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Parental Involvement Tied to School Success
By Christina Quick | May 28, 2008
A recently published study confirms what many parents and educators have known all along: students perform better in school when their parents play an active role in their education.
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire collected data from more than 10,000 eighth-grade public and private school students, their parents, teachers and school administrators. The study examined how frequently parents attended meetings and volunteered at school, and how often they discussed school activities and academic issues with their children.
Researchers weighed the benefits of parental involvement against other factors that could influence student performance, such as a school’s budget and resources.
“Parental effort is consistently associated with higher levels of achievement, and the magnitude of the effect of parental effort is substantial,” says Karen Smith Conway, a UNH professor of economics and one of the study’s authors. “We found that schools would need to increase per-pupil spending by more than $1,000 in order to achieve the same results that are gained with parental involvement.”
I think Conway’s figure is too low. No amount of funds or programs can take the place of parents who are invested and involved in their children’s lives. That may explain why homeschoolers outperform many of their peers.
How do you stay involved in your children’s education? Post a comment below.
Topics: Education |
