Parent Involvement and Student
Achievement
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What Does Research Tell Us About the Influence of Parental Involvement on Student Achievement? |
The evidence is now beyond dispute:
Create
a home environment that encourages learning;
Express
high (but not unrealistic) expectations for their children's achievement and
future careers;
Become
involved in their children's education at school and in the community (1:1).
Henderson
(1:23-152) reviewed 66 studies involving parent involvement and student
achievement and found that, when parents are involved in their children's
education at home they do better in school. When parents are involved at
school, their children go farther in school and the schools they go to are
better.
Using
data from a nationally representative sample of 21,814 students and their
parents participating in the National Education Longitudinal Study (2), Keith,
et. al., concluded that "parental involvement has a powerful effect on eighth
graders' achievement" and that although its effect was slightly stronger in
math and social studies, it was a powerful influence on student success in all
subject areas (3:490).
Student
achievement improves in a home environment which encourages learning.
Walberg
(4:399) concluded from an analysis of over 2,500 studies on learning that an
academically stimulating home environment is one of the chief determinants of
learning. From these studies, Walberg selected 29 which were conducted during
the last decade. He found commonalities which he called a "curriculum of the
home" (4:400) which has an average effect on achievement that is twice as large
as family socioeconomic status (SES). This curriculum includes informed
parent-child conversations about everyday events, encouragement and discussion
of leisure reading, monitoring and joint analysis of televiewing, deferral of
immediate gratification to achieve long-range goals, expressions of affection,
and interest in children's academic and personal growth.
Sattes
(5:2), from a review of 30 studies on the connection between family background
and school achievement, concluded that parent involvement factors such as
reading to children, having books available, taking trips, guiding TV watching,
and providing stimulating experiences contribute to school achievement. "The
fact that family SES is related to school achievement doesn't mean that rich
kids are born smarter. It means that, in more affluent families, children are
more likely to be exposed to experiences that stimulate intellectual
development."
Student
achievement improves when parents express high (but not unrealistic)
expectations for their children's achievement and future careers.
Reynolds,
et. al., (6) found that the most consistent predictors of children's academic
achievement and social adjustment were parent expectations of their child's
educational attainment and satisfaction with their child's education at school.
Data for this finding were collected from the sixth year evaluation of the
"Longitudinal Study of Children at Risk," an ongoing study of low-income,
minority children in the Chicago public schools.
Clark
(7:85-105) drew a sample of 1,141 high- and low-achieving third-graders from 71
Los Angeles elementary schools and analyzed parental data gathered through
questionnaires. He found that parents of the high-achieving students set higher
standards for their children's educational activities than parents of
low-achieving students.
Student
achievement improves when parents become involved in their children's education
at school and in the community.
Recent
research has shown that, particularly for students who have reached high
school, the type of parent involvement that has the most impact on student
performance requires their direct participation in school activities (8).
Steinberg's
(8) three-year study of 12,000 students in nine high schools revealed that the
following types of parent involvement draw parents into the schools physically
and are most effective in improving academic achievement: attending school
programs, extracurricular activities, conferences, and 'back to school' nights.
It was concluded that "When parents come to school regularly, it reinforces the
view in the child's mind that school and home are connected-and that school is
an integral part of the whole family's life (8)."
Eagle
(9:12) analyzed data from a High School and Beyond national survey of 11,227
participants who were high school seniors in 1980 and participated in a
follow-up survey in 1986. She studied the effects upon student achievement of a
number of family background factors and concluded that, when SES is controlled,
"parent involvement during high school" had the most significant positive
impact upon student achievement of the factors studied.
Snow
(10) in her two-year study of home and school influences on literacy
achievement among children from low-income families, found that the single
variable most positively connected to all literacy skills was formal
involvement in parent-school activities such as PTA participation, attending
school activities, and serving as a volunteer.
From
their survey of 2,317 inner-city elementary- and middle-school parents, Dauber
and Epstein (11:61) found that the strongest and most consistent predictors of
parent involvement at school and at home are the specific school programs and
teacher practices that encourage parent involvement at school and guide parents
in how to help their children at home.
Student
achievement improves when parents are enabled to play four key roles in their
children's learning.
As
teachers, parents create a home environment that promotes learning, reinforces
what is being taught at school, and develops the life skills children need to
become responsible adults.
As
supporters, parents contribute their knowledge and skills to the school,
enriching the curriculum, and providing extra services and support to students.
As
advocates, parents help children negotiate the system and receive fair
treatment, and work to make the system more responsive to all families.
As
decision-makers, parents serve on advisory councils, curriculum committees, and
management teams, participating in joint problem-solving at every level (1:15).
Characteristics
of Families Who’s Children Are Doing Well in School
Henderson
(1:9) observed from her 1994 review of current literature that families whose
children are doing well in school exhibit the following seven characteristics:
Establish
a daily family routine
From
her analysis of data collected through a large national survey conducted by the
National Center for Educational Statistics, Eagle (9:12 ) identified "providing
a place to study" as one of three family characteristics which were
significantly related to student achievement.
Monitor
out-of-school activities
Data
from The 27th (1995) Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's
Attitudes Toward the Public Schools (12:54,55) indicates that parents may
already be involved in monitoring some of their children's important
out-of-school activities:
95%
said that during the past school year they made sure that homework assigned to
their children was completed;
94%
said that they defined limits on the amount of TV any of their children could
watch.
Keith,
et. al., (3:487) concluded that homework and time spent watching TV during the
week are intervening or mediating variables which can be under the control of
parents and are, therefore, means through which parental involvement may affect
learning directly. They also found that students who spend more time on
homework watch less TV during the week; this additional time spent on homework,
in turn, increases student achievement (3:488).
Model
the value of learning, self-discipline, and hard work
Caplan,
et. al., (13:39) studied the family characteristics of Vietnamese, Laotian, and
Chinese-Vietnamese children who immigrated to the United States in the late
1970s and early 1980s. The researchers identified several significant family
practices that are both embedded in the Southeastern-Asian cultural heritage
and related to high achievement:
"Love
of learning" was rated most often by both parents and students as the factor
accounting for academic success.
The
families emphasized education as the key to social acceptance and economic
success.
Relative
equality between the sexes, both among parents and children, was one of the
strongest predictors of high GPAs. In households where fathers and boys helped
with family chores, grades were significantly higher.
The
families believed strongly in their potential to master their own destiny, not
that luck or fate determines success.
Express
high but realistic expectations for achievement
Encourage
children's development and progress in school
Rumberger,
et. al., (14:295), in a study of family influences on dropout behavior, found
that parents of high school dropouts were less engaged in their children's
schooling than were the parents of students who did not drop out prior to
graduation. Variables studied included parent attendance at parental school
activities (e.g., PTA meetings and open house programs), attendance at student
school activities (e.g., athletic events and drama and music productions)
helping with homework, and total number of contacts with the school.
Fehrmann,
et. al., (15:337) concluded from their analysis of data collected from the High
School and Beyond study cited above that "Parents might well help their high
school children achieve higher grades through monitoring their daily
activities, by keeping close track of how they are doing in school, and by
working closely with their students concerning planning for post-high school
pursuits.
The
same authors (15:335) observed that, "given the results indicating the
important influence of homework on grades, a more focused parent involvement
aimed at encouraging students to spend more time on homework might well lead
indirectly to higher grades."
Encourage
reading, writing, and discussions among family members
The
California English-Language Arts Framework (16:4) envisions ". . . a home
environment where parents model effective listening, speaking, reading, and
writing and offer appropriate help with their children's homework."
Dornbusch,
et. al., (17:1245 ff) tested a theory adapted from one originally formulated by
Baumrind (1971) that adolescents' school performance is influenced by the
parenting style of their parents. Three parenting styles were compared:
authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative. Authoritarian parents provide
advice and tell children that their parents are correct and should not be
questioned; they discourage verbal give-and-take with their children.
Permissive parents tend to be uninvolved with their child's education; they
also seldom participate in give-and-take communication with their children.
Authoritative parents encourage open, give-and-take communication and encourage
the child's independence and individuality. Using a large (N=7,836) sample of
high school students, Dornbusch found that authoritative parenting was
positively correlated with good grades, while there was a strong negative
correlation between both authoritarian and permissive parenting and good grades
(significant at the .001 level of confidence). Parent involvement in their
children's education appears to be enhanced by the open, give-and-take
communication used by authoritative parents in such activities as family
reading, writing, and discussions.
Through
her analysis of the previously referenced High School and Beyond national
survey, Eagle (9:12) found "reading to the student in early childhood" to be
one of the three characteristics of family backgrounds significantly related to
student achievement.
Previously
cited research on recently emigrated Southeastern-Asian families Caplan, et.
al., (13:39) found that in almost half of the random sample of 200 families
studied, the parents read aloud to their children, either in English or their
native language; students from those families earned significantly higher
grades.
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