Parental Involvement, Student Engagement, and Academic Performance among Students in Public Secondary Schools in Tororo District, Uganda.

Abstract

Over the years, there has been great concern about dismal students’ academic performance in public secondary schools. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between parental involvement, student engagement, and academic performance among students in public secondary schools in Tororo District, in Eastern Uganda. The study was guided by the following research objectives: to determine the levels of academic performance among students, to establish the relationship between parental involvement and academic performance, and to determine the relationship between student engagement and academic performance among students in eleven randomly selected public secondary schools in urban and rural locations of Tororo District. The study employed a mixed-methods research design with a sample of 383 Senior 4 students and 7 school administrators. Schools were sampled using stratified and simple random sampling. Students and key informants were sampled using systematic random sampling and purposive sampling respectively. Data were collected from students using a questionnaire based on the three research objectives. Quantitative data were analyzed using the statistical package for social scientists (SPSS) version 20. Qualitative data were collected from key informants using an interview guide and analyzed thematically. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics at univariate level, Chi-square tests at bivariate level, Pearson’s correlation and multinomial regression analysis at multivariate level. Academic performance among students in Tororo District was found to be largely moderate (division 2; n = 146, 38.1%), with about 3 in every 10 students being high academic performers obtaining division 1 (n = 92, 24.0%). Results indicated a statistically significant association between student engagement and academic performance (Pearson’s r = .245**). Moreover, the findings further indicated that academic performance was not directly affected by parental involvement (Pearson’s r = .006). In conclusion, results indicated that parental involvement had no direct influence on student academic performance, but had a relationship with student engagement. However, student engagement was found to have a strong positive relationship with student academic performance. Therefore, recommendations for improvement of academic performance through more investment in student engagement, implications for public policy initiatives, school administration interventions, teachers, parents, and areas for future research directions were made.

Keywords: Parental involvement, student engagement, academic performance