Data and Evaluation Strategies to Support Parent Engagement Programs: Learnings from an Evaluation of Parent University

portwood, sharon g; brooks-nelson, ellissa; schoeneberger, jason;

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ (CMS) Parent University is an innovative, collaborative initiative designed to engage parents in their children’s education. Working with community partners, Parent University offers unique courses and workshops such as Parenting Awareness, Helping Your Child Learn in the 21st Century, Health and Wellness, and Personal Growth and Development. In response to calls to demonstrate a direct link to student outcomes, the current project explored ways to leverage existing program data for evaluation. A total of 661 parents attending Parent University were included in this study. Data for the children of these parents who were enrolled in CMS (n = 862) and a control group of students (n = 835) matched on age, grade, school, gender, and ethnicity were analyzed. Results indicated that Parent University is successful in engaging parents, particularly those who traditionally have been underserved, and highlighted some of the factors contributing to this success. Some positive trends in students’ school performance, especially among those whose parents a course designed to link directly to academic outcomes, indicated that this may be a promising intervention for improving school performance and illustrate the potential for integrated data approaches to support outcome evaluation and to advance research regarding mechanisms of effective parent engagement.