S. V. SYLAJ
should be more involved and participate in school. School is the
educational institution in which the organized activity of up-
bringing and education of the young generation takes place.
Establishing the highest level of school role through coopera-
tion with the family. Cooperation between school and family
are activities and cooperation agreements between them to
achieve common goals.
The aim of the study: This study aims to reveal the relation-
ship between the family and school contacts for cooperation
between school factor, as it is to support the success of students
by the school.
Study questions: Does the support affect the success of stu-
dents from the school level meetings between school and fam-
ily? Do you have significant differences on this issue between
the family and school environment when families comes from
urban and rural areas?
Research hypothesis: Supporting student’s success increases
the level of contacts between the school and the family.
Second hypothesis: To support the success of students from
the school is top notch.
Alternative hypothesis: Level of meetings between school
and home is not dictated by the fulfilment of cooperation be-
tween the school and family factors such as to support student’s
success.
The importance of the study: This study is important because
it affects the support to students’ success in school and it estab-
lishes the contacts with the family. Also, note that the relation-
ship between these variables is the same in urban and rural
areas.
Limitations of the study: This study may be limited by the
following factors:
Teachers may be cautious in providing information in col-
laboration with the family.
Restrictions on giving honest responses may also encounter
family.
Population and sample: The population of this research are
all teachers and parents of elementary schools in Kosovo.
Population is determined numerically and the largest number of
pupils comes from rural areas. Since it is the large population to
study the problem, we have defined the version of the study—
sampling was done through systematic random selection. The
sample included 300 teachers and 300 parents of fourth grade
school from urban areas in Kosovo, and 400 teachers and 400
parents of school fourth grade from rural areas in seven regions
of Kosovo.
Instrument applied. We have applied research assessment to
determine the relationship between students’ success support
from the school and the level of contacts between school and
family. We applied comparative research for the comparison of
differences in school and family attitudes and cooperation be-
tween them.
Applied instrument is a questionnaire for parents and teach-
ers, which consists of questions through which we discover
how the success of students is supported by the school. The
questionnaire consists of five scales: “strongly agree”, “agree”,
and “undecided”, “disagree”, and “strongly agree”.
Examination of the Literature
All studies in the field of cooperation between the school and
family shows that parental involvement in the school is the
educational factors in higher student’s achievements. If parents
are knowledgeable and present in their children’s school life,
children will be motivated and achieve better results (Schumm,
2005). Motivation provided by the child’s parent and its sup-
port are decisive elements in the child’s success in school (Bo-
jagjiu, 2009).
Research has found that parents who provided active support
to their children contributed more in their children’s success in
school. More than those who offer passive support. Parents less
effective in this regard, there are those who do not support their
children. Parents should help their children and encourage them
to achieve success (Berger, 2000). However, of course, support
the success of children/students must be done by schools,
through professional support.
Joyce Epstein (1995, 2001) has based its practices in a part-
nership model and cooperation and shared responsibilities be-
tween families and schools. “There are many reasons for school,
family, and community partnership to exist. Partnership can
improve school programs and school climate, to provide ser-
vices and family support, parental skills and leadership. Con-
nect families with others in school and in the community, and
help teachers with their work. However, the main reason to
create such partnerships is to help all young people to succeed
in school and in later life …” (Epstein, 1995: p. 702). Over the
years, Epstein has found that parental involvement is crucial to
success. A small number of schools have had as their purpose
to make cooperation through training and external support
(Fullan, 2001).
While Decker, considers that the most accurate predictor of
student success in school is not the welfare status, but the ex-
tent to which the student’s family is able: 1) Create a home
environment that encourages learning; 2) Communicate expec-
tations and achievement; 3) Become more involved in their
child’s education at school and community (Decker, 2003).
In their study of family involvement in school, Henderson
and Mapp (2000), reached the conclusion that the evidence is
consistent, positive and convincing that families have a major
impact on their children’s performance in school and life. The
researchers also show that children whose parents: 1) Provide
high expectations and aspirations; 2) Assist and control the
children’s homework; 3) Participate in parent meetings and
parent-teacher associations; 4) Talk to their children about
school, tend to have higher grades, superior performance on
tests of achievement ... (Catsambis & Beveridge, 2001; Fan &
Chen, 2001; Muller, 1993). Researchers have found correlation
between the quality of partnerships and student achievement.
Schools with high quality partnership programs report greater
volunteerism of parents and their participation in school events.
Involvement in the decision making process. In addition, more
involvement in the students’ homework, that require interaction,
rather than lower quality school programs (Sheldon, 2005;
Sheldon & Van Voorhis, 2004). Given the importance of coop-
eration between family and school achievements of students,
we should aim to be efficient in cooperation, as this will have
on impact on the nation. When at the family, community,
schools and systems are strong, the nation is strong, too (Kreso,
2004).
Results of the Study
Data in Table 1 shows that teachers in urban areas considers
that their support to student’s success is high, 94% of them out
of total of 300 teachers have expressed such an approach, while
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