opinion: parental involvement overrated? don't buy it - cnn · 05/05/2014 · school. one...

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Keeping parents informed about their children's progress in school can help with homework completion, the authors say.

Editor's note: Todd Rogers is assistant professor of public policy atHarvard Kennedy School. Lucas Coffman is assistant professor ofeconomics at Ohio State University. Peter Bergman is assistantprofessor of economics and education at Teachers College,Columbia University. The opinions expressed in this commentary aresolely those of the authors.

(CNN) -- Should you be involved with your children's schooling?

Several recent articles have questioned the common belief thatparent involvement is critical to improving student performance inschool. One recent New York Times op-ed, titled "ParentalInvolvement Is Overrated," and an Atlantic piece called "Don't HelpYour Kids With Their Homework," touched off a heated discussiononline suggesting that parental involvement is of surprisingly littlevalue to student achievement and, if anything, does more harm thangood.

This interpretation of the evidence is misguided. Worse, it sends adangerous message to families and policymakers: Encouragingparental involvement is unlikely to improve educational outcomes orreduce achievement gaps.

Citing their research, the authors of the Times piece, Keith Robinsonand Angel L. Harris, describe provocative findings that show thatstudents of parents who are very involved in their children's

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Parental involvement overrated? Don'tbuy itBy Todd Rogers, Lucas Coffman and Peter Bergmanupdated 4:08 PM EDT, Mon May 5, 2014

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

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They say numerous studiesshow grades, attendanceimprove when parents onboard

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Opinion: Parental involvement overrated? Don't buy it - CNN.com http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/05/opinion/rogers-coffman-bergman...

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education perform worse than students of parents who areless involved.

While the authors control for certain variables, theirresearch only implies there is a relationship betweenparental involvement and student performance. Thiscaveat is important; the existence of a relationship doesnot tell us what causes what.

Think of it this way: If you had two children, and one wasgetting A's and the other C's, which of them would youhelp more? The C student. An outsider, noticing thatyou've spent the school year helping only one of yourchildren, might infer that parental help caused that child toearn lower grades. This of course would not be the case,and inferring causation here would be a mistake.

Fortunately, a rapidly growing body of research -- includingour own -- looks at whether low-cost parental engagementinterventions can cause changes in student performance.We are researchers in economics and psychology whoconduct randomized controlled experiments in educationalsettings.

Randomized experiments, modeled after medical clinicaltrials, are the "gold standard" for understanding whether a

given behavior causes a change in a specific outcome. Results fromthese experiments suggest that involving parents is a potent,cost-effective and scalable way to increase student achievement in anumber of settings.

Highlights from this new literature include interventions inlow-income areas of Brazil, France, India and the UnitedStates. Sending parents whose high school childrenattended school in a low-income area of Los Angeles textmessages when their kids miss assignments can causestudent performance to increase as much ashigh-performing charter schools cause studentperformance to increase. In France, inviting parents tomeetings with school staff on how to navigate thetransition to middle school and also providing materials onthe roles of different school personnel reduces truancy by25%.

Paying low-income parents in India to improve theirchildren's literacy can be as effective at increasing childliteracy as paying the children directly, especially if theparents are literate and have the time and resources todevote to their children. Providing literacy classes formothers in India can meaningfully increase children's testscores. Asking Boston teachers to call middle schoolparents in the evening to let them know about theirchildren's academic progress, behavior and upcomingassignments can cut in-class misbehavior by 25% and

improve on-time homework completion by 40%.

Delivering brief messages to parents on a weekly basis about whattheir children are doing well and doing poorly can cut summer schooldropout rate almost in half. Sending parents two letters and providingaccess to a website with information about the usefulness of science,technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, classes canincrease the number of STEM classes their high school children takeby one full semester. Texting poor parents in Brazil if their child skipsschool can empower parents to compel the child to attend school.

Informing parents of public schools' average test scores leadsparents to choose higher performing schools for their children. AtH&R Block, allowing parents the option to have a federal financial aidform auto-filled for them using their tax return data can increase thelikelihood that their child completes two years of college over the next

Todd Rogers

Lucas Coffman

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three years from 28% to 36%. This is a new area of research, andthere are more questions than answers, but the results are extremelypromising and mutually supporting.

Parents are a cornerstone of educational success, and we needpolicies that empower, inform and involve them. The good news isthat research on what kinds of cost-effective policies this entails isunder way.

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• Reply •

Captain Moonlight • a day ago

So many of our society's problems originate with absentee parents or lack of effort bythe ones who do stick around.

Parents that get involved and don't expect the school system to raise their kids forthem should be applauded.

128

• Reply •

Alan Dike • 21 hours ago> Captain Moonlight

Totally agree.. now we need to remind people that involvement IS NOT doingtheir homework for them. Thats a disturbing trend I've seen recently.. kids dogreat in school, until it comes test time. Ends up, parents are doing the kidswork for them instead of leading them through the exercises.

40

• Reply •

Lee • 18 hours ago> Alan Dike

Good point. The main effort should come from the students. Parentsshould play a role of encouragement and honest help.

14

• Reply •

TeeBeeSanford • 3 hours ago

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> Alan Dike

I agree with you with one caveat. I know the problem I've noticed withmy younger two children (didn't see it with the older two) is the amountof homework and the complexity of the assignment. For example, my4th grade daughter is working on her final assignment for the year. Thiswould be the sixth such project, in which there is a 6 paragraph essay, aposter board with either depictions of artifacts, timelines or a createdartifact along with a memorized speech and presentation for the class,including a costume. Subject matter is historical person born before1950. Other such projects included Native American uses for naturalresources. Historical Hispanic figures and their contributions to society.How and what we can do to help with our energy consumption withmodels of alternative energy etc. Seriously? Come on who out therereally thinks a 9 year old can accomplish this alone? This on top of theappx. 2 hrs. of homework she has each night. For 4th grade??? I cantell you, my child is an a-b student and a high achiever but mom nowhas a working knowledge of how Native Americans lived, can answerany trivial pursuit question about Rita Moreno, have a solid grasp onalternative energy and anything you'd ever want to know about

9

• Reply •

Renée Hendrix • 2 hours ago> TeeBeeSanford

This mother of five hates these type of assignments, which areclearly designed for extensive parental involvement. At times, itbecomes a stupid creativity competition among parents. Ialready went to school, don't give ME homework!

5

Interested in everything • 2 hours ago> TeeBeeSanford

Curriculum is outdated. Historical figures that lived before 1950is less important than future innovations in math and science. Iagree - that's way too much of the WRONG work for a child. Weneed to teach our students things that will help them thrive in thedigital world, not be able to recite "in 1492 Columbus sailed theocean blue" which has literally NEVER come up in myprofessional life.

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opinion: parental involvement overrated? don't buy it - cnn · 05/05/2014 · school. one...

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