Investigating the Latent Factors of Parental and Bilingual Student Perceptions of Learning Environment: Evidence From Two Large-Scale Surveys

The growing population of young bilingual learners in the U.S. accentuates the need to analyze the dynamic interplays between the perceptions of parents and their children about the students’ learning environment. This study investigates the latent factors undergirding the perceptions of parents and bilingual students regarding various aspects of the learning environments by comparatively analyzing the Bilingual Parental Engagement and Support Survey (BPESS) , a parental survey of students’ learning environments, and the Bilingual Academic and Socio-emotional Environment Survey (BASES) , a student survey of their learning environments. A factor analysis was performed on parents’ responses ( n = 1,212) to BPESS, and three latent factors were identified: Parents’ Perceptions of Schools and Teachers , Parental Socio-emotional and Academic Support , and Parental Interest in Children’s Future . A correlation analysis indicated that these factors have weak relationships with the four factors identified from BASES. The three factors from the parental survey did not significantly predict their children’s academic performance. The paper discusses the implications of the findings and limitations of the study.