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Getting Beyond What Educators See As Wrong: How Understanding The Strengths Of Low-Income Puerto Rican Families Can Help Urban Schools Improve, Paul Hyry-Dermith

Open Access Dissertations

Parent involvement is one of the factors to which student achievement is consistently and strongly linked in educational research, and is perceived by teachers as a core factor affecting student achievement. Therefore more and higher-quality engagement with students' families has the potential to make a positive difference in urban schools. However, a tendency among educators to focus on perceived family deficits, without a clear understanding of students' families' strengths, may limit urban schools' ability to develop effective family engagement programming. This study involved faculty and staff members at an urban K-8 school in systematically identifying strengths of the low-income Puerto …