When parents of children at three elementary schools in San Jose, California, wanted to improve education for their children, faculty from San Jose State University helped them to create their own research effort. The faculty helped them to design and administer a telephone survey to examine the accessibility and helpfulness of elementary school teachers. The parents then took charge conducting the survey in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese in order to include all the language groups in the area. After studying the results, they were able to identify the key obstacles to parent-teacher communication and use these to suggest changes.
