Science Benchmarking Report TIMSS 1999–Eighth Grade

 

 

 

CHAPTER 7: School Contexts for Learning and Instruction

What Are the Schools’ Expectations of Parents?

Schools’ expectations for parental involvement are shown in Exhibit 7.4. Clearly schools expect help from parents. On average across all the TIMSS 1999 countries, 85 percent of the students attended schools expecting parents to ensure that their children complete their homework, and 79 percent attended schools expecting parents to volunteer for school projects or field trips. About half the students were in schools expecting parents to help raise funds and to serve on committees. Only 28 percent were in schools expecting parents to help as aides in the classroom.

In the United States, almost all students were in schools that expected parents to ensure that their children completed their homework and to volunteer for school projects, programs, or field trips. Parents generally were not often expected to serve as teacher aides (with the notable exception of the Chicago Public Schools, where 34 percent of students were in such schools), but were more often expected to serve on committees and to raise funds for the school. Schools in the Benchmarking jurisdictions generally resembled those in the United States overall, with few major differences.

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TIMSS 1999 Benchmarking is a project of the International Study Center
Boston College, Lynch School of Education