Understanding Individual and Organizational Level Representation: The Case of Parental Involvement in Schools
本研究利用全国代表性数据，检验个体层面（直接）和组织层面（间接）的代表性对家长学校参与的影响，发现直接代表性作用更大，尤其对非白人学生。
With the substantive effects of racial and ethnic representation well-documented in the representative bureaucracy literature, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to better understanding the causal mechanisms underlying these effects. One explored but yet unresolved issue is whether the benefits of representation stem from individual (direct)- versus organizational (indirect)-level pathways, or both. The current study advances this conversation by testing the effect of both levels of representation on parental involvement in schools using a current, nationally-representative dataset: the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011 (ECLS-K: 2011). In doing so, this study also contributes to research on parental involvement, and how it may relate to racial and ethnic achievement gaps. Results indicate that both direct and indirect representation matter, though perhaps not equally. Direct representation has a larger association with parental involvement outcomes, especially for nonwhite students. After controlling for this direct representation, indirect representation shows statistically significant but smaller increases in parent-reported conference attendance.