Date of Award

1-1-2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Specialization

Communication and Leadership

School or Department

School of Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Carolyn Cunningham

Abstract

In the 1980s Epstein (1987) established that the more parents were involved in their child's education, the more likely that student was to succeed academically. Since then, scholars have evaluated how parents can become further involved to improve student scores, but there has been little research as to how the teachers and parents can effectively communicate using computer-mediated communication (CMC). By tying together research on both virtual communities and student achievement through Walther's Social Information Processing Theory, the research aimed to evaluate whether the successes of parental involvement in education could be achieved through the Internet. In this study, a web-based tool that parents can use to access student information, often called a student management system, was used to evaluate the role of CMC in parental involvement. Survey results with 61 people indicate that school officials believe that there is a connection between increased parental involvement through the student management system and student performance. Results of the survey indicated that, on average, administrators thought more highly of CMC than teachers did. Future research studies should evaluate the effects of CMC between parents and teachers through the lens of class, income, age and the differences between private school communication and public school communication. Additionally, research should examine the discrepancies between administrators’ and teachers’ perception of CMC and parental involvement.

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