Connecting School and Home: Examining Parental and School Involvement in Readiness for College Through Multilevel SEM

• Published in: Research in higher education Vol. 60; no. 4; pp. 553 - 575
• Main Authors: Mwangi, Chrystal A. George, Cabrera, Alberto F., Kurban, Elizabeth R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01-06-2019; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Academic Aspiration; Academic readiness; College Attendance; College Choice; College Readiness; Cultural Capital; Education; Educational Environment; Family School Relationship; Grade 9; High School Students; Higher Education; Individual Characteristics; Institutional Characteristics; Parent Participation; Parents & parenting; School choice; Structural equation modeling; Socio-economic status; Parental involvement; Structural equation modeling; College choice; School academic press
• ISSN: 0361-0365; 1573-188X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11162-018-9520-4

Parental involvement is widely acknowledged as a critical factor influencing the college choice process among families. What is not clear, though, is whether this parental driven factor also takes place at the school level along with school related factors. Using a national sample of 9th grade students drawn from about 900 schools, we found that parental involvement also operates at the school context along with a high school's academic press. Moreover, at both individual- and school-level contexts, parental involvement creates a "college-going" cultural capital in the form of attainment of milestones towards college.