Equipping parents to support their children's higher education aspiration: an evaluation tool

A partnership between the University of Tasmania and the University of Wollongong and funded by the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program, this research has examined best practices to engage parents in order to equip them to their children’s higher education aspirations. Parents from low SES backgrounds, in common with other parents, report that they want ‘the best’ for their children’s future. Getting a good education is a part of the aspiration of most parents, regardless of SES status. However, unlike parents from mid and high SES backgrounds who usually have ‘educational cultural capital’ to support their children’s educational aspiration, parents from low SES backgrounds often are unable to confidently access information they need about possible education pathways within and beyond school or know where to find out about financial and other support resources available to facilitate access to higher education. This project has built upon partners’ combined experience, international literature and workshops with parent engagement practitioners to identify features of parent engagement and information programs and resources that are cost efficient and effective in engaging parents from low SES backgrounds to support their children’s higher education aspirations. From this, an extended version of the Design and Evaluation Matrix for Outreach (DEMO) Model was developed to sepcifically address parent engagement programs. This model can be used to plan/design, modifiy and evaluate parent engagement programs. In addition, a web resource has been produced for institutions’ use in the design of parent engagement, information programs and resources that are effective in informing and supporting low SES parents in building and supporting their children’s higher education aspirations. The website also provides an evidence based, synthesised compilation of features of outreach programs that work for parental engagement to inform and raise educational aspiration, but are cost efficient for universities to deliver in partnership with other education providers, community welfare sector organisations, industry and communities.