CEP Issues Report on the Effect of Parent Involvement on Student Achievement

The National School Boards Association’s Center for Public Education recently released a report, Back to School: How Parent Involvement Affects Student Achievement, that examines what research says about the relationship between parent involvement and student outcomes.

The report reviews a number of ways parents get involved with their local schools and finds that something as simple as engaging families in their children’s homework can be one of the best ways to advance their learning.

Findings of the report include:

• Parent involvement is high. (About nine in 10 parents report having attended a school or PTA or PTO meeting in the past year, while eight in 10 attended a parent-teacher conference. Family income is not a factor in the level of parent involvement; low-income families are as likely to report being involved as those with higher incomes.)
• Parent involvement can produce better student outcomes. (A Southwest Educational Development Laboratory synthesis of 51 studies showed that students with involved parents were more likely to: earn higher grades and scores; enroll in higher-level programs; be promoted; earn credits; have better attendance and social skills; graduate and attend college. However, not all parent involvement is related to student gains.)
• Six categories of parent involvement were identified. (Johns Hopkins researcher Joyce Epstein identifies these as:  parenting [schools help with parenting skills]; communicating; volunteering; learning at home; decision making; and community collaboration.)
• Of the six categories, support for learning at home produces the biggest student gains. (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory found that “programs and interventions that engage families in supporting their children’s learning at home are linked to higher student achievement.”  Other studies have found that targeted outreach to parents also has a beneficial impact on improving attendance and helping students prepare for and enroll in postsecondary education.)
• Encouraging parents and guardians to volunteer and attend school events can strengthen the central place public schools hold in the community. (However, these activities do not have much impact on student achievement.  There are many good reasons to encourage families’ involvement in school. But if the goal is to improve student outcomes, family-school partnerships that supplement student learning at home are the best bet.)

To access this report, please visit:

Center for Public Education: Back to School: How Parent Involvement Affects Student Achievement

Background information:

The Center for Public Education