A Study of School Improvement Plans, School DecisionMaking and Advocacy, and Their Correlation to Student Academic Achievement

Parent involvement literature reveals that parents play an important role in student
academic achievement. The School Advisory Councils are the major outlet for parents to
engage in decision-making and advocacy skills in Broward County. The School
Improvement Plans are the major output of the School Advisory Councils and this
document contains many strategies that schools should follow in order to increase
achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine if School Improvement Plans
and school decision-making and advocacy had any correlation to academic achievement.
The researcher investigated this utilizing two research methods: a survey to investigate if
school decision-making and advocacy were correlated to student academic achievement;
and content analysis to investigate if School Improvement Plans were correlated to
student academic achievement. The study gathered data from 38 middle schools and 29 high schools in Broward
County, Florida, during the academic year of 2004-2005. The researcher used standard
five of the National PTA Standards for Parent/Family Involvement Programs to design
the Decision-Making and Advocacy Survey to determine the perceptions of decisionmaking
and advocacy. The researcher surveyed two of the key players with leadership
roles of the School Advisory Council: the principal and the SAC chairperson. The survey
was pilot tested for its reliability. The researcher also used the School Improvement Plan
from each middle school and high school in Broward County in order to conduct the
content analysis.
The survey and content analysis data were analyzed using linear correlation,
multiple correlation, and multiple regression. A major finding of this research was the
significant correlation between the Math strategies found in the School Improvement
Plans and the Math achievement scores, as well as the correlation between the Writing
strategies found in the School Improvement Plans and school grades. In general, it can
be concluded that the strategies found in the School Improvement Plans may increase
student achievement, particularly in Math and Writing.