Teachers’ and principals’ perceptions of community engagement in secondary school management in Sapele Local Government Area Delta State Nigeria

Community participation in school management may involve attendance at school activities and the provision of resources without necessarily including shared decision-making. This study aimed to describe teachers’ and principals’ perceptions of community engagement in secondary school management in Sapele Local Government Area, Delta State, Nigeria. This secondary descriptive analysis used aggregate results from a cross-sectional survey involving 80 teachers and 20 principals from public and private secondary schools. Five item-level means and standard deviations were interpreted separately using Epstein’s school, family, and community partnership framework. The reported means (standard deviations) were 3.55 (0.78) for parental participation, 3.30 (0.85) for financial support, 3.40 (0.81) for communication, 3.00 (0.90) for participation in decision-making, and 3.65 (0.75) for perceived benefits to the educational environment. Participation in decision-making had the lowest numerical mean. The response-scale anchors and respondent-level data were unavailable, preventing the classification of agreement levels, significance testing, and verification of the reported summary statistics. The descriptive profile identifies participation in decision-making as a priority for further investigation alongside attendance, communication, and resource support. The findings represent staff perceptions rather than verified engagement practices or measured school effectiveness. Comprehensive documentation of recruitment, measurement, and ethical procedures is necessary to facilitate a rigorous assessment of the evidence.