Does Parent Involvement Really Make a Difference?

Laura Chianese

Parent-child involvement Home supervision Educational aspiration for children School contact Participation Communication with children about school Checking homework Having high expectations for children’s success Encouraging children to read outside of school Attending school meetings Household rules about school Supportive environment

What does parent involvement entail?

Fan and Chen (2001) looked at 25 studies between parent involvement and student achievement. Results indicated a small to moderate relationship between

parent involvement and student achievement (0.25 effective size)

Fan and Chen found a strong relationship with parents’ aspiration and expectation for children’s academic achievement, but a weak relationship with parents’ supervision of children at home.

Stronger relationship when the area of achievement was broadly defined.

Success rate of academic achievement = 30% These findings make a good case for the positive influence of

parent involvement on students’ academic achievement.

What studies have shownFan and Chen (2001)

Parent involvement on minority children's academic achievement Analyses yielded an overall finding that parental

involvement had a positive effect on the academic achievement of the minority groups studied.

Effect sizes ranged from 0.43 – 0.62 All measures yielded statistically significant correlations coefficients.

Jeynes (2003)Effects of Parent Involvement on populations

that experience low rates of academic success

Involvement during children’s kindergarten years had “stable, promotive effects” on the literacy performance of all children throughout the elementary years

Strongest effects noted for children of less educated mothers High levels of family involvement correlated with more positive

feelings about literacy Motivation effects were greatest with children of less educated

mothers Parent involvement works in both a compensatory and

facilitative fashion.

Dearing et al. (2004)Relationship between family involvement during

kindergarten through fifth grade

Found a consistently positive relationship between parent involvement and outcome variables

Parent involvement correlates with: greater interest in learning greater self-efficacy greater persistence in challenging situations greater satisfaction with school work

Gonzalez-DeHass, Willems, Holbein (2005) The relationship between parent involvement and

students’ attitudes and motivation

Sheldon and Epstein (2005) returned to this study and found: Significant gains in students’ reading

or language achievement test scores Sheldon and Epstein argued that the

findings that were originally reported were the result of an analysis that was overly broad in its definition of parent involvement.

Mattingly et al. (2002)Relationship between parent involvement and a

targeted academic area

Combined results of these meta-analytic students and critical literature reviews support that parent involvement has a positive impact on student achievement

This relationship holds true across different ethnic and income groups, different grades and ages, and among parents of different levels of education

The answer is Yes!