ABSTRACT
Parent involvement has been seen as contributing greatly to student achievement. During the past decade educators have recognized the mutual interests and overlapping influence of schools and families (Epstein, 1992). To understand parent engagement, it is important to assess what parents expect their child to take away from the educational process or what the child will accomplish within that system. Parents who view education as a means of upward mobility have high expectations for their children. Having access to choice (private vs. public choice), parents identify schools that will help them to attain their goals for their children (Schneider and Coleman, 1993). In most respects private schools seem to have an ideal environment for encouraging parental involvement because parents select a school for its mission. The school will assume that its families value education, accept its philosophical tenets, and expect to take an interest in decisionmaking (Chubb and Moe, 1988).
