School Context and Parental Involvement in Disadvantaged Urban Primary Schools: A Comparison of Amsterdam Family Schools and Regular Schools

This cross-sectional study compared school-based parental involvement in seven Amsterdam Family Schools and six regular primary schools using data from 218 parents and 13 school principals. Analyses accounted for clustering within schools (ICC = 0.15, 95% bootstrap CI [0.01, 0.26]). Family School status was associated with higher involvement in the unadjusted cluster-robust model (B = 0.28, 95% CI [0.02, 0.54], p = 0.039), but not under wild cluster bootstrap inference (p = 0.076) or covariate adjustment. In the primary model adjusting for caregiver gender, childhood home language, family situation, and school weight index, B = 0.16, 95% CI [−0.07, 0.38], p = 0.161. Perceived communication did not moderate the association. A school-level interaction involving principal-reported alignment was exploratory and based on only 13 schools. Coordinator effects could not be separated from school type because coordinators were present in all Family Schools and four of six regular schools. Parents sampled from Family Schools reported higher involvement descriptively, but the evidence does not support attributing this difference to Family School status or a specific organizational feature. Recruitment through school events and meetings may also have produced differential selection. Larger longitudinal studies are needed to identify conditions associated with parental involvement.