College.35 The inter-disciplinary approach was chosen because
Sociology can enhance the student's understanding of the educational
and cultural deficiencies that are a function of both the home and school
setting. In addition to course work, students also participate in the

following field experiences:

1. Supervised informal contacts with inner-city children
for one semester.

2. Observation of classes in inner-city schools.

3. Guest lectures by teachers and administrators from
inner-city schools.

4. An internship for juniors, which requires them to spend
one morning a week for ten weeks in an inner-city school
prior to doing their student teaching.

5. Follow-up workshops that focus onthe problem of
graduates who are teaching.

During the past few years there have been several additional

program innovations which have particular relevance for the preparation

 

34Mott Institute for Community Improvement, Annual Report,

1971, p. 37.

35Ursuline College for WOmen, NDEA Summer. Institute for Teachers
and Supervisors of Programs for Disadvantaged Youth in Cleveland's Inner-
City Junior High Schools, Cleveland, Ohio: Ursuline College, 1967.

40

of inner-city teachers. Seminars are being used to bring together the
practical and theoretical components of teacher education programs, to
promote analysis of teaching, to plan programs and to develop a rationale
for teaching procedures.36

NDEA Institutes are serving an important function by providing
in-service education for inner-city teachers. Kloph and Bowman reported
that understanding of the life conditions of urban children and the
development of instructional skills, techniques and materials were
considered the key objectives of NDEA Institutes by the directors of
the sixty-one institutes evaluated by Project Aware.37

Perhaps the newest development in teacher education is training
programs for auxiliary personnel (Para-professional or teacher-aides).
Kloph and Bowman further state that during the summer of 1966, eleven
demonstration training programs were in operation.38 These programs
provided opportunities for professionals and non-professionals to study
and to work together to increase the effectiveness of auxiliary personnel
in various school situations. The importance of the para-professional
in inner-city schools cannot be overestimated. A tremendous potential
exists for improving instruction and other services particularly when

the para-professionals are selected from their own community.39

 

36American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, Teacher

Productivityél966, Washington, D.C.: AACTE, 1967.
37Gordon J. Klopf and Cards W. Bowman, Teacher Education In a
Social Context, (New York: Mental Health Materials Center, 1966) pp. 38-43

38Ibid. pp. 43.

391bid. p. 44.

41

Home Contributions to Learning - Or Partners for Prpggessz’

 

Research has suggested_that a child's achievement in school can
be directly related to how the home perceives learning. This suggests
that the attitude of the parent toward school will in a large way deter-
mine the entering behavior of the child. It has been suggested that
successes which have occured to children are usually the successes of
the devoted teacher while failures can be traced to a poor home environment.

James Coleman's Equality of Educational Opportunity, largely
ignored by schoolmen has been reexamined and the new analysis supports
his major findings

". . . inequalities imposed on children by their
home, neighborhood and peer environment are carried
along to become the inequalities with which they
confront life at the end of school."40

Ira J. Gordon, of the University of Florida, Gainsville, Florida,
suggests in the Florida Parent Education Prpgram that a major source of
a student's pattern of achievement and motives for achievement as well
as his personality structure is the home in which he grows up. The
behavior and attitudes of his parents, as well as the nature of the
physical setting and the materials provided, have a direct impact on his
behavior.41

Ira J. Gordon synthesizes three elements of the home which

contributes to the educational environment of a child. The three elements

are:

 

40
"New Study Supports Coleman Findings," Education U.S.A.,
National School Public Relations Association, Washington, D.C., March
20, 1972’ pp. 156-570

41
Ira J. Gordon, Florida Parent Education Pro ram a paper

presented on August 27, 1970, Follow Through_Program, pp. 3-5.

42

1. Demographic factors (housing, income and ethnic membership)

2. Cognitive factors

3. Emotional factors

The cognitive variables are the amount of academic guidance
provided; that is, the cognitive operational level and style of the
parents, the cultural activities they provide, the amount of direct
instruction they engage in, their educational aspirations, their
language structure, and the frequency of language interaction and the
intellectuality they provide such as books, magazines, and the like.42

The emotional factors may be conceived as the consistency of
management and disciplinary patterns, the parents' own emotional security
and self-esteem, their willingness to devote time to their children.

The Florida Parent Education Followahrough Proggam.was designed
to work directly in the home, so that the home situation might lead to
a better school and life performance. Must parents are good parents,
and are therefore concerned about the educational achievement of their
children. It remains that the learning potential Of a child can indeed
be stretched if there is a positive relationship between home and
school."3

The school itself plays an integral role in the intellectual and
personality development of the child. The nature of the curriculum, the

mode of teacher behavior, the classroom ecology, all influence the

behaviors of the learning child.

 

42Ira J. Gordon, Florida Parent Education.Pppgram, a paper
presented on August 27, 1970 from the Florida Followahrough Proggam,
pp. 3-5.

43Ibid., p. 5.

43

Ira J. Gordon's Florida Followahrough Program.was designed to

work.directly in the home and has emphasis on three fronts:

1. The development of non-professionals as parent educators
and as effective participants in the actual classroom
teaching process. There are two mothers assigned to
assist the teacher in one classroom.

2. The development of appropriate instructional rasks which
can be carried from the school into the home to establish

a more effective home learning environment.

3. The development of parents as partners in the educational
program of their children.44

The mothers in the Florida Followahrough Program are trained
in the role of parent educator and teacher auxiliary helper. The
teachers are taught to effectively use these mothers as paraprofessionals.
The parent educator's activity consists of periodic (once a week) home
visitations in which the major activity is the demonstration and teaching
of other mothers learning tasks which have been devised in the school
to increase the child's intellectual competence, personal, and social
development. These learning tasks are in the form of game-type learning
supplements.

In the Florida Followahrou h Pro am, the classroom teachers
train the parent educators; but the program offers the flexibility
that the parent educators can devise their own adaptations of the
materials and activities used during the home visitations.

The parent educator also serves as the first line liaison person
between the Follow Through Program.of the school and the home. The

parent educator serves as the referral agent for medical, dental,

 

“albid ’ p o 4-6 0

44
psychological, or social services, by informing the mother of the
existence of such services and in many cases she would take the mother
to the existing agencies where the services needed would be provided
for the family.

In the school, the parent educator serves as a teacher auxiliary
or aide implementing instructional services and activities through
working with individual children on a one-to-one basis or with small
groups of children on various learning tasks.

The parent educator gets to know and understand the children's
needs. She also plans carefully with the classroom teacher. The
teacher receives effective technical aid from the parent educator as
she tries to individualize the material for each child. There is a
six week pre-service training program for the classroom teachers and
parent educators and special monthly in-service sessions."5

In the final analysis, the Florida Followahrough Program is an
effective model for parental involvement and parent education to ofster
child achievement in the school setting and the urban environment.

A second model of parental involvement in the school environment
is the Hazel Park, Michigan’s, Program of Volunteers and Paraprofessionals.
Hazel Park in 1967, began a program of home visitations by administrators
and school officials, and the teaching staff as an outreach to residents
incapable of responding to the school's "open door policy." Also, there
was a lack of participation in school-community activities and a very

low community morale. The results because of the administrator and

 

aslbido, pp. 7-100

45
and teachers home visitations were positively significant. The heart
of the program was illustrated by a homevisit by a teacher or building
principal to the residence of a Hazel Park student. One of the features
of the program, is that the visits were built as part of the teaching-
learning experience at the schools.

Four major objectives for the home visitations were listed as

follows:

1. The home and the school can develop a partnership
and understanding concerning the education of the
child.

2. Communications between the home and the school can be
established by encouraging teachers to visit the
families of students; thereby benefiting the child;
but a benefit to the parents and teachers as well.

3. Residential volunteers will be brought into the
school as a result of the home visits and the parents
will become more involved in the educational process
of the school. They will make contributions by
their time, talents, and skills.

4. The scholastic and achievement performance of the
children will be improved; as well as the students
attitudes as a result of the personal contact between
the faculty, students, parents, and neighborhood groups.

During the first year of the home visitation program at Hazel

Park in 1967, there were a total of 1,419 visits made. The breakdown
of the visits was as follows: principals - 403, community-school
agents - 384, and classroom teachers - 632.46

A study of the effects of the home visitations was complied by

Richard Allen as a master's thesis, and the conclusions and recommenda-

tions of the study have validity.

46David Newberry, "Knocking Down the Barriers," M.E.A. Journal,
April 1, 1968, p. 20.

46

l. The parents of Hazel Park feel that the program of
home visitations by school personnel was worthwhile.

2. Parents are ultimately more concerned with the education
of their children than with the financial strain of
taxation which supports the schools.

3. Parents have gained a more positive image of teachers.
4. In view of the socio-economic background of Hazel Park,
Michigan, home visitations have aided in building a

strong educational awareness.

5. Parents feel that the Hazel Park School System is
fostering a better cooperation between the home and
the school.

6. Parents believe that the school personnel are motivated
through home visitations by a genuine interest in, and
concern for, the welfare of their children.

7. Positive attitudes that existed prior to home visits
toward the Hazel Park School System.and its personnel
have been maintained and perpetuated.

8. Rapport between the school and the community would
suffer if the home visitations were discontinued.

9. Home visitations are increasing direct involvement of
parents in school volunteerism and school activities.

47

On the other side of the coin; one of the main objectives for
home visitations was to involve the parents of school children as helpers
and volunteers. Because the barriers between the school and the home
were broken down through the principals and teachers visiting the
parents' homes; the mothers and fathers wanted to respond to the
educational needs of the children by volunteering their time, talents,
and services as coaches, aides, helpers, and supervisors for the

teachers in the school. The parents wanted to share in the responsibilities

of the educational enterprise as partners for educational progress.

 

47Richard Allen, "Study of the Home Visitation Program In Hazel
Park, Michigan," Unpublished specialist thesis, 1970, Northern.Michigan
University, pp. 13-16.

47

The volunteers participated in many different functions. They
were screened and prepared by the principal in cooperation with the
classroom teachers.

The volunteers participated in such functions as: teacher aides,
remedial reading aides, learning center aides, library aides, recess
and lunch supervisors, pre-school program volunteers, tutors, secretarial
aides, after school enrichment activities supervisors and community
souncil*members.

There were approximately 688 parent volunteers serving eight
Hazel Park Elementary Schools.

The main conclusion resulting from the home visitations and
parental volunteers was the outstanding communications that resulted
between the school and the home. This fact is further evidenced by
the passage of millage elections and bond issues held since 1967 to the
present. All measures have passed overwhelmingly.

A third model of parental involvement in the educational process
of children is the extensive and effective use of home visits and parent
volunteers in several of the schools in Flint, Michigan.

One outstanding example of a teacher utilizing parents as sides
is in the Martin Luther King Elementary School in Flint, Michigan.

One teacher, Mrs. Sandra Epps responded to the challenges
offered by her principal, Mrs. Ruth Buckner, at Martin King School to
involve parents and fifth grade students in a short-term accountability
model. Mrs. Epps developed a system of a four-step process of parental

involvement:

48
l. A monthly list of student instructional objectives in
simple performance terms are delivered by Mrs. Epps
and explained to the parents by means of home visits.

2. A list of instructional strategies to correspond to the
educational objectives are also delivered to the parents.

3. Parent lesson plans presented monthly in a monthly chart
are picked up by the parents at the school which explain
drill and practice to the parents.
4. Monthly "accountability sessions" to review the student's
achievements through parental conferences in the school
or through direct home visitations when the parents are
unable to or reluctant to visit the school.48
Parental involvement in Martin Luther King Elementary School in
Flint, Michigan is very high. Parents are concerned about the learning
which their children experience. The parents volunteer their services
as aides, supervisors, and coaches. But most important, that they
volunteer their time to assist their children with scholastic and
enrichment experiences at Martin King School.
On the following page is a chart of Parental Involvement at
King School as Partners For Educational Progress.49

The accountability model of Martin Luther King Elementary School
involves parents, teachers, and administrators as a community in the
planning stage of the instruction needs and goals. The administrator
of the school does the evaluation of the project. However, the school

staff also add their evaluative remarks and recommendations. The results

of the recommendations are recycled back to the parents who sit on the

 

48M'rs. Sandra Epps, Partners For Progress, "Teacher Accountability
In Flint Community School Education, Dr. Marilyn Steel, editor of the

accountability model, 1972, pp. 3-6.

49Dr. Marilyn Steel, editor, "Accountability Model - Partners
For Progress," Flint, Michigan Community Schools, 1972 model, p. 10

49
TABLE 2.1

Parental Involvement at King School as
Partners For Educational Progress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I. Planning Tasks II. Teaching Tasks
Parents and Teachers: Teacher:
1. Identify needs 1. Defines short term objectives
2. Set long range goals 5” 2. Developes teaching strategies
3. Define annual objectives 3. Teaches and tutors students
4. Home visits as planning 4. Prepares parent lesson plans
measures 16L
7 Student : / Parent:
1.. Understands l. Recognizes
objectives student
2. Completes objectives
strategies 2. Provides
3. Undertakes drill and
proficiency practice
tests with
student
L
Parent And Teacher: “(I
III. Administrative Tasks: 1. Reviews student progress
2. Review new objectives
3. Share new techniques
/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community School and
Principal; Director I”’,,,,,zzre

1. Sets standards

2. Provides services

3. Develops evaluations
4. Recommends changes

 

 

 

school's community council. The council review the progress and helps
to set new goals and objectives in cooperation with the parents, teachers,

and principals.

50

Few parents are unwilling to help their children to learn.
Parents have high expectations and aspirations for their children. The
teacher provides simple plans and techniques for the parents to reinforce
the child's learning tasks accomplished during the day. The child's
learning at school is reinforced by parental love and discipline at
home. No system is complete without an opportunity for the parents to
review the results with the teachers and school staff.

The parents and community who have shared in this joint educa-
tional planning for the community school also share in the responsibility
for the success or failure of the plan to achieve the desired results.
Together with staff personnel and students they recommend changes with
the knowledge that in their community school they are all partners for
educational progress.50

Parental involvement in the Flint Community Schools is further
amplified by the work done by Dr. and Mrs. Marvin Sitts who developed
weekly parent lesson plans in 1963 for third grade youngsters in
arithmetic. The experimental classroom scored an average of six months
higher in post tests of arithmetic computation and arithmetic reasoning
than the control classrooms.51

Again in Flint, Michigan, Mildred B. Smith describes the success
of a program to raise the reading achievement level of elementary
children by including teachers and parents together in planning and

implementing the introduction of new techniques for the parents and

 

5oiMrs. Sandra Epps, Op. Cit., pp. 10-12.

51Elizabeth and Marvin Sitts, "Parents and Children Learn
About Arithmetic," The Elementary School Journal, October, 1963, p. 33.

51

distribution of materials for use at home in her work: How To Help

 

Your Child Learn in School.52 In an attempt to link home and school,
the program focused on the children's significant others and deliberately
worked to raise the expectations of how well the children will achieve.
The program aimed to join the parent with the teacher as partners in
the teaching process. The rationale was that the family has a major
responsibility for teaching the child -- particularly teaching the value
that learning and achievement are important not only to the child but
also to other family members. Another assumption was that underachieve-
ment can be overcome by improving the home conditions that contribute
to low motivation and poor attitudes toward school achievement and by
creating school conditions that raise teacher morale and reduce teacher
turnover.53

Wilbur Brookover and his associates (1965) show that a child's
self-concept of academic ability is significantly correlated with school
achievement. They point out that when self-concept is good, a signifi-
cant portion of achievement occurs independent of measured intelligence,
socio-economic status, educational aspirations, and expectations of
family, friends, and teachers. The parents were told they could increase
their child's self-concept of academic ability, which would in turn lead
to greater school achievement. Therefore, parents do make a difference
in the lives of children in regard to their scholastic achievement and

self-concept.54

 

52Mildred B. Smith, Home And School: Focus On Reading, Scott,

Foresman 8 CO., Glenview, Illinois, 1971, p. 47.

SBIbido, pp. 47-480

54Wilbur Brookover, School and Society, Allyn & Bacon, 1965, p. 48.

52

Sullivan did a study on Chicago's West Side involving parents in
the education of their children - ages three through eight. One of the
findings that Lorraine Sullivan found was that to get parental involve—
ment, parents would need to be convinced of the importance of the part
they play in their children's success in school. Some of the results
of the program were that many parents became volunteers and aides to
the teachers of the program. A parental advisory council was formed of
twelve parents to help the school in some decisions related to the
program and ite implementation.55

U.S. News & WOrld Report carried an account of a national survey
that enlisted the responses of 1,045 mothers of first graders. The
report contributed evidence that the parents' role in the early years
is significant in determining how much a youngster is going to achieve
in school.56

Many other school systems are starting home-school involvement
programs as part of the community-school program. One such school
system is the Apache Junction Schools, in Arizona. A Title I federally
funded program initiated a Home-School Counselor project in September,
1971, which resulted in mother volunteers who assist teachers in their
children's classrooms.57

Gordon Liddle, in his book, Educational Improvement For The

Disadvantaged In An Elementary School Setting_gives further support and

 

55Lois Willie, American Education, "Moms Are A Must," (April,
1970) published by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

56"How To Help Your Child Do Well In School," U.S. News &
WOrld Report, October 6, 1969.

57David Santellanes, "Community Involvement," The Prospector,
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, February 28, 1972, pp. 1-3.

53
credence to the concept of parental involvement in the educational
process through home visits and home involvement and the use of colun-
teers and parents involved in the planning and operation of the educational
process.58

Liddle summarizes the role of parental involvement as he
relates:

During the most formative years in life, parents

have a tremendous influence on the definition of the

world and his place in it. It is here that the child

learns to trust or to fear, to approach or to withdraw

from new persons or situations. . . .No one else such

a strong influence on a child's motivation, his value

system, his self-concept, and his place in the world

as do his parents and teachers.59
Liddle goes on to say that because a child continues to spend much more
time at home than at school; the schools can make little headway with
the child if his home continues to ofster inapprOpriate attitudes and
habits. Teachers must find ways to overcome parental indifference to
education and assist parents to become participants in a joint effort
to assist in the educational enterprise of thier children.6O

According to Liddle, Rochwell, and many others; one of the most
effective measures of encouraging parents to participate in the

educational process is through the direct involvement of the home

visitations program.61

 

58Gordon P. Liddle, Robert Rockwell, Educational Improvement For

The Disadvantaged In An Elementapy School Setting, Charles Thomas,
Publisher, Springfield, Illinois, pp. 38-39.

59Ibid., p. 47.

601bid., p. 48.

Gllbido’ Pp. 48-500

54

Negative parental attitudes are changed to positive endorsements
when the parents realize that the school and teachers are concerned
about the general welfare of the children and that meeting with school
people can be pleasant, useful, and a common bond of interest is developed.
The school personnel are concerned with the welfare of the children.
Greater insight into the home environment is gained and its effect upon
the child. Home visits are means of letting the parents know first-
hand what their child and the teacher is doing at school. It is another
means of breaking down the invisible barrier of communication problems
between the home and the school.62

The results of home visits increased the parental involvement
in the educational and personality development of the children and
therefore the student's academic achievement increased because of the
interest and concern for their welfare. Parents became interested,
teachers became interested and the entire school staff wanted to assist
as partners for the educational process of children.63

The Council For Adult Basic Education conducted a survey of
educational needs of peOple in 1971 and three findings were mentioned:

1. The schools must have strong administrative leadership.

2. Teacher expectations for their students must be raised.

3. There must be better home-school communication patterns.
SUMMARY

Chapter II attempted to review the existing literature pertaining

to understanding community education and teacher education regarding a

 

621bid., p. 50

63Ibid., p. 50

55
relevancy in dealing with disadvantaged children. Dean Ernest 0. Melby
of Michigan State University summarizes the chapter well as he so
eloquently states:

.... What is needed in American education today is not

a set of additions or band-aids for the existing tra-

ditional educational system, but rather new forms.

These new forms pay less attention to product, means,

methods, and instruments but give more attention to

persons, process, ends and ideals.64

Chapter II investigated the training of teachers, the pre-
service educational programs, and the cooperative models of parental
involvement in the educational process. One must utilize the community
resources to deal with the home and school environments and unite them
to the common goal of dealing with the problems of inner city, disadvan-
taged children. The disadvantaged youngsters can and will make
tremendous contributions to our society. Teachers must make home
visitations to the parents of these children to unlock the door of
potential home involvement in the schools as educators, volunteers,
aides, and contributors of a school enterprise. Parents can and do
make a difference in educating and assisting the school in performing
its functions in society. Disadvantaged children can succeed. They
can grow. They can become useful contributors of society; if the parents
and teachers were held accountable for their education.

V. M. Kerensky and Ernest 0. Melby give further amplification

to the summary of Chapter II's efforts to review of the literature as

they state:

 

64V. M. Kerensky and Ernest O. Melby, Education II: The Social

Imperative, Midland, Michigan, Pendell Publishing CO., 1972, p. 182.

56

oo-o-Teacher education . . . must be involved with the
community. It is in the community that one can best
acquire the human qualities required for relating
successfully with people. Working with people of all
walks of life tends to increase one's estimate of
human potential . . . When one begins to become
involved with all segments of the community, it becomes
increasingly apparent that the worth of an individual
cannot be measured by his verbal or quantitative
prowess alone. Human beings have many qualities,
characteristics, and attributes that shape their
destinys and determine their contributions to society.
Among them are curiosity, compassion, and persistence
in the pursuit of a goal.65

This tends to identify the concerns for education as a social
service orientation profession. People must care about their neighbor.
Teachers must care about children and expect great things from them
regardless of skin color or national origin or place of residence.
Parents must help their children. Students must learn. It is the

social imperative for survival.

 

65Ibid., pp. 183-184.

Chapter III

THE DESIGN AND PROCEDURES

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the research design,
methodology and procedures used to conduct this study. Included in
this chapter is a description of the setting in which the study will
take place, the characteristics of the samples are identified and
described from the total population, procedures for conducting the
study will be discussed, the student-tutor questionnaire will be
discussed. The instrumentation including the questionnaire and
interview questions will be reviewed. Finally an explanation of the

data gathered will be analyzed.

The Setting

Lansing, Michigan, is an urban industrial community of the
central part of lower Michigan. Public supported education has been
part of this city since 1848 when one teacher began holding classes
in a small, frame schoolhouse. Since that time the educational
system has passed through many successful phases of development until
now it can offer the city's children a good education in keeping with

the best practices of our times.

57

58

Historically, the entire community has enjoyed
constant steady growth since the invention of the
motor car. Sixty years ago the population here
was 30,000 including an employment force of 5,000.
At the present time there are more than 300,000
peOple living in the Greater Lansing area with
approximately 155,000 living in the city school
district.1
From the few industries of 50 years ago, most of which were allied
with agriculture, Lansing has over 200 industries -- many of them auto
industry suppliers to the General Motors Corporation - Oldsmobile
Division and the State Government for the State of Michigan.
As the city has grown so has the staff and educational plant of
the city schools. The schools currently employ approximately 1,750
professional staff members for four senior high schools, five junior

high schools, and forty-eight elementary schools.

The Lansing Pupil Membership Breakdown

Elementary population 18,145
Junior High population - 7.204
Senior High population - 6,729
32,078 subtotal

High School Completion - 524
Adult Basic Education - 533
Re-Entry Alternative - 138

33,273 total school population2

The instructional program of the school district is broad and
comprehensive in both subject offerings and special supportive services
for the pupils enrolled at all grade levels. The elementary schools,

which enroll pupils in grades kindergarten through sixth, are primarily

 

1LansingPublic Schools Brochure, 1972 edition, page 3.

2"Statistical Report on Lansing Public Schools", The State Journal,
October 31, 1972, page 12.

59

concerned with instruction in the basic skills of reading, spelling,
writing and other components of the language arts; arithmetic; science;
and social studies. Classroom teachers and instructional specialists also
provide instruction in art, vocal and instrumental music, physical
education and health. The junior high schools, where the curriculum is
designed to offer wide Opportunity for students to explore several
specialized areas such as: art, music, physical education, industrial
arts, foreign languages, home economics, business education and the
like, continue to build on the basic learning skills of the elementary
school curriculum. The senior high school students in grades 10 through
12 engage in much more specialized study than at any time before their
school careers. Here students elect academic majors in areas of the
comprehensive curriculum. Incorporated in the regular program for
Lansing School District pupils are extensive special education services
for pupils who are physically, emotionally, or mentally handicapped. There
are approximately 1,200 handicapped students served for the total 34,000
students.

Lansing residents passed a 21 mill operating proposal in August,
1971, which provided the Lansing Board of Education with a two-year tax
levy upon which to plan and from which to finance school district
operations for the 1971-72 and 1972-73 school years. Increased revenue
also was obtained from the State of Michigan to augment local tax
resources. '

The Lansing School District spends $712.89 for instruction-per
-pupil-per-year in 1972. This figure ranks Lansing as 38th out of

527 school districts in the State of Michigan for 1972.

 

31bid. p. 12.

6O

Characteristics of the Samples

A. Tutor Sample. Previous records of the Mott Institute For
Community Improvement show that 75-100 Michigan State University
students enroll for the Urban Tutorial Program - Education 482 each
quarter.

Two samples were selected for the study. The first sample,
referred to in this study as the experimental sample, was composed of
20 students who enrolled in Education 482 for the winter quarter, 1972,
and who volunteered to participate in the home visitations and reading
aspect of the project.

The second sample, referred to as the control group, elected
not to participate in the home visitations aspect of Education 482
during the winter quarter, 1972. The control sample was 35 students.

B. The School Population Sample. The school population will
be four urban elementary schools in the Lansing School District.

School A has a school papulation of 268 students in grades K-4
and is part of a school cluster program. Students from grades 5 and 6
are bussed to another elementary school. The racial breakdown for the
school is approximately 65 percent white and 35 percent black. Socio-
economic-status is upper-lower class to middle class. The ratio of
students to faculty is approximately 24 to 1.

School B has a student population of 389 students in grades
K96, and had a racial breakdown of 35 percent black, 15 percent
MexicanrAmerican, and 50 percent white. The socio-economic-status is
middle-lower to lowerdmiddle classes. The ratio of students to

faculty is approximately 25.4 to l.

61

School C has a student population of 256 students in grades
Kr2, and it is part of the cluster school program. Grades 3 and 4
are bussed. Additional students from grades 5 and 5 are bussed to
School C. The racial breakdown of School C is 51 percent black and
49 percent white students. The socio-economic-status covers the entire
three classes of lower, middle, and upper classes. The students-teachers
ratio is approximately 25.8 to 1.

School D has a student population of 368 students in grades K-6
and has a racial breakdown of 64 percent white and 36 percent black
students. The socio-economic—status is lower and middle class students.
The students—teacher ratio is approximately 28.9 to 1.

Twenty underachieving students will be selected by their teachers
and school administrators as having low reading scores as measured by
the Stanford Achievement Test - Form X, given in May, 1972. The students
selected will be in grades 2 and 3 and are in need of special tutoring
assistance. School A selected approximately three students to partici-
pate in the program. School B selected approximately nine students for
the study. School C choose three students for the special study. School
Q_selected five studentsvflKonuld be willing to have special tutorial
assistance. The total students selected for the special tutorial home
visitation program is approximately twenty.

Several students were selected by the principals and supervising
teachers as needing help; but upon contact with the parents several
decided not to participate in the program for various reasons. In some
cases, both parents are working and would not be at home for the tutors
to make the visitations. The tutors either visited during the school day

or followed their tutee home and visited with the parents at that time.

62

In the final analysis in all four of the schools several

cooperating students upon recommendations of the supervising teachers

and administrators were chosen from each of the four elementary schools

and thereby making a total of 20 underachieving students.

The parents were contacted by the teachers and administrators

and asked to c00perate in the project. The parents were interviewed

after the project was completed to discover their attitudes toward the

project, the school, and the value of home visitations.

II.

III.

IV.

VI.

PROCEDURES

Select the children in grades 2 and 3 from the four
urban elementary schools -- using as a criteria for
selection low reading scores as measured by the
Stanford Achievement Test - Form X.

Notification of the underachieving children's parents

by letter and follow-up by telephone calls. The teachers
and principal will also help in the selection of the
parents who will cooperate in the project.

Selection of the urban tutors who would like to volunteer
to participate in the home visitations aspect of the
project.

Two class sessions with the urban tutors explaining the
value and techniques of home visits and explanation of
the Parents Teaching Reading Booklets.

 

General session with the parents, teachers, administrators
and urban tutors to give an overview of the project and

to introduce the tutors to the parents; distribution of
the first units of the P.T.R.

Visitation schedule of the tutors to the parent's homes:

A. Week of January 15 - first visitation with the coordinator

B. Week of January 22 - second visit in teams of two tutors

C. Week of January 29 - third visit again in teams

D. Week of February 5 - fourth visit and distribution of
materials

E. Week of February 12 - fifth visitation

F. Week of February 19 - conclusion of program

63

VII. Followbup and Evaluation of the Project:

A. Followbup with additional visits to the parents
who may have missed the P.T.R. Materials.

 

B. Evaluation of the tutor's attitudes and performance
with the Student-Tutor-Questionnaire to both the
experimental and control groups.

C. Personal interviews of the parents who participated
in the project as to the value of the project, any
change of attitudes, and any additional input or
involvement with the school staff and activities.

D. Personal interviews with the supervising teachers
and principals to determine any additional involve-
ment of the parents as aides, colunteers, and the
like. Also, to determine if the children's reading
scores have improved significantly.

VIII. Conclusion of the Program - reporting the results to
the tutors, parents, supervising teachers and parents.
Instrumentation

A combination of the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventoryp

 

Purdue Student Teacher Opinionnaire and the Levine & Feeney Attitudinal

 

Analysis of Attitudes of WOrking in Inner City Schools, was used to
test the attitudes of the Urban Tutors. The three tests will be

henceforth called the Student—Tutor-Questionnaire (S.T.Q.). The

 

S.T.Q. measured the urban tutors' attitudes regarding the home
visitation aspect of the action project as indicated from the student
teacher questionnaire mentioned in Chapter 1. An analysis of the data

obtained through the administration of the Student-Tutor-Questionnaire

 

provided information needed to test the proposed hypotheses and
assumptions.
Questions and statements were also supplied by the author

pertaining directly to the study. The questionnaire was called

64
pertaining directly to the study. The questionnaire was called
the Student-Tutor Questionnaire and was used in the study. The
reason for the author-made test was that a review of the literature
revealed no instrument designed to assess tutor (teacher—trainees)
attitudes regarding the efficacy of home visitations project proposed
for the Urban Tutorial Program.

Borg's following recommendations were used as a guide to the
general approach taken:

In many cases the research worker wishes to measure
an attitude for which no scale is available. The
author, for example, recently found it necessary
to develOp a scale to measure teachers attitudes
toward ability grouping. Satisfactory attitudes
scales can be developed by the research worker
if he follows closely the procedures outlined in
textbooks on psychological testing. The Likert
technique is usually the easiest method for develop-
ing scales needed in research projects.4
The Student-Tutor Questionnaire was divided into five factors or five
subscales.

Factor 1 - Rapport With Students - Samples feelings about
treatment from students, perceptions of student behavior, understanding
learning difficulties, acceptance by student, and the degree of
satisfaction derived by the tutors from their contact with the elementary
underachieving students.

Factor 2 - Rapport With Parents - Samples parental understanding
of their underachieving child, measures tutors perceptions of inner

city parental attitudes toward their children, student-tutor contact with

parents and reception of parents toward tutors.

aWalter Borg, Educational Research: An Introduction (New York:
David McKay Company, Inc., 1963), p. 110.

65

Factor 3 - Special Reading Project - Samples reactions of tutors
of parents and to the extent they help their children with their academic
studies; reading in particular, and also samples perceptions of tutors
regarding reading as a home and school sponsored activity, measures
feelings of parents toward their child's school and acceptance of the
home visitation project by parents as perceived by the tutors.

Factor 4 - Community Support of Education — Samples parental
feelings as perceived by the tutors of the general school-community
relations, parental support of school activities, and general feeling
of living within the geographic school community area.

Factor 5 - Rapport With Supervising Teachers - Samples tutor's
attitudes toward their supervising teachers in regard to dealings with
the children, supportive reactions to the project, and overall tutor

perceptions of the teacher—student relationship in the classroom.
ANALYSIS OF THE DATA

A pre-test of the Student-Tutor Questionnaire was given to
twenty-five subjects (tutors) at the end of the fall quarter of classes
at Michigan State University on December 3 and 4, 1972. The purpose
of the pre-test was to check the items for clarity and if there were
any ambiguous or unclear questions. The students'responses were
recorded on computer cards and run through the 6500 Computer at Michigan
State University.

A Reciprocal Averages Program (RAVE) was done on the pre-test
forty-five items.

The Method of Reciprocal Averages is a technique whereby
one can quantify qualitative data. The procedures

employs a priori set of item response weights assigned
by the investigator to initiate an iterative process which

66

converges to a weighting scheme which maximizes the
internal consistency of the instrument.5

The Hoyt Internal Consistency Reliability Coefficient test was
also done on the pre-test by means of analysis of variance. The overall
reliability of the instrument was calculated as r = .643. The maximum
reliability of the test was calculated to be r = .93. The breakdown
of Hoyt Reliability for the five factors or subscales of the test were:

given as a correlation (r) -

Factor 1 - Rapport With Students (r) = .44
(Seventeen Items) & Standard Error = 3.74
Factor 2 - Rapport With Parents (r) = .20
(Ten Items) & Standard Error = 3.30
Factor 3 - Special Reading Project (r) = .49
(Nine Items) & Standard Error 8 2.26
Factor 4 - Community Understandings (r) = .27
(Four Items) & Standard Error = 1.83

Factor 5 - Rapport With Supervising
Teacher (r) = .81
(Five Items) 8 Standard Error = 1.51

The responses of the Urban Tutors were reported on the Student-
Tutor-Questionnaire. J. D. Finn's Multivariance and Analysis of
Variance Techniques was employed to determine if a significance at the
.05 alpha level has been reached between the experimental group (those
tutors involved in the project and making home visits) and the control
group (those tutors not involved in the project and not making home visits).
The tutors were personally interviewed following the completion
of the project to determine their responses and attitudes toward the

visitations and project as well.

 

5F. B. Baker and T. J. Martin, Fortap: A Fortran Test Analysis

Package, Paper No. 10, Office of Research Consultation, College of
Education, Michigan State University, July, 1970, pp. 8-10.

67

The parents involved in the project were also interviewed to
determine their reactions to the validity of the project. The parents
were asked if their children's reading achievement improved significantly
even though they participated in six weeks of efforts. The parents
were also asked if their child improved in his other school work. The
parents were asked if their child's attitude toward school and the
learning situation improved significantly. The parents reactions were
recorded as to the effectiveness of the urban tutorial students visiting
their homes. Reactions of the parents were recorded regarding the
Parents Teaching:Readipg Booklets. Parents were asked if programs like
this chould be continued in the future for the Urban Tutorial Program,
for the College of Education - Teacher Training Program. Lastly, parents
were asked to express their feelings and attitudes about the school
their child attends, about the school staff, and if their attitude about
school is strong enough that they could volunteer their time and talents
if their talents were needed for a school project in the future. Please
refer to Appendix C for a comprehensive analysis of the parental inter-
views, the responses recorded to the questions asked, and the sample

of the questions asked in the parental interviews.

SUMMARY

The purpose of Chapter III was to present the research design of
the study, to restate the hypotheses and the related research questions
that the study attempted to answer and to describe the tests and
interview instruments that were used to analyze the data received in

Chapters IV and V.

68

Ths setting for the study was selected as the City of Lansing,
Michigan, a large midwestern urban city and capitol of the State of
Michigan. The sample of students from four urban elementary schools
were chosen to be underachieving students in reading in grades 2 and
3. The urban tutorial sample referred to as the experimental group
was twenty students who volunterred to participate in the project
and make a total of six home visitations to their pupils homes. The
length of each visit was approximately one-hour-per week and the
remaining three hours was at the student's school assisting with the
children on a one-to-one tutoring basis or working with small groups
in the classrooms.

The instruments and their correlation and normative use was
discussed and as was indicated a combination of three tests was
amalgamated into one test because no scale of measurement had been
found to measure the amount of attitudinal change that takes place
on the tutor's part as a result of home visitations and working with
the pupil's parents. The test determined was the Student-Tutor-
Questionnaire.

The procedures were discussed in relation to each individual's
role. A time line was drawn as to the expected dates of completion.
The methodology of the instruments was discussed and their correla-
tion with attitudes toward children, the school, supervising teacher,
parents, and the community, as well as the Parents Teaching;Reading
Program. The personal interviews of the parents were discussed along

with sample questions and responses were indicated.

69

The findings will be reported in Chapters IV and V from the
student-tutor-questionnaire and personal interviews of the parents and

school staff.

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF THE DATA

Introduction

The major purposes of this study were fourfold:

(1) To describe attitude changes of urban tutors
of Education 482 as they make home visitations
to their tutees' homes.

(2) To identify and to measure the effect of the home
visitations on the elementary underachieving
students' achievement in school.

(3) To evaluate the effectiveness of the project in the
attitudinal, action and domains on the tutors,
the tutees, and their parents.

(4) To describe and to measure the effect of the home
visitations on parents' attitudes toward the
project; toward the tutors; and toward the school.

In order to implement this study, two groups of tutors were
selected: the experimental sample -- those students who volunteered
to participate in the home visitations project and who helped the tutees'
parents use the Parents Teachinijeading_materials; and the control
Sample -- those students who did not make home visitations and who did
not help the tutees' parents use the P.T.R. materials during the Winter
Quarter of Education 482, The Urban Tutorial Program in 1972-73. There
were:20 teacher trainees in the experimental group and 35 teacher
trainees in the control group.

Two major hypotheses were presented in Chapter I with their

aPPrOpriate research questions formulated. Each of those hypotheses

7O

71

with the research questions will be analyzed separately. Also, teachers,

parents, and tutors' comments will be synthesized in light of hypotheses

posed and research questions asked. The data will be formulated,

explained and analyzed in this chapter.

Research ggestions Pertinent
to the Hypotheses and the Study

R01:

R02:

R03:

R04:

R05:

Is there a significant difference between the
experimental group of tutors and the control
group with regard to the tutor's rapport with
students?

Is there a significant difference between the
experimental group and the control group of
tutors with regard to the tutor's rapport
with parents?

Is there a significant difference between the
experimental group of tutors and the control
group with regard to the tutor's understanding
of the Parents TeachingiReading Program?

Is there a significant difference between the
experimental group and the control group of
tutors with regard to community understanding?

Is there a significant difference between the
experimental group of tutors and the control
group with regard to the tutor's rapport with
the supervising teacher?

All five research questions will be considered as dependent

variables to the major question: Is there a sigpificant difference

between the experimental grouppand the control group with regard to

overall attitudes? An additional question should be asked about

the study.

R06:

Is there a significant relationship of the tutor's
race, age, sex, and grade level tutored between the
experimental group of tutors and the control group
of tutors?

72
This research question was considered as a covariate or
independent variable to the dependent variables of rapport with students,

rapport with parents, tutor's understanding of the Parents Teachipg

 

Reading:Program, community understanding, and the tutor's rapport with

the supervising teacher.

Student Tutor Questionnaire

The Student Tutor Questionnaire (S.T.Q.), as a test instrument
of tutors' attitudes was given following the completion of the Winter
Term of classes on March 6 and March 8, 1973. The instrument was given
to 55 subjects. It was determined through a volunteer basis who would
be in the experimental group and who would be in the control group in
January, 1973. The experimental group consisted of 20 tutors who worked
with their tutees in four experimental schools: A--B—-C--D in the
Lansing area. The remaining group, the control group of 35 tutors
worked in a variety of school settings in the Lansing area, with their
tutees.

The Student Tutor Questionnaire (S.T.Q.) was an instrument
developed by the author and had five subscales which related to the
understanding of the first major hypothesis. Factor I or subscale I
dealt with the tutor's rapport with the students; Factor II dealt with
the tutor's rapport with the tutee's parents; Factor III measured the
understanding of the Parents Teaching Readipg; Factor IV dealt with the
community understanding vector and community support of education;
Factor V dealt with the tutor's rapport with his supervising teacher

in the Lansing Schools.

73

All of these five subscales or factors contributed to an overall
attitude of the tutors and these factors were used to analyze the
significance of the first major hypothesis. Secondarily, there were four
covariates of race, age, sex, of the tutors along with the grade level
tutored as dependent variables which were analyzed through a multiple
regression analysis technique. The covariables of race, age, sex, and

grade level tutored were included in the analysis.

Cell Identification and Frequencies

At this point it is necessary to explain the experimental and
control groups and their component parts. There were a total of 20
tutors in the four experimental groups which consisted of four experi-
mental schools. The control group consisted of 35 tutors in a variety
of schools within the district. The total number of tutors in both the
experimental and control groups was 55. Table 4.1 indicates the cell

identification, school code and frequencies of tutors.

TABLE 4.1

CELL IDENTIFICATION, SCHOOL CODE, AND FREQUENCIES OF OCCURANCE

 

 

Cell School School Code Number of Tutors
l 1 A = Experimental 3
2 2 B = Experimental 9
3 3 C = Experimental 3
4 4 D = Experimental 5
5 5 E = Control 35

Total N = 55

 

74

Cell Means and Dependent variables

To explain the hypotheses, it is first necessary to describe
the dependent variables which contribute to the significance of the
first hypothesis. Also, it is important to analyze the means of the
dependent variables. The five dependent variables which will be
considered later are sub-hypotheses which contribute to the major
onmibus hypothesis. The five dependent variables or factors were
considered as: Factor I - tutor's attitude and rapport with the
students; Factor II - tutor's attitude and rapport with the student's

parents; Factor III - the tutor's understanding of the Parents Teaching

 

Reading Program; Factor IV is the tutor's understanding of the community
in which he worked; and Factor V is the tutor's rapport with his
supervising teacher. These factors are considered as dependent vari—
ables. Table 4.2 explains the mean scores for each variable, the
number of tutors in the experimental groups of four schools and the

number of tutors in the control group.

TABLE 4.2

CELL MEANS SCORES AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES

 

 

 

 

School Number Rapport Rapport Parents Community Rapport
of With With Teaching Understanding With
Tutors Students Parents Reading Supervising
Teacher
1 3 59.333 31.000 35.666 15.000 23.333
2 9 64.888 35.666 39.111 15.222 20.000
3 3 58.666 36.333 37.333 12.000 23.333
4 5 61.400 37.200 39.600 14.800 20.400
5. 35 59.800 33.371 33.342 13.857 19.000
Note: Schools 1, 2, 3 & 4 are experimental; School 5 the control school.

75
There was a difference on all five variables between the experi-
mental group and the control group. An average mean score was taken
for each variable and compared with the mean score of the variable for
the control group. Table 4.3 illustrates the greater difference of

each of the five variables compared with the control school.

TABLE 4.3

COMPARISON OF AVERAGE EXPERIMENTAL MEAN WITH CONTROL MEAN

 

 

Variable Experimental Means ~_ Control Mean :: Difference
Average (coll - £012)

Rapport With

Students 61.07 59.80 1.27

Rapport With

Parents 35.04 33.37 1.67

Parents Teaching

Reading Program 37.92 33.34 4.58

Community .

Understanding 14.25 13.85 .40

Rapport With

Supervising

Teacher 21.76 19.00 2.76

 

On all five variables the experimental group of tutors scored
higher than the control group of tutors, when taking the average mean

score for the experimental group and comparing it to the mean score of

the control group.

76
For more detailed examination of the test results the author
used a post hoc test to analyze the comparison of the intervals of the
variables. Table 4.4 explains the Dunnet Test for Comparison of Intervals
between the variables. The Dunnet Test was a post hoc test procedure
done for an understanding of the significance of the five variables to
the major hypothesis. The author reports on five variables; four were
not significant and only one variable, the Parents Teaching Reading
segment was very significant.
Null Hypothesis 1was an onmibus hypothesis of the study and can
be stated more simply as:
H01: There will be no difference in attitudes for tutors
between the experimental group and the control group
as a result of the project, as measured by the Student-
Tutor-Questionnaire.
If the Null Hypothesis 1 is rejected because the probability level of

significance does not exceed the .05 alpha level of confidence the

alternate hypothesis would be adopted as:

Alternate
Hypothesis: There will be a difference in attitudes for
H1 tutors between the experimental group and the

control group as a result of the project, as
measured by the Student-Tutoreguestionnaire.

The Finn Multivariate Analysis of Variance test instrument was
used to determine if there was a difference between the overall attitudes
of the experimental group and the control group as measured by the
Student-Tutor-Questionnaire. The probability level of significance was
set in Chapter I to be at the .05 alpha confidence level. The F-Test
statistic of multivariance of mean vectors was determined to be at
2.1997 with 20 and 153.5146 degrees of freedom. The probability level

was determined to be at less than 0.0039; which is within the range of

Test Statistic = + + - Reject H0

77

Table 4.4 Post Hoc Test

GENERAL FORMULA - DUNNET TEST OF COMPARISON OF INTERVALS

 

l 2 3 4 5
A
VarV - f2(%+%+% +%+-1-r6-1)
l 2 3 4 5
tD - 2.90 -- critical level for .01 confidence interval

+ - Accept Alternate H

 

 

 

____ l 1:
a.

Variables Y Var Intervals Results

Lower Upper

Limit Limi;
Rapport
With Students 5.07 6.161 -12.08 +22.94 NOT SIGNIFICANT
Rapport
With Parents 6.71 4.148 -5.319 +13.42 NOT SIGNIFICANT
Parents Teaching
Reading Program
Understanding 18.34 4.368 +18.34 +12.71 SIGNIFICANT
Community
Understanding 1.62 3.004 -7.132 +10.292 NOT SIGNIFICANT
Rapport With
Supervising
Teacher 11.06 4.811 -2.86 +24.98 NOT SIGNIFICANT

X 8 means scores
Note:

n = number of tutors per school

 

78

significance, at the .05 level. The major null hypothesis, then, was
accordingly rejected, and the alternate non-directional hypothesis was
accepted. An analysis of the data in Table 4.5 explains the signifi-

cance 0

TABLE 4.5

RESULTS OF A.MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE BETWEEN THE ATTITUDES
OF THE TUTORS OF THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP AND THE CONTROL
GROUP, ON THE STUDENT-TUTORPQUESTIONNAIRE

 

Dependent Mean .Two Tail Signi.
Groups N variable Scores S.D. DF "t Statistic" Prob.

 

1. 3 Rapport
With
Students 61.07 5.5
20/
2. 9 Rapport 153.514
With
Parents 35.09 3.46

3. 3 Parents
Teaching
Reading 37.92 3.64 2.1997 0.0039

4. 5 Community
Under-
standing l4.25 2.50

5. 35 Rapport
With

Supervising
Teacher 19.00 4.01

 

* Groups 1, 2, 3 8: 4 are experimental groups and 5 is the control group
** Total N - 55
m Line of Analysis: _ _ _ _ _
Through the Dunnet Post Hoc Test: X1 X3 X5 X4 X2
Confer Table 4.4

79

There wasa significant difference between the experimental
groups and the control group. It must be determined which variable
produced the significance. The research questions posed in the beginning
of Chapter IV’were converted into sub-hypotheses and a one-way analysis
of variance of the five dependent variables of (1) rapport with students;
(2) rapport with parents; (3) tutors' understanding of the Parents
Teaching Reading Progpam; (4) community understanding; and (5) rapport
with the supervising teacher.

Research Questions Converted into
Null Sub-Hypotheses
R01: Is there a significant difference between the experi-
mental group of tutors and the control group with
regard to rapport with students?

.As seen in Table 4.6, the mean scores differed between the
experimental groups and the control group with regard to the dependent
variable - rapport with students. The analysis of variance indicated
the significance probability to be 0.1162, which exceeded the established
alpha level of 0.01. It was demonstrated that there is no significant

difference between the mean scores of the experimental group and the

control group in regard to the dependent variable of rapport with

students.

TABLE 4.6

RESULTS OF A.ONE - WAY ANAEYSIS OF VARIANCE ON THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE:
TUTOR'S RAPPORT WITH STUDENTS ON THE
STUDENT-TUTORPQUESTIONNAIRE

 

 

Significance
Sources of variation DF ‘M.S. F Probability
Between Groups 4 51.68 1.95 0.1162

Within Groups 50 26.46
Total (n-l) 54

 

80
The second research question established the tutor's rapport with
parents as the dependent variable. This question reads:
R02: Is there a significant difference between the experi-
mental group of tutors and the control group with
regard to rapport with parents?
TABLE 4.7
RESULTS OF A ONE - WAY ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE ON THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE:

TUTOR'S RAPPORT WITH PARENTS ON THE
STUDENT-TUTORPQUESTIONNAIRE

 

Significance
Sources of variation DP M.S. F Probability
Between Groups 4 33.11
2.76 0.0376
Within Groups 50 11.99
Total (n-l) 54

 

As Table 4.7 has indicated there was no significant difference
between the experimental group of tutors and the control group in regard
to the dependent varialbe: tutor's rapport with parents. The analysis
of variance has revealed that level of probability of 0.0376 does indeed
exoeed the .01 alpha level. Therefore, there is no significant
difference between the experimental groups of tutors and the control
group with regard to the dependent variable: tutor's rapport with parents.

The third research question established the tutor's understanding
of the P.T.R. materials as a dependent variable:

R03: Is there a significant difference between the experi-

mental group of tutors and the control group with
regard to the dependent variable: Understanding the
Parents Teaching;ReadipgvProgram?

Table 4.8revealeda strong difference in the univariate F of 6.9421

which is the most significant variable of all five. The analysis of

81
variance indicated the significance level of probability to be 0.0002
which does not exceed the established level of .01. Therefore it may be
stated that dependent variable III - Tutor's Understanding of the Parents
TeachigggReading,Prpgram.does cause significance for the overall test of

attitudes between the experimental and the control group.

TABLE 4.8

RESULTS OF A.ONE - WAY ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE ON THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE:
TUTOR'S UNDERSTANDING OF THE PARENTS TEACHING READING PROGRAM

 

 

Significance
Sources of variation DF ‘M.S. F Probability
Between Groups 4 92.37
6.9421 0.0002
Within Groups 50 13.30
Total (n-l) 54

 

Table 4.4: Dunnet's Test of Comparison of Intervals illustrated
the relationship of variable III - Tutor's Understanding of the P.T.R2
to the overall significance of the difference between the experimental
group and the control group.

R04: Is there a significant difference between the

experimental group and the control group of tutors
in regard to the dependent variable: community
understanding?

The data in Table 4.9revealed that the mean scores for the two
groups' dependent variable: community understanding are 7.86 and 6.29
respectively. The analysis of variance table showedaisignificance
probability of 0.3021, which did not meet the criteria for significance

of .01 alpha level for the dependent variables.

82
TABLE 4.9

RESULTS OF A.ONE - WAY ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE ON THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE:
TUTOR'S UNDERSTANDING OF THE COMMUNITY

 

 

Significance
Sources of variation DF ‘M.S. F Probability
Between Groups 4 7.86
Within Groups 50 6.29 1.2501 0.3021
Total (n-l) 54

 

The fifth research question establishes the tutor's rapport with
the supervising teacher as the dependent variable. This question reads:
R05: Is there a significant difference between the experi-
mental group of tutors and the control group with
regard to the dependent variable: tutor's rapport with
the supervising teacher?
Table 4.10 does not indicate a significant difference between the mean
scores of two groups of experimental and control tutors. The mean
scores were: 24.84 and 16.13. The analysis of variance indicated the
significance level of probability to be 0.2049 which exceeded the alpha
limit of .01.
TABLE 4.10

RESULTS OF A ONE - WAY ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE ON THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE:
TUTOR'S RAPPORT WITH THE SUPERVISING TEACHER

 

 

Significance
Sources of variation DF M.S. F Probability
Between Groups 4 24.84 1.5404 0.2049

Within Groups 50 16.13

Total (n-l) 54

 

83

It appeared that there was no significant difference between the experi-
mental group and the control group of tutors with regard to the dependent
variable: rapport with supervising teacher. The level of significance
probability exceeds the .01 alpha level.

Of the five dependent variables only one, Factor III - Tutor's
Understanding of the Parents Teachigg;Readipg:Prpgram was significant
and contributed to the overall significance of the study. Factor III's
significance was measured by the Dunnet Post Hoc Test for comparison.
between intervals. The other four factors or variables were not
significant contributors to the overall level of significance. Because
the factors were considered as dependent variables an alpha level of
.01 was set for each variable; making a total of .05 confidence level.
Analysis of Covariants: Race, Age, Sex

and TutorTs Grade Level Tgpghg

Was there a significant relationship to the five dependent
variables when the covariance factors of race, age, sex, and grade
level tutored are added to the dependent variables? Each covariate
was added to the dependent variables and a decision was made as to the
significance of each item. Bartletth Chi Square Test was used.

It was determined that there was no association between the
dependent and independent variables 24.456 with 20 degrees of freedom
with a probability level of less than 0.223. It can be concluded that
there was no significant difference when the covariates of race, age,
sex, and grade level tutored are added to the dependent variables of
rapport with students, rapport with parents, tutor understanding of the
Parents Teaching_ReadingfiProgggg, community understanding, and rapport

with the supervising teacher.

84
The total percentage of variation in dependent variables was
accounted for whichwas equal to 9.3468 percent.
A test of significance of cannonical correlations was done on
the independent variables of race, age, sex, of the tutor and the grade
level of children which the tutor taught. The data was analyzed through

Table 4.11.

TABLE 4.11

TEST OF SIGNIFICANCE OF CANNONICAL CORRELATIONS

 

 

Significance
Correlations Chi Square DF Probability
1 Through 4 24.455 20 0.2331
2 Through 4 6.740 12 0.8744
3 Through 4 1.075 6 0.9827
4 Through 4 0.015 2 0.9924

 

* Nete: Item 1 - Race Covariate
Item 2 - Age Covariate
Item 3 - Sex Covariate
Item.4 - Grade level Tutored Covariate

 

0.5705 or 6.50% of variation
0.3439 or 2.36% of variation
0.1526 or 0.46% of variation
0.0185 or 0.06% of variation

** Note: Cannonical Correlation 1
Cannonical Correlation 2
Cannonical Correlation 3
Cannonical Correlation 4

 

A step-wise multiple regression test was then taken to determine
what contribution each independent variable of race, age, sex, and grade
level tutored made to the five dependent variables of the test instrument.
Table 4.12 indicates what contributions each independent variable made to

the equations:

85
TABLE 4.12

STEP-WISE REGRESSION TO ANALYZE THE CONTRIBUTION OF EACH
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE TO THE DEPENDENT VARIABLES

 

 

Significance Total Percentage
Covariate Chi-Square DF Probability Level variation
Race 12.0754 5 0.338 18.5%
Age 5.9673 5 0.309 16.4%
Sex 3.9507 5 0.556 9.3%
Grade Level

Tutored 2.7777 5 0.7343 5.6%

 

* Note: Total Percentage variation accounts for all five dependent
variables.

 

It can be concluded that there was no significant relationship
between the covariates which are cited as independent variables and

the five dependent variables.

Null Hypothesis 2

The method for analyzing the data to test Null Hypothesis 2
‘will be made through interviews with the parents who participated in
the Parents Teaching Reading Projec . In total there were 20 parents
who were visited by the tutors and helped their children with the
Igggggg materials. The author visited each participant and recorded
the responses to 12 questions. Question 13 was left open for any
additional comments that the parents wanted to make about the reading
project, their role as parent-teacher, the urban tutors who visited

them, about the school, or about the school staff.

86
HO ° There will be a negative reaction in parental attitudes
toward the school, the teaching staff, administrative
staff as a result of home visitations by the urban
tutors and the Parents Teaching Reading Proggam.
If the second null hypothesis can be rejeCted through the parental
interviews the alternate hypothesis would thus be accepted as:
Alternate
Hypothesis
H2: There will be a positive reaction in parental
attitudes toward the school, the teaching
staff, and administrative staff as a result of
home visitations by the urban tutors and the
use of the Parents TeachipgiReadipg Program.
There are two additional research questions which need to be analyzed
which accompany the second null hypothesis. They read as follows:

R01: Will there an an improved home-school communication
as a result of the project?

R02: Will there be a greater home-school involvement as
a result of the project, and manifest in parents
working as aides, volunteers, and the like?
An analysis of the data of the 20 parents through the interviews will
account for a rejection of the second null hypothesis and adoption of
the laternate hypothesis as well as answer the two research questions
posed which substantiate the hypothesis.

Following are the total responses to the questions asked of the
parents participating in the study. Also included are the percentages
of the affirmative and negative responses to the questionnaire asked
during the parental interviews.

For further information and clarification of the parental

questionnaire, refer to Appendix C.

87

PARENTAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOLLOWING THE COMPLETION

Question 1:

 

OF THE HOME VISITATION PROGRAM

 

 

Responses:
Do you feel your child has improved Yes 17 No 3
in reading as a result of the project?

85% 15%

Parental Comments:

 

Total = 100%

 

 

1. "Yes, definitely!"
2. "To some extent!"
3 . "A little bit ."
4. "No, he was a good reader already."
Question 2: Responses:
Do you feel your child has improved in Yes 15 No 5
his other classes as a result of the
project 75% 25%

Parental Comments:

 

Total = 100%

 

 

1. "My child is much happier about school."

2. "He is able to talk about his other subjects now."

3. "She has improved in arithmetic and spelling."

4. "He needs help with his attention span."

5. "My son is doing better in his other subjects,
especially in spelling and math."

6. "No, not really."

Question 3: Responses:
Did you like the idea of your child's Yes 20 No 0
tutor visiting your home?

1002 0%

Parental Comments:

 

 

 

l. "Definitely!"
2. "She showed a great deal of interest in my son."
3. "We enjoyed her coming once a week."
Question 4: Responses:
Did the urban tutor instruct you Yes 20 No 0
clearly about the reading materials?
100% 0%

Parental Comments:

1.
2.
3.

"Yes, the tutor was a good teacher."
"She was very clear about the directions for the books."
"He will make a good teacher!"

88

Question 5: Responses:

Did you complete all six units of the Yes 7 No 13
Parents TeachinguReading materials?

35% 65%

Total = 100%

Question 6:

If not, how far did you get during the
six weeks time?

Number of Booklets Completed Percent
VI - 7 35
V - 4 20
IV - 3 15
III - 3 15
II - 2 10
I - ._l 5

20 total 100 Z

,Question 7:

Did you spend at least fifteen to twenty Responses:
minutes a day helping your child with
the reading materials? Yes 7 No 13
Parental Comments: 35% 65%
1. "No regular time was spent helping Total - 100%
my child."

2. "I helped him on weekends."

3. "We worked together at the materials about an hour at a time."

4. "He worked pretty much on his own."

5. "We both work, so it is pretty difficult to help our son."

6. "His father helped him, and he is learning English and
reading as well."

7. "We worked with her when we could."

Question 8: Responses:

Did you feel comfortable with the urban Yes 18 No 2
tutors visiting your home?

 

90% 10%
Parental Comments:
Total — 100%
1. "Yes, she was very nice."
2. "Yes, definitely."
3. "It would have been better, if my son'e teacher
visited us!"

4. "I felt rather embarrassed, at times."

 

89

 

 

Question 9: Responses:
Would you like to see such a project Yes 19 No 1
continue in the future with additional
urban tutorial students making home 95% 5%
visitations to your homes to help
with your child's teaching and learning? Total = 100%

Parental Comments:

 

 

1. "No, I am receiving psychiatric help for my personal
problems, and I will not be home."

2. "Yes, many times we are unable to get to school
because of conflicts in our schedules."

3. "It helps quite a bit."

4. "Home visits are much more effective than notes
and phone calls from the school."

5. "If it helps the children do better in school."

Question 10: Responses:
Would you like to see the school staff Yes 16 No 4
make home visits to discuss problems
which your child might encounter in school? 80% 20%

Parental Comments: Total - 100%
1. "I always felt comfortable going to school."
2. "The social worker and principal already visited my home."
3. "Teachers should keep the parents up to date with the

happenings at school."

4. "I would like to discuss some things with his teacher."
5. "I would like to talk to the teachers about his progress."
6. "The teachers already visit my home because it is so

,Question 11:

close to school."

Responses:

Do you have a better feeling about the school Yes 15 No 4
now that an attempt has been made to reach

you and to involve you in your child's 75% 25%
educational progress?

 

Total = 100%

Parental Comments:

1.
2.
3.

4.
5.

"Always felt comfortable about the school."

"Yes, I do!"

"It helps to let the parents know the right way to
help their children."

"About the same."

"No : II

Question 12:

 

9O

 

 

Responses:
Are there any ways that you might help Yes 11 No 9
the school such as volunteering your
time and efforts to your child's 55% 45%

teacher and school staff?

Total = 100%

Parental Comments:

5.
6.
7.

Question 13:

"I am already an aide and lunchroom supervisor."
"I would like to help, but there is a small baby at home
and I do not have transportation."
"It is difficult to help because of small children at home."
"No, I don't have enough time; because I am completing
my high school training, now."
"I am working now, perhaps next year I can become an aide."
"No, I'm going to a marriage counselor at present."
"I would like to help, but there are five small children
at hame."

Open-Ended Responses:

Are there any additional comments you would
like to make about the reading project,
your role as a parent-teacher, about the
urban tutors, about the elementary school,
and/or school staff?

Parental Comments:

9.
10.
ll.
12.
13.

14.

"I would like to go to school to help his teacher, but I
am working and have two other small children to care for."
"I really liled the project, I had many talks with the
tutor about the boy. The teacher visited our home too."
"This is a fine project; my son needs a lot of help."
"I really liked the idea of the tutors visiting and
helping my daughter."
"The tutor was tremendous!
concerned about my sons."
"1 would like to help out; am very pleased that the school
tried to help out. Right now I am receiving medical
treatment."
"No comments!"
"I would like to go to the school for a parent-teacher
conference."
"Everything was going well, but have six children at home."
"It was difficult because we live so far away from school."
"It is important for the school to communicate information
to the home about the children."
"Enjoyed the program, she will make a good teacher. She was
very clear about the directions about the booklets."
"I hope more schools will have tutors working with the
children."
"It was okay; but I wish we could complete more books."

She took the time and was

91

After one reviews the responses to the questions asked of the
parents who participated in the study; it is a safe generalization to
imply that the parents attitudes toward the school, the administrative
staff, the teaching staff were positively directed as a result of the
interchange of the urban tutorial students with the parents who partici-
pated in the study. Therefore HO2 can thus be rejected and alternate
hypothesis 2 can be adopted. Alternate hypothesis 2 would thus read:

H2: There will be a difference in parental attitudes

toward the school, the teaching staff, the

administrative staff as a result of the home
visitations by the urban tutors and the Parents

Teaching Reading Program.

Research Questions 1 and 2 are also answered by reviewing the
parental responses to questions 10, 11, and 12. Therefore, there seemed
to be a better home-school communication as a result of the project.
However, in the analysis of research question 2; this question was the
most difficult to answer. "Will there be a greater home-school involve-
ment as a result of the project, and manifest in parents working as
aides, volunteers, and the like?" Responses to question 12 indicate that
many parents feel a responsibility to assist the teacher at school as an
side, but due to small children at home, or both parents working at full-
time jobs; again it is difficult to be an aide or parental helper at

school. Their responses were positive none the less.

Profile of Parental Responses

 

Most parents felt their child improved in reading as a result
of the project. Many felt their child improved in his other classes

such as arithmetic, spelling and English. Everyone liked the idea of

92
the tutor visiting the child's home. Everyone felt the urban tutor
instructed the parents clearly about the reading materials. However,
only about 35% of the parents completed all six units of the Parents
Teaching;Reading Prugram. When questioned further over 70% of the
parents completed from four to six units of the booklets. Most of the
parents worked with their children on the weekends or when the child
was interested. The majority of the parents felt comfortable with the
tutors visiting their homes. Ninety-five percent of the parents would
like to see such a project continue in the future. The majority of the
parents would like more interaction with the teaching and administrative
staff of the school. Seventy-five percent of the parents had a better
feeling about the school now that an attempt was made to involve them
in their child's educational process. Only 55% of the parents said
that they would like to help as aides and volunteers because many of
them.had smaller children at home. Some of the parents were either
working, completing high school or adult education classes. However,
their intentions were of a positive nature toward the school, the staff,
and definitely toward the urban tutors. The majority of the parents
enjoyed the program; they felt they received clear directions how they
could assist their children improve in achievement in reading at school.
To summarize the parental profile of the tutors visiting their homes
and recorded through the interviews: "It's a good program as long as
it helps the children!" The parents were very positive in their

responses regarding the effectiveness of the Parents Teaching Reading

Program.

93

Administrative and Teacher Comments
Regardiug;the Efficacy of the Project

All four principals were asked before the project and at the
completion of the project their comments regarding the worth of teacher
trainees (tutors) making home visitations and helping the parents to
teach their children reading skills. Children and parents were then
contacted by the principals and supervising teachers of grades two and
three. Following are recorded comments regarding the efficacy of the
project:

1. Principal of "A" Elementary School Comments:

"I think the idea of home visitations is a good one.
It is important for parents to see the teacher as a
real person. Many times, the parents are unable to
attend parent-teacher conferences so the only other
means of communicating information about the child
or about school activities is through a phone call
or home visit. I think the idea of the urban tutors
making home visits was a good one; however many of
the children live so far away because they are
bussed. But, the idea is a sound one because the
tutors can see the home contributions or problems
which exist at home which affect the child's
performance at school."

2. Principal of "B" Elementary School Comments:

"I think the tutor program has been very successful
this term where the student makes home visits with
the child. They tutor in a specific area. I do feel
that maybe one or two visits a term might be enough
and have the tutor follow up the lesson with a
telephone call. . . .The level of expectations is
much higher in some of these homes than the parent
can.assist with; therefore the tutor program helps
not only the child but the parent in a positive

way. . . .I make visits myself and ask my teachers to
contact the parents about the children in a positive
way at least once a week."

3. Principal of "Q" Elementary School Comments:
"I believe home visits should be made very carefully.

The parents should be notified in advance and either
myself or our home-school counselor should accompany

94

the tutors at least for the first few visits. I also
hope to convey some information to the parents about
the school and its activities because many of these
parents do not have telephones. In all, I thought

it was a good project. . ."

Principal of "2" Elementary School Comments:

"I think the idea of home visits is a good one.
However, I would like to have the parents meet together
as a group where you can explain about the program and
what their role as parent-educator will be. I have
picked some children that need help and their parents
are going to c00perate. In the final analysis, the
tutors learned a great deal about the families -
information that will assist them as teachers later

on in their careers. Also, they (the tutors) were
able to convey information back to me and to the
children's teachers. Two tutors were especially
effective in helping the parents with the reading skills
project. . . .I know the girls learned a great deal
from the experience. I hope the children benefited.

The supervising teachers were also asked to comment whether the

children improved in their reading skills and if they were happier

children as a result of the project of urban tutors making home visits

and helping the parents to become cosperating-educators to their

children.
reactions:

1.

Following are the supervising teachers' comments and

"He has made some progress, but it is difficult to
measure the progress because of only six week's time.
I also made a visit to the parent's home and helped
the boy overcome some of his temper tantrums. The
child has improved his attitude as well from the
tutor's visits."

"Six weeks time is just too short a time to show any
significant improvement in reading. However, the

boy who the tutor was working with needs a lot of self-
confidence and he is starting to come out of his shell
now. I was very happy about the project and I thought
it was a good idea for the tutors to visit the homes."

"I thought the project was helpful. The boy's father
finally consented to come up to school to talk with me."

95

4. "He comes from a very poor family. In fact, the family
has moved seven times in the last year just so the
children could stay in school. I thought the program
was all right; but I do not think home visits are
necessary every week. I do try to notify the parents
through a note or phone call of the child's progress."

5. "It's really difficult to visit the family because they
live so far away and they do not have a phone. The boy
does think the idea of a tutor visiting his home is a
fine idea because he talks about her all the time. . ."
6. "The girl is doing much better in school as a result
of the project; but it is difficult to assess if there
was significant progress until May when the children
are tested with standarized tests for reading. But
she seems much more happy with school now."
The teachers felt the project was beneficial; but they were hesitant
to express any significant changes in reading improvement because they
felt that six weeks time was too short to make any significant progress
for the children in reading. However, they did comment that the idea
was an excellent one; overall, they felt the children had better
attitudes about school as a result of the project.

The Urban Tutors' Comments and Reactions to the
Efficacy of Home Visitations and the Parents

Teaching Reading Proggam

Each tutor was asked to evaluate their experiences in Education
482, the Urban Tutorial Program, at the end of the term through a three
to four page paper. Those who volunterred to participate in the project
were asked to make comments about the visitations and about the idea
of parents helping their children. Included is a sample of the tutors'
evaluations of the project:
1. "My overall evaluation of my experience as an urban
tutor would have to be positive. Although I have seen
some sad things, I have learned many important things

that I feel will be of value in the classroom and also
for my own personal development as a good teacher. I

96

have been brought face to face with a problem.where

I have had to really dig to reach the root cause of

it all. It has brought me to an individual basis

which because of my unusually good circumstances while
student teaching, I never had to deal with before. . .
In making the home visits, I feel it has prepared me

to become a more effective teacher. I can now see that
it is important not only to recognize that one particular
student has problems in school; but why he has these
problems. I can also see the student from the teacher's
point of view but also from the parent's point of view.
I feel the home visitations have definitely made a
difference in the child's performance at school. The
mother has been helping him.at home in reading and
spelling once she knew what to do. His grades have
improved and he gets his work done much more easily now.
His main problem is his low attitude about himself.
Hopefully, after discussing this deficiency with his
mother, she will try harder to control her temper and
build up his self-confidence. . .This has been quite

an experience for me and hopefully I have done something
to help him and his mother. . ."

"In conclusion, I have found my urban tutoring to be a
very beneficial and satisfying experience. It has
helped me to become aware of the problems and respon-
sibilities which teachers in urban schools face. The
home visits have given me the opportunity to become
familiar with the home environment in which these
children live and helped me to realize to an even
greater extent what effect this environment can have on
the child's performance in the class. I have received
some new ideas for learning aids, but more importantly,
I have learned to be more tolerant. I have come to
accept and to understand people who are different from
me and from.my home environment. Education 482 has,
for these reasons, helped prepare me for my future
teaching experiences, both in and out of the classroom."

". . .Working with these children has helped me to
prepare for my classroom. The more experiences that I
can have, the better a teacher I will be. The home
visitations do help to some extent. It gave me a better
look at what the child's environment is when he returns
home from school. It also gives an idea of what the
parents feelings are toward the child, the school, and
the school's policies. As for the child's achievement
through these home visitations - it may have an effect,
but it was not noticeable with the boy. I do feel that
home visits should continue because, if a person is
going into the teaching profession he finds out that the
child is not the only person he will encounter in his
class and other school activities."

97

". . . In working with his mother, what can I say only

that she is timid and shy. Her feelings expressed to

me that her son enjoys working with the booklets and that
his work showed some improvement . . .I was pleased when
she said the program did cause her to feel like she did
have some communication with the school. . .As far as the
home visits are concerned, they are a good idea so
parents can know what their child is doing in school and
how they can aid in helping the child to progress."

". . .I do feel that being a tutor was a valuable experience
for me. Hapefully, as I draw nearer to completing my
program of studies at Michigan State University and the
'unrecognizable things' I learned from being a tutor will
fall into place and will be helpful for future reference

as an elementary teacher. . ."

"The Urban Tutorial Program.has helped me to prepare myself
for the classroom. I have had to deal with specific

problems and how to find ways to deal with these problems.
I've become more aware of individual problems and their
complexity. Home visits have given me an understanding

of some of the problems which a child faces when he

returns home from school. The parents feel some improve-
ment was made; they enjoyed the program now that they

had specific directions on how they could help their child.."
". . .The subject of home visitations is a very pleasant

one. The visitation definitely helped me to become a

more effective teacher. This is so because I was able to
further my communication skills with the parents of my

pupils, which in the teaching profession is one of obvious
importance. I also believe that the visitations did contribute
to the child's achievement, however there is no way of
assessing the statement. But, I do feel the visitations
speeded the development of rapport with the child. They

should definitely continue and be made a common practice."

". . .I think the P.T.R. Booklets were too easy for the

boy I worked with. However, I am very optimistic about the
home visitation program. I think that it should be continued
and expanded. I really got to know the boy I worked with
and the many problems that he had at home. It gave me

some insights. . .I think the best time to make the visits

is during the day instead of after school. Although, I

don't feel I accomplished much with the home visitations,
because the time was too short; however, they should be
continued and expanded, and done during the school day."

98

9. "I think the (Urban Tutorial) program was great. I feel
the program did a great deal to satisfy my needs to help
children and to help me develOp as a person. From my
observations, I think the program takes a giant step in
helping the students develOp their self-confidence and
self-image. . .If a child is going to make something of
himself, he must believe in himself. The program of home
visitations gives the child the personal attention that
they need very badly. The course did more for me than
getting an eagle on the monster hole of par five golf
course. I feel confident that the children benefited as
well. . ."

10. "This course (Education 482) proved to be one of excitement,
seriousness and challenge in the understanding of views,
values, and different emotions of the students. These are
the elements a teacher should possess. . .A teacher should
be able to understand the different home life styles,
backgrounds, moods, actions, individual interests, and how
one can unite these actions within the curriculum. I
believe the home visits have challenged my 'know-how', and
helped my to expand my general knowledge about students
and how they perform."

11. "I feel that the home visitation idea is a worthwhile one. .
. . .By going into the home and surveying the situation,
I learned what the best approach was for dealing with the
child. On the whole, the urban tutorial class was one of
the most useful and fulfilling classes I have taken. I
look forward to the time when I will be able to convey
and use my experiences as an urban tutor in a classroom
situation of my own. . ."

On the whole the tutors' comments on the effectiveness were very
positive. For the most part, they believed that their experiences in
making the home visitations were worthwhile. They gave an honest
evaluation of the project. The majority felt the visitations should

continue and be expanded and helped prepare them.to become more effective

teachers.

SUMMARY

In this chapter the two major hypotheses stated in Chapter I

were restated in their null form and analyzed. These which could be

9‘9
rejected in the null form.were restated at directional hypotheses. For
purposes of summarization, the two hypotheses and their accompanying
sub-hypotheses will now again be stated in question form and answered
on the basis of the data gathered.

Question 1: Will there be a difference in attitudes for
tutors between the experimental group and the
control group, as measured by the Student-
Tutor-Questionnaire?

An "F" statistic of 2.199 allowing 20 and 153.514 degrees of
freedom with a significance probability of .0039 within the range of the
.05 alpha level indicated that there was a significant difference
between the two groups. A Dunnet Post Hoc test determined that dependent
variable III, tutor's understanding of the Parents Teaching Reading
caused the significance of the overall omnibus hypothesis, therefore
null hypothesis 1 was rejected and the alternate hypothesis was adopted.

Through a Post Hoc Test it was determined that dependent
variable III, tutor's understanding of the Parents Teachinijeadiug
Program through a one-way analysis of variance that a significance was
determined in variation between groups and within groups with an "F"
statistic of 6.9421 allowing for four degrees of freedom between the
experimental and the control groups and 50 degrees of freedom within
groups with a significance probability of 0.0002 within the range of
.01 alpha level for each of the five dependent variables. Therefore,
dependent variable III, accounts for the significant variation between
groups and causes the variation within groups.

Question 2: Is there a significant relationship between

the covariates of race, sex, age, and grade

level tutored between the experimental group
of tutors and the control group of tutors?

100

It was determined through a chi zquare test for the covariates
of race, age, sex, and grade level tutored of the urban tutors, that
there was no significant relationship between thr groups of tutors on
the five dependent variables of: (1) tutor's rapport with students,

(2) tutor's rapport with parents, (3) tutor's understanding of the P.T.R.,
(4) community understanding, and (5) tutor's rapport with the supervising
teacher. The significance probability for race was 0.33; for age was
0.30; for sex was 0.55; and for grade level tutored was 0.73; all
covariates well above the alpha level of .05 significance probability;
allowing for five degrees of freedom for each covariate. Therefore, one
can conclude that only 9.34% of variation was caused on the dependent
variables by the four covariates of race, age, sex, and grade level
tutored. Therefore, the null sub-hypothesis cannot be rejected and
must stand.
Question 3: Will there be a difference in parental

attitudes toward the school, the teaching

staff, administrative staff as a result of

home visitations by the urban tutors and

the Parents Teaching Reading Program?

An analysis of the data of the 20 parents through the interviews
accounted for a rejection of the second null hypothesis. Eighty-five
percent of the parents felt their child improved in reading as a result
of the project. Seventy-five percent felt that there was an overall
improvement in their child's performance at school. One hundred percent
of the parents liked the idea of the tutors visiting their home and
everyone felt the tutor instructed the parents clearly about the materials.

However only 35% of the parents completed all six units of the program.

But 70% completed from four to six units of the reading materials.

101

Ninety-five percent of the parents felt the project should continue

in the future. Eight percent of the parents expressed an interest in
having the regular school staff make home visits to their homes. The
important factor about feelings about school -- 75% of the parents
expressed that they had better feelings about school. However, on the
question on greater school involvement on the part of the parents; only
55$ said that they could help as an aide or volunteer to their child's
teacher. The majority felt that they either had too many small children
at home, or that they were working or that they did not have transportation
to help. But the overall feeling and attitude about greater school
involvement was very positive.

The principals supported the efficacy of the project. Two
principals took the time off from their schedules to introduce the tutors
to the parents and went with them.an their first several home visitations.

The supervising teachers were supportive of the project. However,
they felt that six weeks is insufficient time to determine significantly
if the children improved in reading and overall performance. However,
they did note that the children seemed happier about school and that the
children had more positive attitudes about school and the learning
experience.

The tutors were very positive in their expression about the
project and the home visitations. Many felt that through the home visita-
tions and working with the parents was the best preparation they could
get for their teaching careers. The majority of the tutors felt the home
visitations were worthwhile and beneficial for the students in affective
learning and developing cognitive skills. The majority expressed the
feeling that Education 482 helped prepare them for teaching both inside

and outside the classroom.

102

The final chapter will be devoted to a concise summary of the
research, conclusions, implications and recommendations for further

study.

CHAPTER V

SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This final chapter will be devoted to a summary of the study,

followed by a discussion of the conclusions generated from the analysis

of the data and questions for further study. As well as reflections

of the author regarding the study.

SUMMARY

Purposes of the Study

1.

The basic purpose of the study was to describe the
attitudes of the urban tutors of Education 482 as they
make home visitations to their tutee's homes.

Closely allied with this purpose was to compare and
contrast the attitudes of the urban tutors who did not
make home visits in regard to the five variables:

(A) Rapport with Students, (B) Rapport with Parents,
(C) Understandings of the Special Reading Project,

(D) Community Support of Education, and (E) Rapport
with Supervising Teachers; with the tutors who did make
the home visitations.

The study additionally sought to determine the effect of
the home visitations and tutor's involvement on the

students' attitudes toward school and learning.

103

104

4. Further, the study sought to determine the effect of home
visitations and the urban tutors' involvement on the
attitudes of the parents who worked with their chilren as
assessed by personal interviews.

In order to explore these four related yet distinctly different

purposes, two hypotheses and four research questions were developed.

They will be discussed later in this chapter under Conclusions.

 

Limitations of the Study

1. As is true in any study, the validity of this study is
affected by the degree of frankness and sincerity of reSponse
to the Student-Tutor-Questionnaire (STQ) and the responses
of the parents to the personal interview questions following
the project.

2. This study concerns itself only with the changes in attitude
and understandings of volunteer tutors participating in the
Education 482 and making home visitations of the winter term,
1972-73 as a new dimension for teacher trainees.

3. This study if further limited to four urban elementary schools
and the underachieving students and their cooperating parents
in the Iansing, Michigan, schools as the setting.

4. The findings of the study will be correlationational and with
the knowledge that attitudes are largely dynamic and change

quickly.

Review of the Literature
A review of the previous literature was necessitated to explore
the: research done in the area of teacher education and its involvement

Witil the home, student, and the community of the disadvantaged learner.

105

First, a description of the disadvantaged learner was provided
in terms of his environment, goals, motivation, and expectations of his
parents for him. This description was set against the backdrop of the
current teacher education practices, as well as in the light of community
education and the need for parental involvement in the home and school
circumstances.

Second, a review of the teacher training programs was made and
their inadequacies of training teachers to work in the inner city
school environment.

Third, an attempt was made to examine current pre-service training
program of colleges and universities of dealing with the inner city
disadvantaged children. Especially noteworthy is the work done by Ira
Gordon's Teacher Corps and other universities approach to teacher-
trainees involvement and cooperation with the parents in the home and
school setting. Examples were cited of direct experience of teacher-
trainees of living, working, cooperating and understanding the inner
city environment.

Fourth, three models of parental involvement with the home and
school were suggested as possible alternatives for teacher trainees to
deal with inner city disadvantaged youngsters. The first model centered
in Gainsville, Florida and was coordinated by Ira Gordon and his staff
to promote the idea of parent-educators to help teach their children in
league with the schools and teachers who gave them materials and direction
to work with the children. The second model centered in Hazel Park,
Michigan, where through the vehicle of administrative and teaching staff
visiting the homes of disadvantaged youngsters they elicited the help out in

the classrooms and with activities in school, after school and the evenings.

106
The third model centered at Martin Luther King Elementary School in
Flint, Michigan where a joint effort was developed by the school staff
and the parents in the community through home visitations and planned
lessons for the parents to help and in some cases to teach their children
reading, spelling, mathematics, and social studies concepts and
principles.

Other examples were cited of home and school contributions of
parental involvement with their shildren in the school learning as well
as home learning enterprise.

Last, from the teacher-training ventures cited, the pre-service
education measures taken for inner city youngsters and the three models
explored several conclusions are noticed. When the parents and school
staff cooperate in the educational experience children's attitudes for
school and education are improved and academic growth does take place
because of the expectations of the teachers and parents are raised

for their children. A modest amount of successful achievement does result.

Design of the Study

In order to determine and measure relationships among the variables
of this study, two instruments were used. The Student-Tutor-Questionnaire
was developed by the author to assess the teacher—trainees attitudes
toward the five sub-factors of (A) Rapport with Children, (B) Rapport
with Parents, (C) Understandings of the Special Reading Project, (D)
Community Understanding and (E) Rapport with Supervising Teachers. The
tutors were assigned to two groups: (A) Control - those who did not
wish to make home visits and participate in the parent-tutor project in
reading and (B) Experimental - those who did make home visits and who

volunteered to participate in the parent-tutor project of reading.

107

Finn's Multivariate Analysis of Variance Techniques were employed
to determine if a significance at the .05 alpha level was reached between
the experimental group and the control group. The tutors will also be
personally interviewed at the conclusion of the project. The tutors
kept journal records of their experiences with home visitations.

The parents were interviewed to determine if their attitudes
had changed toward the school; the idea of teacher-trainees visiting
their homes; if their children's attitudes toward school had changed
and if they had made any academic growth gains in reading and in their
other subjects.

The administrative staff and supervising teachers were asked to
make comments regarding the efficacy of the project from the four
experimental schools.

The urban tutors were also asked to evaluate their experiences

of Winter Term, 1973, of Education 482 - The Urban Tutorial Program

 

through threexto four page papers at the conclusion of the program.
The tutors comments regarding Education 482 and the effects of home
visitations were included in Chapter IV.

Data from the administration of the study's instrument 1113
Student-Tutor-Questionnaire was punched on computer data cards and
submitted to the Michigan State University CDC 3600 computer for

computational purposes.

l.

108

CONCLUSIONS

On all five variables (Rapport with Students, Rapport with

Parents, Understanding of Parents Teaching Reading Program,

 

Community Understanding, and Rapport with the Supervising
Teacher) the experimental group of tutors scored higher
than the control group of tutors, but only on the variable,

Understanding of Parents TeachinguReading:Program, was there

 

a significant difference.

There is no significant difference when the covariates of

race, age, sex and grade level tutored are added to the

dependent variables of rapport with students, rapport with
parents, tutor understanding of the Parents Teaching Reading

Program, community understanding, and rapport with the

supervising teacher.

There was positive reaction to parental attitudes toward the

school, the teaching staff, and administrative staff as a

result of home visitations by the urban tutors and use of

Parents Teaching ReadinguProgram.

The following conclusions were found on the basis of the

remarks of parents on the Parents' Interview Questionnaire:

a. Eighty-five percent of the parents felt that their
child improved in reading as a result of the project.

b. Seventy-five percent of the parents felt that their
child improved in other classes such as arithmetic,
spelling and English.

c. All of the parents approved of the idea of the tutor

visiting their home.

e.

109
All of the parents felt that the tutors instructed
them clearly about the reading materials.
Ninety percent of the parents felt comfortable with
the tutors visiting their home.
Ninety-five percent of the parents wanted the project
continued in the future.
Eighty percent wanted the regular school staff to make
the home visitations.
Seventy-five percent of the parents had a better feeling
about the school.
Fifty-five percent of the parents felt that they might

help the school as a volunteer worker.

5. Comments from the principals pointed out that they were very

positive about the project and that they would like the

project continued in the future.

6. Comments from the supervising teachers pointed out that they

were partially positive about the project. They were

concerned that the duration of the project was too short to

make definite statements concerning the reading gains.

7. Comments from the tutors pointed out that they were very

positive about the project.

Questions for Further Study

 

1. If the project of home visitations and parental involvement

in the educational process had been extended longer than the

six weeks period, would the tutors' attitudes have been the

same or different?

110

2. Would significant reading achievement of the children
result, if the parental involvement and the tutors home
visitations had been extended to a semester or a full year?

3. Did the subjective opinions of the parents actually reflect
their attitudes toward the school, the staff, and the urban
tutorial students from the personal interviews conducted
after the study was completed?

4. If the administrative and teaching staffs' reactions had
been more negative than positive, what impact would it
have had on the project and the findings?

5. If all the tutors were required to make home visitations
and participate in the project instead of volunteering
what impact would it have had on the project?

6. WOuld the replication of this study with a different group
of tutors, a different group of parents, and different
schools in a different geographic location with different

procedures produce significantly different results?

Reflections

 

Conducting this study has been a most satisfying experience for
me. Although the findings in most instances were positive, I have some
concerns now that the length of the reading project, that is, six weeks,
would have been extended to possibly 18 weeks, or a semester. I feel
that a longer period of time for instruction in reading would have given
me a more significant body of data for arriving at conclusions.

One of the most exciting experiences I had in the study was the

dedication of the tutors who volunteered to participate in the study.

lll
Participation in the study involved their attendance in several meetings,
and their willingness to make home visitations. These activities were
well beyond that required of student teachers. No a single person in
the group balked at putting in the extra hours. Their professional
behavior speaks well for them and I would certainly recommend them for
a teaching position in any school district. I sincerely hope that they
choose to work in an urban setting. Their talents are needed in such
a setting.

Too often we think that parents in disadvantaged areas are not
concerned about the education of their children. This study showed that
these parents are vitally interested in their children and want to give
of their time to help their children succeed in school. These parents

are to be commended for their efforts.

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112

113

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Sitts, Elizabeth and Marvin, "Parents and Children Learn About Arithmetic,"
Elemeptary School Jourppl, October, 1963, p. 33.

Strom, Robert D., and Larimore, "Predicting Teacher Success," The Inner City,
Journal of Experimental Educatiop, Vol. 38, Number 4, 1970.

Weikart, David P., et.al. "Perry Pre-School Progress? Mimeograph by Ypsilgpti Public
Schools, Ypsilanti, Michigan: 1964.

(Unknown), "New Study Supports Coleman Findings," Educatiop U.S.A., washington, D.C.:
March 20, 1972, p.156.

(Unknown), "NDEA Summer Institute for Teachers and Supervisors of Programs for
Disadvantaged Youth In Cleveland's Inner City Junior High Schools," Ursuline
College for Women, Cleveland,0hio: 1967.

117

Unpublished Materials

Allen, Richard, "Study of the Home Visitation Program In Hazel
Park, Michigan," unpublished Specialist Thesis, Northern
Michigan University, 1970

Decker, Larry E., "An Administrative Assessment of the Consequences
of Adapting Community Education In Selected Public School
Districts," Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State
University, 1969

Epps, Sandra, "Partners for Progress - Parent-Teacher Accountability
Model," Marilyn Steel, ed., Flint, Michigan: 1972

Esparo, Louis John, "An Assessment of Student Attitudes And
Involvement In The Environmental Quality Program of
the Mott Institute - Okemos Secondary School Project,"
Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University,
1971.

Halliday, Malcolm F., "An Investigation of Parent Attitudes And
Teacher Morale In Relationship to Community unrest,"
Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University,
1970.

Kearns, Homer H., "An Analysis of Attitudes Toward Children And
The Teaching Role of Students Who Have Participated In
Education 482, The Urban Tutorial Program," Unpublished
Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University, 1971.

Olsen, Clarence R., "The Effects of Enrichment Tutoring Upon
Self-Concept, Educational Achievement, And Measured
Intelligence of Male Underachievers In An Inner-City
Elementary School," Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation,
Michigan State University, 1969.

APPENDICES

118

APPENDIX A

THE STUDENT-TEACHER-QUESTIONNAIRE

119

120

The Student Teacher Questionnaire

Explanation of the Questionnalpg:

This instrument is designed to provide you the opportunity
to express your opinions about your work as a student teacher and
the various school problems in your particular school situation.
There are no right or wrong responses, so do not hesitate to check
the appropriate responses as to how you feel the questions are
pertinent to your situation.

There are three sections to the questionnaire. Section I
calls for personal data information. Section II is optional if you
wish to remain anonymous. Section III is very pertinent, so please

answer all of the questions.

Directions for the Questionnaire:

 

The entire questionnaire will probably take ten minutes of
your time to respond to all three sections. Please check the appropriate
blank that is closest to your opinion. Question 20 is left Open

for your comments that you would like to express.

Thank you for your time and effort.

 
   
  

1)"
jgsggIE¢§32242biéa.__
"‘ ete Murk

Doctoral Candidate
Michigan State University

121

Student Teacher Questionnaire

Section I - Personal Data Information
Sex of student teachers: Male: 35% Female: 65%

Mean age for the trainees: 21

Marital Status: Single: 84.8
Married: 7.6
Divorced or Separated: 7.6

Race of the trainees: White: 60.6 Black: 39.4

Class Standing: Juniors: 7.6 Seniors: 92.4

Major in College: Elementary Education: 63.6

Special Education: 18.8
Child Development: 18.2
Grades student taught: Pre-school & Kindergarten: 33.3

Early Elementary (l, 2, 3): 42.4
Later Elementary (4, 5, 6): 24.2

 

All sections total 100.00%

A composite profile of the student teacher sample would resemble:
A white female student teacher, age 21, who was single, of senior class
standing, who had majored in elementary education; and who taught early
elementary children.

Section II of the questionnaire was optional; however, 46 responded
to the questions and 41 did not respond; l3 questionnaites were not
returned. The questions asked for name, address, phone, cite, school
assigned, and the name of the supervising teacher. This section was
optional and the respondents were not required to answer.

Section III -- Attitudes, Understandings & Involvement consisted
of the following twenty questions. The percentages are given for each

question.

122

1. How long have you been at your assigned student teaching position?
A. Ten weeks:__9_0_._8_ B. Fifteen weeks:_9_._2__ C. Twenty weeks:__:_9_

2. What is the working relationship with your supervising teacher?

A'. Extremely goodnfii B. Very good:_2_9_i C. Aversge:_1_8_o_’g_ D. Poorgéi
3. What is the working relationship with the students you teach?

A. Extremely good:_?_5_-2_ B. Very good:_’£;§_ C. Average: §£_1__ D. Poor:_2_-3__
4. How well do you relate to your student's needs?

A. Extremely well:_1£-_6_B. Very walkfl C. Average:2_7_-__6__ D. Poorly:_8_-_0_
5. In your opinion what should be the purpose of student teaching?

(Please rank your response. if there is more than one purpose)

A. To become more proficient in your subject matter:jflfii_

B. To understand and to assist youngsters in lesrningg§2;2_

C. To prepare for the profession of teachingg32;2_

D. To develOp better coussunity understandings:_"_~_6__

E. Other: -0 (Please define:)

 

6. How would you classify the students in the school which you student teach?
A. Inner City youngstersg12;l_
B. Fringe youngstersglgygjixe.living on the outskirts of the city)
C. Suburban youngstersglfiy2_
D. Rural youngsters:2.3
7. What do you feel is the greatest learning problem or difficulty of your students?
(Please rank your responses if there is more than one learning difficulty)
A. Lack of home support for lesrningg_§§y§

F. Other: 13.8

B. Poor reading habits:24-1
Please define:

C. Poor mathematics understandings:3-4

 

0. Lack of teacher understandings:12-6

E. Poor teacher attitudes toward the youngsters:2.3

123

8. In your opinion what is the greatest family problem that many of the students
have?

(Please rank your responses if there is more than one family problem:)
A. No father present in the homeg;§;§_
B. No mother present in the homegg;g__
C. Illness in the homm:£L£L__
D. Separated or divorced parentsggl;§_

E. Brother or sister rivalry:3.4

P. Otherz35o6 (Please dafine:)Economic & Financial; no parent-guild
communication
9. How well do you understand the students where you teach?

A. Extremely well:2§;l_

B. Fairly well:65o5

C. Not at all:_}2;_3____
10. How well do you understand the parents or guardians of your students?

A. Extremely well:_lfl;2_

s. Fairly ue11:_3§._7___

C. Not at all:___5_6_-3___
11. How do you communicate information to the parents regarding their children?

A. Send a note home to the parents:_lfl;2.

8. Telephone call to the parents: 17.2

C. Make a home visit to the student's homo:_’0_-_6__

D. No communication with the parents at all:_fi§;§_

E. Other:_6_-_9_(Please defineszGnt-teacher appointment or conference
Note:
Answer questions 12 through 15 if you make home visits. if not go on to questibn 16.
12. Have you ever made a visitation to one of your student's homes?

A. Yes, several visits: 4-5

D. Yes, one visit: 0-0
82.8

m

 

C. No, not at all:

D. No response: 12.6

*

124

13. Does your supervising teacher ever make home visits?

A.

C.

Yes, often: 9.9

Yes, sometimes:5-o

No, not at allz69-0 D.

No Response: 17.0

lb. why did you make a home visit?

D.

E.

15. If you did
parents or

A.

B.

C.

D.

B.

16. If you did

for positive reinforcement of a child's work:61.0

Because of a child's reading difficulty:15.0

Because of a child being a discipline problem in your class:0.0
Because you were sent by your supervising teacher:0.0

No Response: 24.0

make a visit to a student's home, how were you received by the

guardians?
Enthus iastically received 345.-.9.
Fairly well received: 52.9

Very poorly received: 9.9

If poorly received -- please explain:

 

25.0

No'Response:
not make a home visit to your student's home, why not?

Because you were not required to make home visits:_£._0_,_q_
Because you did not have the time in your schedulezlii
Because you did not have transportation to make the visitg;§;g_

Because you felt insecure about visiting a student's home:;3,g

g, Other:_];_§_°_9_(l’lease definez) Plan to make visits next year as teacher
17. Would you like to make home visits to increase your understandings of a
student's intellectual, emotional, and physical home environment?
A. Yes, home understanding is importantg2£;2_

B. No, home visits are not important: 5-0

C. Depends on circumstances: 1.0

18.

19.

20.

1J25

Should home visits be required as part of the student teaching experience?
A. Yes, definitely:_§9_,_3_ '
B. No, not really:_3_9_‘_]_
Should home visits be required as part of the College of Education
Teacher Training Program?
A. Yes, definitelyrgfiLgL
B. N0. not really: 12,9. C. No Response: 2.2
Additional comments regarding the use of home visitations:

1. If done correctly with parental approval — it loses the value if
it is enforced.

2. Its important to find out what kind of family the students come from
so that I can work out an appropriate learning strategy for the
student.

3. Personal records along with home visits would be most helpful to
know the background of the students.

4. Home visitations should be required if the home situation is inter—
fering with the students' school learning.

5. Home visits should be made by the principal and social workers
primarily. However, if a need existed, I would make a home visit.

6. It is much better to view youngsters in their home environment.

7. Home visitations would be extremely valuable; if done early in the
school year.

8. Visiting the home can be a very sensitive area. Despite the fact
that I feel it is an important area for gaining insight into the
child, I do not feel a student teacher should be forced to do it.

9. Only if student teachers want to make these home visits -- they
should not be a requirement.

10. I feel the home has the most influence over the child and his
learning habits so it is of great necessity to know what the child
experiences at home.

APPENDIX B

THE STUDENT-TUTOR-QUESTIONNAIRE

126

1227

W

This instrument is designed to previde you with the opportunity
to express your Opinions and attitudes as a student teacher (urban tutor)
and the various school problems in your particular school situation. There
are no right or wrong responses, so do not hesitate to mark the statements
frankly.

You will notice that there is no place for your name. Please do

not record your name. All responses will be strictly confidential. Please

do not obmit any items.

 

Each of the following statements is followed by five responses. Please
indicate how important you feel each statement is by circling one of the
following responses that is closest to your opinion:

Circle the appropriate number if you strongly agree with the statement.
Circle the appropriate number if you gg;gg_with the statement.

Circle the appropriate number if you are gaggcided about the statement.
Circle the appropriate number if you disagggg with the statement.
Circle the appropriate number if you strgggly digaggee with the statement.

Thank you for your efforts,

    

ete Hark
Doctoral Candidate
Michigan State University

Student-Tutor estionna re

Please circle the a let s onse o the fa owin uest one:

Factor I - Rapport With Students:

10.

ll.

12.

13.

14.

15.

l6.

17.

The students seemingly appreciated the help I gave them
with their .Chool workseeeeseeeesssseeeseeeeeoseseseseseeaeeeee

The Students met my e‘pect.t1°n‘ for than. eeeeeeeesesseeeeeeee

My work as a student teacher (urban tutor) was hindered by
the Student's parents..........................................

Most of the actions of the students irritated me.....,.........
The students treated me with respect...........................

The relationship with my students was very good, in that I
was able to met their need.000000OOOOOOCOOOOOOOICOOO...0......

The purpose which I deem most important for student teaching
(urban tutoring) is to understand and to assist the students

in learning.OOO0.0.000000000000COOOOOOOOOOOOCIOOOOIOOOOOOOOOOOO

The student's greatest learning difficulty was the apparent
I‘Ck Of hm support for 1e.m1n800000OOOOOOOOOOOOOIOOIOOOOO0.0

The student's greatest family problem was that there was no
£.&.r Present in the hm.‘0.000000000000000000000000000000000

The low achieving student probably is not working hard enough
and applying himself to his true potential....................

It is not difficult to understand why the students want to
come to school so early in the morning before opening
:1” Of .ChOOIOOOOOOOOOOOOOIOOOOOI'OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

One'should be able to get along with almost any child.........

A student should be always fully aware of what is expected
Of him at BCbOOIesessssssseseesssessseeeesssseseeseeeessesesss

Work standards should vary with the needs of each student.....

Teachers who are liked best probably have an understanding
Of their Btudentl.........o...................................

A teacher should not be expected to burden himself with a
pupil's prObleMOOO0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOI00..IOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Success is more motivating than failure in students...........

um

Strongly Agree

s~ a- Asree
Undecided
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

Ul
U3
19
H

U
U
N
pa

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 1
5 4

Le)
N
pa

5 4 3 2 1

5 4 3 2 l

S 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2il;

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 l

S 4 3 2 1

Skate
54321

Factor II - Rapport With Parents ( Parental Understandingh

18. Parents of children in inner city schools are really
interested in how their child does in school...........

19. Parents of children in inner city schools appreciate
it when a teacher works unusually hard with a child...

20. Home environmental changes are primarily responsible

for the difficulties children experience in doing well

in .Chool.0..O....0.0.I................................

21. Parents of children in inner city schools are likely to
be .88103t the tCCChereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeseseeeeseee

22. Inner city children would learn better if these teachers
and parents would work harder with them...............

23. Pupils should be required to do more studying at home...

24. A teacher should not be expected to sacrifice an

evening of recreation in order to visit a child's home..

25. Teachers are responsible for knowing the home conditions

of every one of their students...........................

26. I find the contacts with students and their parents, for

the most part, highly satisfying and rewarding..........

27. Parents in inner city schools consider the teachers no‘

more than baby sitters for their children............‘..

Pectornlll. Special Reading Project - Parents Tutoring Children

28. The student's reading achievement would improve if parents
would spend more time reading to their children........

29. Parents can become "Partners In Education" by participating
1n-SCh001 .pon.ored ‘ct1v1t1e.000.0000000000000000I...IOO

30. Parents can help their children by volunteering their time
and talents to their children’s‘teachers.................

31. The student's reading achievement would improve it the

parents aided in the teaching of their children..........

32. Reading is an activity that is home and school sponsored...

33. Visits to the homes of children who have difficulties in

reading can be beneficial to teachers.student8»88 well as
parent‘..0000. ...... ...............O..C.. ...... ...........

Strongly Agree
Strongly disagree

Agree

Undecided
Disagree

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 1

5 4 3 2 1

5'4 3_2.l

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 1

5 4 3 2 1

5 4 3 2 1

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 1

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 l

5 4 3 2 1

JJZ9

34.

35.

36.

Strongly Agree

Agree

It is unlikely that parents who tutor their children
can make a difference in the education of their
ChildrenolOO...’I...........O....0...............O...O 5 a

Home visitations to students' homes do- make a
difference in students' increased reading
.ChievemutOOO0.0....................0.........O.....O 54

It is unlikely that cooperation between parents and
teachees makes a difference in the child's desire
to succeed in .Chml............O...........0.....0000 54

Factor IV. Community Support of Education.

37.

38.

39.

40.

It is unlikely that people in the community, generally,
have a sincere and whole-hearted interest in the
.ChOOI sylten.......o........................uununs 4

Host of the people in the calamity understand and
appreciate good quality education..................... 5 4

It is unlikely that this community would be a good
Place to r.1.e. f“11y0.......00000.0.0.0...000...... 54

Parents . in this community are supportive of school
related activities and appreciate personal contact

by the school staff of events and activities through

hm v1‘1t‘000000000000.00000..OIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 5 a

Factor V. Rapport with Supervising Teacher.

41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

My supervising teacher showed a great deal of initiative
and creativity in teaching............................ 5 4

My supervising teacher really understands the students.5 4

My supervising teacher tried to make me feel comfortable
while I was helping the students.......................S 4

My supervising teacher made effective use of our
conferences and discussions............................5 4

My supervising teacher is supportive of my contact

Undecided
Disagree

with the parents and children......................... 5 4 3

2

Strongly Disagree

1

1L30

APPENDIX C

PARENTAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE

131

1.

10.

11.

12.

13.

Parental Interviewfiggestions Followinnghe Completion Of The Project

 

 

 

 

 

1L32

 

 

 

Do you feel your child has improved in reading Yes 17 No 3

as a result of the project? 852 151 _ 1002
Do you feel your child has improved in his other Yes 15 No 5

classes as a result of the project? 751 251 _ 100%
Did you like the idea of your child's tutor Yes 20 No 0
visiting your home? 100: 02 _ 1001
Did the urban tutor instruct you clearly enough Yes 20 No 0

about the reading materials? 100: 0% _ 100:
Did you complete all six units of the Parents Yes 7 No 13
Teaching4§eadinghmaterials? 35: 652 _ 100:
If not, how far did you get during the six weeks

time? VI-7, V-4, IV-3, III-3, II-2, I-l Booklets completed

Did you spend at least fifteen to twenty minutes Yes 7 No 13

a day helping you child with the reading materials? 35: 652 _ 1002
Did you feel comfortable with the urban tutors Yes 18 No 2
visiting your home? 90: 102 _ 1002
would you like to see such a project continue in Yes 19 No l

the future with additional urban tutorial students 951 52 _ 1002
making home visits to your homes to help with your

child's teaching and learning?

Would you like to see the school staff make home Yes __lg_ No_4_
visits to discuss problems which your child might 801 201 _ 100:
encounter during school?

Do you have a better feeling about the school now Yes__l§__No 5

that an attempt has been made to reach you and to 752 252 _ 1001
involve you in your child's educational process?

Are there any ways that you might help the school Yes 11 No_9__

such as volunteering your time and efforts to 552 452 _ 100:

your child's teacher and school staff?

Are there any additional comments you would like to make about the
reading project, your role as a parent-teacher, the urban tutors,
the elementary school and/or school staff?

133

APPENDIX D

PARENTS TEACHING READING MATERIALS

134

 

VVT‘H'OH by

Carolyn Fe 5
ER... v.53 "

1J36

M 0 N D A Y

Directions for Cover Page. The two mice are saying MMM mmm - meaning mmm, mmm
good. This week we are going to learn about the letter M, m, and the MMM sound.
When people like something they often say mun am. The sum sound is made by
pressing the lips together and making a humming sound.

Directions for Page 1. The MMM sound goes with the letter M. The arrows show
the way to make the capital letter and also the lower case letter. Begin at

the top of the letter and go down with each stroke. The lower case n curves
over and down on both the second and third strokes. Show the child how to make
the letters. Ask him to choose a crayon and make a copy of the letter as indi-
cated by the dots and arrows, figures 1-6. Asatha child learns the shape of the
letter encourage him to make morasletters.

Directions for Page 2. Discuss pictures. Stress the beginning sound. Each of
the pictures on page 2 are objects that begin with the letter "m".

Look at one picture at a time ask the child for the name of the object. Repeat
the name, stressing the "m" mmm sound like mmmoon. *

1f the child gives another name for the object, ask him for others names it could
be called.

Repeat the names of each object stressing the "mmm" sound. If the child doesn't
volunteer that all the pictures begin with the "mmm" sound, tell the child. Let
child color pictures as a reward.

Directions for Page 3. Show the child the picture of the moon. Show him the
strange shaped boxes at the bottom of the page. Explain that these boxes are a
puzzle. On the second page of the directions for Monday are four strange shaped
boxes which match those on page 3. Have the child cut the boxes out, match

and paste the boxes at the bottom of page 3. What do the four letters spell
when they are pasted in the right order?

Discuss the picture of the moon with the spacecraft and the stars. Discuss the
facts that have recently been learned about the moon through space travel but
also contrast that information with the kinds of ideas people used to make up
about the moon being made of green cheese; and the shadows giving the impression
of an old man's face - so the man on the moon.

Directions for Page 4. Read the story about the moon. Be sure that the.child
understands that this is a make-believe story so he doesn't mix up the pretend
for fact. Ask the questions at the end of the story. After discussing the story
and questions, ask the child to make up a story about the moon. Why or why not
is this story real, is his story real?

Directions for Page 5. Recall the practice making the lower case m on page 1.
Make the letter m in the air. Have the child trace over the letter 2 at the top
of this page with his crayon. Begin the letter 2 at the top in the middle, going
down the left side of the letter as the arrow indicates. After he has traced both

1L37

Monday

of the 2's show him that the g,is similar to 9 except that there is only one
curve-and-down stroke. Finish tracing the words and write the word moon in
free hand. Let the child color the pictures for a reward.

Finger Play - "Monkey Shines" (We talked about a mouse on the moon, how about
this?)

"Monkey Shines"

I had a little monkey. (Climb hend-over-hand. Get on your
He learned to climb a string. tiptoes and stretch.)

He learned to climb a tree.

He climbed most everything!

One night he climbed a moonbeam.
Until he reached the sky.

He grabbed the nearest star point. (Extend left arm. Clanch fist. Wave

The moon was floating by. with right hand.)

"It's chilly on your moonbean.

Excuse mel I must sneeze." (Make sneezing sound. Cover mouth with
”God bless you!" said the moon man. right hand. Continue to hand with left.)
"Have some of my green cheese."

"No, thank you," said the monkey. (Wave, "No," with right hand. Hold nose
"I don't like the smell." with left.)

he let go of the star point (Fall down.)

And down to earth he fell. (Keep slumping.)

Pell melll Oh, well!

Monkeys don't belong on moonbeema,
do they?

 

 

138

I
4. :C‘ 6
O
DI.
.
3 ”0.. f "I:
.‘

'
ll

\\

\\
DD ,
3 ‘I'zl- (a '— I CI sail

138

(u.......

139

 

 

moon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

141

THE muss ON THE MOON

See the noon in the sky. He is made of golden green cheese.
Once upon a time there was a mouse who was sent to the moon
in a rocket ship. Naturally, he liked‘grsen cheese a lot.
khan he saw that the soon was made of green cheese he became
very excited. He took a bite out of the Side of the moon.
The house liked the cheese so much that he decided to take
another bite. He kept nibbling until part of the moon was
gone. The little mouse thonght it night he better if he saved
the rest of the moon for later. The next night he came back
and ate some more of Uhe soon cheese. Eve night he came
and nibbled a little bit sore till only a gliver was left.

Suddenly the mouse began to wonder about what would happen

to the world if he ate the noon all Up, so he decide not to eat
any sure of the noon. The soon began to grow and grow and

grow and grow. One night lien the moon was a big bright shining
ball of dheese the mouse couldn't help going closer and closer
to the moon again so he could get a little nibble of the

golden green cheese. He took another nibble and another and
another. ’

And that some little louse has been coming back and eating the
soon for many, many years and will keep on coming back for
many more years.

Questions
1. Was this a real or a pretend story? Uhy?
2 What is the soon made of?

3. my did the soon become a SliVLT‘?
4. what happens next to the moon?

144

T U B S D A Y

What letter did we learn about yesterday? How does it sound? Remind the child
if necessary. Review with the child yesterday's activities.

Directions for Page 6. One side of the page is a 2;; picture. In the first
row the big picture is called a square (four sides each same length). Find the
little picture in that same row that looks just like the big one. Make a big
X on it.

In the next row the big picture is called a triangle. "Look carefully at the
little pictures. Find the little picture in the same row that looks most like
the big one. Mark the answer with a big x." Continue telling the child to
find the little picture that looks most like the big one. Hark with a big X.

Directions for Page 7. Discuss the picture of the nice. Can you tell from the
picture whether it will be "real” or a "pretend" story? Why or why not?

Directions for Page 8. Read the story about Millie and Hollie. Ask the ques-
tions at the end of the story. Ask the child what he knows about nice? Can he
make up a story? Is it real or pretend?

More pieces to make word puzzles are at the bottom of this page. Look at the
shapes of the boxes at the bottom of page 7. Find a shape that looks like it
might fit on the page and cut it out. When you have cut all the necessary

pieces out, see if the word spells n-i-c-e. If it does you were right. Paste
the pieces to the page.

Review the finger play for "Honkey Shines" in Monday's directions.

Directions for Page 9. Tell the child to look at the first picture in the first
row and then at the three letters under the picture. Does the word pictured
begin with the sound of mmn, ass or tah? Have hin circle the beginning letter.
60 on with the rest of the page.

Directions for Page 10. Look again at the pictures on page 2 of Monday's lesson.
Cut out the pictures and paste them to the shape they match on page ll. Where
the cutting lines are too small tell the child to cut along the dotted line
around the small parts.

 

 

 

 

 

mice

 

 

 

 

 

 

147

MILLIE ANDTMOLLIE MICE

Millie and Mollie were little mice who iiyed in a hole in the
wall. They scampered back and.forth across the kitchen every
night when the lights were out and everything was quiet.

They looked for little crumbs of food to nibble.

One night they were surprised to find a great big chunk of
cneese. All of a sudden Mellie stopped and told Millie to
wait a minute. Something was funny! "Let's go around and

see what it is." said Nollie. As they crept nearer toward

the cheese they noticed that the cheese was on a piece of

wood with a spring on it. Millie renedbered how Mortimer
Mouse had gotten his tail caught in a spring like that

several weeks ago.

Mollie decided to leave, but Hillie wanted that cneese. She
looked around for something strong and found a toothpick.

She asked Mollie to come and help her drag the toothpick over
to the trap. They pushed the end of the toothpick against

the spring, and that sprung the trap. They were both startled
by the big bang of the trap. After a few seconds of silence,
however, they crept over to see what had happened to the cheese.
Much to their surprise they found the cheese on the floor cut
in two pieces. They excitedly picked Up the cheese and nibbled
away at it.

Questions

1. Hhat are the wice's names?

2. Where did the nice go at night?
3. What worried the nice?

4 Hhat happened to the cheese?

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35* am? to 1‘

arm +5.5 m+s

1J51

W E D N E S D A Y

Directions for Page 11. Have the child look at the first letter in the top row.
Find the letter in the top row that matches the first letter (a) and draw a
circle around that m. Continue with the other rows on the page.

Directions for Page 12. Discuss the child the fact that each¢:ountry has its
own money. In our country our government uses coins and bills. Discuss kinds
of coins and amounts. Discuss safe-keeping of money.

Have the child cut out the puzzle pieces at the bottom of this page and match
the shapes to the shapes at the bottom of page 12. Help the child check his
puzzle word with the word "money" beside the picture. If the words match

let him paste the puzzle pieces in place and color the picture.

Help the child hear the sounds as he looks at the letters.

Directions for Page 13. Read the story and discuss the questions.

 

Directions for Page 14. Have child look at the squares at the top of this page.
Each box if 9 squares is a tic tac tow game. Look at the first game in the top
row. Make a line on any row of three letters in a row that are the same.

At the bottom of page 14 are boxes each with two letters. Circle the letters
in a box if they are letter partners (capital and lower case) and cross them
out if they do not match.

Directions for Page 15. Discuss the activity, mentioning objects and what is
happening. Have child draw a line under the words that begin with,g like the
mittens at the top of the page. Draw a circle around thethings that begin with
g, like the bell. Put a cross on the words that begin with 5,1ike a turtle.

Directions for Page 16. Look at all the money that has fallen out of each of
the purses. Let's help take care of the money. Find each purse it belongs in.
On one bill in each set of money is a word beginning with g_(men, my, me, more,
most, mix, or mine). Have child print the same word on the bill right beside
it, and print the word again on the purse at the end of the string in which the
money goes.

End with a finger play. Review the finger plays that the child likes most.

VW
y m

 

 

 

 

 

 

152

Underline “12‘:er in cash
row—w which mad-shes +he

SM\\ m «k h. b43{nn"hs
o4 fitc row.

 

153

N THE SHINY DIME

Max was a shiny new dime. He was liVin in a magic purse
that held money for Michelle the tooth airy.

One night Michelle was especially busy because so many,
many little boys and girls had lost teeth and hidden them
under their pillows for Michelle to find and change into
bright shiny coins.

Michelle- dropped her purse as she came into Mark's house.
All the money flew out and rolled all over the floor and
under the bed. Michelle found all the coms and picked
them all up.

Hax was so shiny and bright that Michelle chose Max to put
under Mark's pillow. Max was so proud of himself that he

shone all the more as he thought of how happy he would make
Mark the next day.

Questions

1. what was Max? How many nan. es of cows do you know?
Where did lhx live?

khat happened next to Max?
thy was Max happy?

.i- L‘ n‘
O O O

155

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

158

T H U R S D A Y

Directions for Page 17. Have child look at the first box in the top row. Tell
him to draw a circle around the two words that are alike.‘ Continue with the rest
of the page in the same way.

Review the Monkey Shines from Monday's directions of this week. Repeat several
times so the child knows the verse as well as the actions.

Directions for Page 18. Discuss the picture. What is the monkey doing? What
kinds of things do monkeys like to eat? Mention that monkeys come from warm
climates where there are coconuts, fruits, etc.

Let the child cut out the puzzle pieces at the bottom of this direction sheet.
Tell him to match the shapes of the letters to the shapes at the bottom of
page 18. ‘

Look at the puzzle word - monkey. Help the child hear the sounds of the letters
in the word.

Directions for Page 19. Read the story and discuss the questions.

Ask the child if he would like a monkey for a pet. Why would he be a good pet?
Why not?

Directions for Page 20. Have the child say the name of the picture. Tell him
to put !,in the first block if he hears M at the beginning of the word and print
g in the second block if he hears M at the end of the word.

Directions for Page 21. Discuss the picture, mentioning objects pictured and
the activity. Encourage the child to describe as much as he can.(colors, kinds
of food, relationships - mother, father; son, daughter; sister, brother; etc.).

Directions for Page 22. Help child hear sound of first letter in each of the
pictured words. In each of the lists tell child to draw a circle around the
words that begin like the word under the flctures.

At bottom of the sheet trace M'and 9, Tell child to write the name of what he
sees in the picture at the bottom of the page. Go back to the picture of the
monkey in the story if necessary.

Let the child color and cut the pictures. Use extra pages for cutting, coloring
and pasting.

k n e y m o

 

 

 

 

 

159

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

house horse are man my my
mouse mouse mam mqy up may
m most see she +o he
more stove she the no in
ml M mix mean an monkey hut-key
‘9‘! mix me see money monkey
moon moon Q's-c an.“ he: be;
mos? more «he m'sce be“ box
*5 .
ma... Medea map mop
mic... Kitten ‘l'bp mop

 

 

 

I! I‘ll

161

MIKE me MONKEY

Mike was a monkey. He lived in a pet store. Mr. Miller,
the owner of the pet store, fixed up the front window in the
pet store so Hike could play and eat there.

Mike liked being in front at the window. He liked the warm
sun that snone in on him much of the day. He liked to watch
tne men and women and boys and girls who came along the
street.

 

Mike liked to have the people stop at his window and watch
to see what he was doing. Often Nike would swing from
branches Mr. Miller had made for Mike to play on. He liked
to see the peOple laugh and smile at his througn the window.
Hike liked to roll over and Jump from one place to another.
PeOple would stcnd by the window for a long time just to
watch Mike ploy.

Questions

1. Where did Mike live?

2. Why did Mike like living there?
3. What did Hike do?

4; Why did he enjoy it?

162

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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u _
_ _.
m , n
_ W“
m em:
.s m
u _
M __L

 

 

 

 

163

 

 

Mother and Father like to fish.
Sue likes to ride in a boat.

Tom has a big fish.

164

BEGINNING IEITER In

Say each of the wards undcr'tl'le‘pi'c'fu‘flg
What is the first letter in coal word?

   

man moon

Draw a ring around the words that begin like the word under the pictures.

money nail leaf Monday
calf many month mill
basket turtle ~ ice cream lamp
many move tail picture
yard morning think ten
mouth sister meat month

Trace these letters.

\ I I ,0 t ,9
I ' I‘ g I‘ 'g
I I
I ‘\ /’ I; .‘ I I .‘ I ' .moz‘ IOOOe Ios,'s
. ‘ I | I“ ' g ' “ 1 I | ' : g I I I z
I I ‘ I I I I
. ‘I I H I . ‘l I I , I I .
. I I I I I I I I I I I; I I I I I I

 

Write the name of what you see in this picture.

 

 

 

 

166

FRIDAY

Directions for Page 23. Have the child out out the puzzle pieces at the bottom
of this page and match them to the shapes at the bottom of page 23. The letters
should spell Mexican. Look at the word at the top of page 23. Show the child
the letters as you say "Mexican."

Discuss what it means to be Mexican. Bring in the Spanish background.
Directions for Page 24. Read the story and have the child answer questions.

Directions for Pages 25-28. Give the child the test on these pages.

   

 

 

 

167

 

    

 

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u

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\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

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168

MEXICAHS

Mexico is a country south of the United States border. People
who live in Mexico are called Mexicans. It is were most of
the time in Hexico.

Many of the Mexicans like to make things with their hands.
They weave bright colored blankets, shawls, and material for
other clothing. They weave big straw hats and baskets. They
mold many different kinds of pots and bowls.

Mexicans like making merry music for fiestas. They like
celebrating Spatial holidays with dancing and feasting. HeXicans
are happy peOple.

Questions

Who are Mexicans?

What do HeXicans like to make?

that do Mexicans like to do?

How do MeXicans celebrate holidays?

been»
I O O O

 

 

 

169

TEST

Look at the big figure at the beginning of the top row.

Find the little picture
in that same row that looks just like the big one.

Make a big X on it.

In the next row look at the big picture.

Find the little picture in the same
row that looks most like the big one.

Mark the answer with a big X.

A: A: A

 

 

 

 

Look at the first box of 9 squares. Make a line on any row of three letters
in a row that are the same.

Make lines on any row of three letters in a row that are the same in all of
the other boxes.

 

f-tf sss

 

 

 

A
b

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i
b'bmnm
‘F'j‘i‘etrtddd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(8)

1f70

Each cat wants to catch a mouse. Follow the line from each cat to his mouse.
Have the child print on his cat the word printed on the mouse. (2 points GCCh)

 

 

(8)

 

There are two letters in each box at the bottom of this page. Circle the letters
in the box if they are letter partners (capital and lower case) and cross them out
if they do not match. (2 points each)

82. BE Tl Nm
Tt Mis BB

(8)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

171

The cross word puzzle is made up of words that we have
read about in stories this week (Mexican. monkey, money,
moon and mice).

  
    
  
    
 
 
 
 
 
  

Help the child see that each square is a place for one
letter. The word for l Across -- What is a person called
who lives in Mexico? -- is Mexican. Help the child find
the figure 1 in the squares under the sombrero. Put M in -
the first square. e in the next square, x in the next

Fill in the letters
to spell the answer
to the question for
2 Across -- What did
the little mouse in

is the first
_ letter, n is the
"third letter and
e is the fifth
letter down. The
. word that fits
these squares is
the answer for Who
is Mike in the
' story. (monkey)
Help child finish
the puzzle. Let
the child answer
the questions
himself.

nChbSS uwa
i. what is a person cuiied who 1. Nike lives in a,pet_store.
lites in hexico? who is he?
2. «not aid the little mouse in 5. Mollie and Millie are two
the Spaceship eat? little .........?
3. hhtt fell out of the fairy's , _ . .
purse? 0 paints 606" word - a for

knowing answer. 1 for printing'
word. (15 total)

172

Look at the first word in each list (going down). Drew s line under each word
in the list thst begins with the sue letter as the first word in the list.
(1 point esch)

see ball to) soon
sing bark fun mother
run baby. top more
set bat tea no)
on) door tan make
some barn tick not
six truck mix none)

monkey big turtle music

    

  

L

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