Does Parent Involvement Really Make a Difference?

1. Does Parent Involvement Really Make a Difference? Laura Chianese

2. What does parent involvement entail? 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

3. What studies have shownFan and Chen (2001) • 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.

4. Jeynes (2003)Effects of Parent Involvement on populations that experience low rates of academic success • 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.

5. Dearing et al. (2004)Relationship between family involvement during kindergarten through fifth grade 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.

6. Gonzalez-DeHass, Willems, Holbein (2005) The relationship between parent involvement and students’ attitudes and motivation • 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

7. Mattingly et al. (2002)Relationship between parent involvement and a targeted academic area • 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.

8. The answer is Yes! 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