Targeting Parent Trust to Enhance Engagement in a School-Home Communication System: A Double-Blind Experiment of a Parental Wise Feedback Intervention

Parental behavioral and relational engagement in school include components of trust, communication, and respect that are positively predictive of student academic success. Parents who report high levels of trust with their child's teacher are more likely to be involved in school and related programs and events. Direct teacher-parent communication has been demonstrated to strengthen parental trust, thereby increasing parental engagement. The parent wise feedback intervention is a relational technique that communicates high expectations from one person to another while simultaneously creating a space for reciprocal dialogue to strengthen trust. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of this intervention on parental behavioral and relational engagement and student behaviors through a double-blind randomized control trial. The sample consisted of 51 students in third through fifth grade whose parents demonstrated low levels of engagement. Results demonstrated a significant increase in parental behavioral and relational engagement for the majority of parents in the intervention condition. In addition, changes in parental responses were positively correlated with changes in student behaviors. Educators can easily implement this low-cost, parent-directed intervention to enhance parental behavioral and relational engagement in populations that demonstrate high levels of mistrust with school personnel.