Available online at www.sciencedirect.com 1877–0428 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.04.409 Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 15 (2011) 4033–4039 WCES-2011 Parental involvement in selected private preschools in Tangerang, Indonesia Rohaty Mohd. Majzub a * Elis Johannes Hendry Salim b * Faculty of Education, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract The purpose of this study was to measure parental involvement in preschool education. Five aspects of involvement based on Epstein's model have been investigated. Quantitative data was collected from 294 parents whose children attended 6 selected private kindergartens in Curug district, Tangerang, Indonesia. The findings indicated that parental involvement was at low level. The result of One Way Anova analysis showed significant mean differences in parental involvement according to types of kindergarten. This study implies that principals need to have open policy and support parental involvement, arrange more structured parental involvement program, provide teachers’ training and programs that can improve parents’ SES through preschool education. It is recommended that the government provides guidelines in implementing parental involvement program, provides fund to support preschool finance and encourage employers to give time for mothers to attend school activities. Keywords: parental involvement, preschool, preschool education ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction Preschool education has an important role in developing high quality human resource. Focus on holistic children development is needed in order to prepare them with the ability to compete and have survival skills to meet global changes. According to Essa (1992), preschool education helps parents to enhance their children development through a holistic, meaningful and fun learning experience in enriched environment by stimulating their brains. Preschools can provide experiences that may not be provided at home even though the family has sufficient facilities (Rohaty, 2003). The first five years or preschool age is the best time for parents and teachers to stimulate children because of the fast growth of their brain in this period (Bloom, 1966; Doman, 2006). In this study, preschool education refers to education provided by kindergartens for children aged 4 to 6 years. Children’s achievement in preschool is also determined by the involvement of parents in their education. The importance of parental involvement has been recognized by researchers and educators. Various studies in the last few decades showed positive effects of parental involvement to children (McAllister 1993; Conway 2003; Arnold et al., 2008 and Izzo et al., 1999; Miedel and Reynolds, 1999; Marcon, 1999; Taylor & Machida, 1994), to parents (Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Rohaty, 2003; Ozcinar, 2006) and to the preschool (McAllister, 1993; Henderson & Mapp, 2002). Parental involvement determines children’s achievement; improve parents’ knowledge, skills and self esteem, and the quality of preschool. Furthermore parental involvement has been the main goal of United States Department of Education (Fantuzzo et al., 1999) and the foundation or philosophy of Head Start (Administration for Children and Families, 2006).