A study of school improvement plans, school decision-making and advocacy, and their correlation to student academic achievement

Parent involvement literature reveals that parents play an important role in student academic achievement. The School Advisory Councils are the major outlet for parents to engage in decision-making and advocacy skills in Broward County. The School Improvement Plans are the major output of the School Advisory Councils and this document contains many strategies that schools should follow in order to increase achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine if School Improvement Plans and school decision-making and advocacy had any correlation to academic achievement. The researcher investigated this utilizing two research methods: a survey to investigate if school decision-making and advocacy were correlated to student academic achievement; and content analysis to investigate if School Improvement Plans were correlated to student academic achievement.; The study gathered data from 38 middle schools and 29 high schools in Broward County, Florida, during the academic year of 2004-2005. The researcher used standard five of the National PTA Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs to design the Decision-Making and Advocacy Survey to determine the perceptions of decision-making and advocacy. The researcher surveyed two of the key players with leadership roles of the School Advisory Council: the principal and the SAC chairperson. The survey was pilot tested for its reliability. The researcher also used the School Improvement Plan from each middle school and high school in Broward County in order to conduct the content analysis.; The survey and content analysis data were analyzed using linear correlation, multiple correlation, and multiple regression. A major finding of this research was the significant correlation between the Math strategies found in the School Improvement Plans and the Math achievement scores, as well as the correlation between the Writing strategies found in the School Improvement Plans and school grades. In general, it can be concluded that the strategies found in the School Improvement Plans may increase student achievement, particularly in Math and Writing.