The School/Home Communication Project: A Study of the Effect of More Frequent Grade Reporting on the Achievement of High School Mathematics Students

INTRODUCTION This study in empowering the family explored the impact of an increased flow of information on student achievement and productivity from the school to the family. The investigation into the effect of family management of student learning on the student's achievement was empirically grounded in an experiment that provided support for the managerial role of family by manipulating the periodicity and quantity of information on student progress that teachers sent to families. Findings support the general thesis that increases in both frequency and detail of individual student progress reporting to the family are positively related to student achievement. The study was conducted in eight mathematics classes at a comprehensive high school in eastern Los Ange-les County. Designated the School/Home Communication Project, the experiment was designed to inform those responsible for student learning, the families and students themselves, by transferring information collected as part of the teaching process from the classroom to the home quickly, frequently, and with as much of the detail available to the classroom teacher as possible. Parallel treatment and control classes for each participating teacher, identical as to content, were identified and selected. After a baseline data collection period ending at the first grade reporting of the fall semester, information usually available only to the teacher was sent each week to the families of students in treatment classes while students in control classes received only standard grade cards issued at six to seven week intervals called triads.