"They're Going to Tear the Doors Off this Place": Upper-Middle-Class Parent School Involvement and the Educational Opportunities of Other People's Children

TLDR

The study investigates how social class and race shape parents’ school involvement and their intentions toward school, and discusses implications for school policy. The authors conducted a yearlong observation of parent‑educator interactions in a suburban northeastern U.S. school district.

Abstract

This study explores social class and racial differences in parents' school involvement. Furthermore, it examines involved parents' intentions concerning school. Data are from a yearlong observation of parent-educator relations at a suburban school district in the northeastern United States. Highly involved parents tended to be White, upper-middle-class mothers. This happened, in part, because involved mothers frequently acted in ways that excluded other mothers, particularly African Americans. Involved mothers pressed administrators for additional tracking. This was a strategy for separating their children from lower status children and positioning their children for higher education. We discuss implications for school policy.