Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this case study was to determine the existence of the five factors (acculturation, language barriers, economic hardships, time constraints, and trust) as barriers to parental involvement with their children's educational program and strategies used by the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) program in the Santa Maria, California/Central Coast schools', from kindergarten through 12th grade, to support Latino immigrant parents in their efforts to overcome the identified barriers to parental involvement as perceived by Latino immigrant parents. A secondary purpose was to explore if the Latino immigrant parents perceived a difference in identified strategies used by PIQE to help overcome the five factors identified in the literature as barriers to parental involvement with their children's educational program. Methodology. Qualitative methods in the form of interview assessment were employed to study the experience of parents who attended the PIQE training and who are Latinos. Findings. The researcher was able to verify that the five barriers identified by literature remained current: acculturation, language barriers, economic hardships, time constraints, and trust. In addition to those five barriers, the researcher discovered the existence of other barriers: legal status, Mixtec language, low self-esteem, babysitters, and transportation. Conclusions. The Latino parents who were interviewed shared in common their desire for their children to succeed in their educations but did not know how they could be an active role on this matter. Fortunately, PIQE gave them the right strategies that enabled them to become active in their children's education and to understand more about the school system. Recommendations. The following are recommendations for further study: 1. The PIQE program could conduct a study to ensure that the strategies perceived by parents are congruent with their strategies. 2. An expanded study could focus on school staff and their perceptions of Latino immigrant parents as well as what the school district is doing to develop strategies to involve parents. 3. This study could be replicated across the United States to explore the similarities and differences across states and regions of the country.