Socio economic status of parents, their participation in class parental meetings and success of students: Tahir Merzeci Primary School sample

In this study, class parental meetings which were held for 4th and 5th grades at Tahir Merzeci Primary School in 2010-2011 academic year are examined. It is aimed to find out whether or not end of the year degrees of the students differentiate according to parents? participation in parental meetings and their socio- economic status.While the concerning literature is examined, one can find out relatively limited studies, which examine the success of primary school students in the Turkish education system according to their parents? participation in the parental meetings and their socio- economic status. This study aims to contribute and fill in the gap in that field, and also to suggest implementers and researchers.In this study, two data collection instruments are used. The first one is ?Parents? Socio- Economic Levels Survey?, which measures the independent variable of the study (Appx. I). The second one is ?Parental Meeting Information Collecting Form?, which is designed to collect the data of parents? participation in the meetings and students? successes (Appx. II).In addition, students? end of the year degrees are taken from the e- school system of Ministry of Education and used as data for the study (Appx. III).End of the year degrees, which are the main data of the students? successes, determine the performance of the students shown during a year and sum up the results of the written exams and educational activities. They are reliable data determined by measurement applied by Class and Branch Teachers and also quantitative expressions of students? successes.After the implementation in 2010- 2011 academic year, 205 forms relating to students? parents are evaluated. In the study, 30 sub problems are coped to get answers. For the analyses of the data, t-test, chi- square analyze, F-test and LSD test are applied.The hypotheses of the study are confirmed. The results of the study can be outlined as follows.Participation in Parental Meetings and Student SuccessStudents? end of the year degrees show a considerable difference whether or not parents participate in parental meetings during a year. The more parents participate in parental meetings, the better end of the year degrees students get. The students whose parents talk or ask questions during meetings are more successful than the students whose parents don?t talk or ask any questions.Socio- Economic Level and Participation in Parental MeetingsThe number of the parents? participation in parental meetings change according to the number of the children they have. As the number of the possessed children increases, the number of the participation in the meetings decreases. A similar finding to that one can also be said for the number of students. These findings can be interpreted as having 3 or more children in a family decreases parents? attention. As the number of the children in a family increases, a decrease at the student success is apparent. Furthermore, financial potential insufficiencies increase with the increase of the number of the children in low income group families. As a result of this, parents are not able to afford the educational needs of their children besides other needs.The number of parents? participation in parental meetings do not differentiate according to the factors of their gender, marital status, place of birth and whether it is mother or father. At the same time, these factors do not cause considerable difference on students? end of the year degrees.Socio- Economic Level and Student SuccessStudents? end of the year degrees have a considerable difference according to their parents? educational level. As parents? educational level increases, end of the year degrees of the students also increase. It can be said that when parents? educational levels get higher, they pay more attention to their children.Students? end of the year degrees differentiate according to the factors of whether there is a daily newspaper at home or not, whether there is a computer with internet connection at home or not, whether there is a child room or not and the number of the appliances at home. The students who are represented by parents at whose homes there is a daily newspaper, a computer with internet connection, a child room are more successful than the ones who don?t have such opportunities. A home which is arranged appropriately enough for student?s needs is also relatively important.Students? end of the year degrees differentiate considerably according to whether parents subscribe to school council or not. Here it is seen that sensible and caring parents subscribe to school council for their children?s educational needs. However, most of the parents do not subscribe to school councils.Students? end of the year degrees differentiate considerably according to the factors of whether there are bookcases at their homes or not, whether their parents work or not, their parents? economical status and whether their residence belongs to them or not.Student Features and End of theYear DegreesStudents? end of the year degrees differentiate according to the factors of their gender, regular attendance or nonattendance to the school, having pre-school education or not, being the president or vice president of the class or not.Female students? end of the year degrees are higher than the male students?. Students who attend to the school regularly are more successful than the ones who do not. Students who studied at pre-school are more successful than the ones who do not. Students who become the president or vice president of the class are more successful than the ones who do not.The most considerable result of the study is that the parents whose socio- economic status are higher participate in parental meetings more often and their children?s end of the year degrees are higher than the other students.Another factor which is also so considerable as the socio- economic status is the parents? participation in parental meetings. End of the year degrees of the students whose parents participate in parental meetings more often are higher than the other students.By assuring parents? participation in parental meetings, it is possible to compensate the negative aspects which come out due to the socio- economic status difference of the parents.Key words: Parental meetings, student success, parents, students, participation, socio- economic status .