The Role of Parental Involvement in Students' Academic Achievement

How Parental Involve­ment and Fam­i­ly Sup­port Dri­ve Stu­dent Success

If you could wave a mag­ic wand that would improve the chances of school suc­cess for your chil­dren as well as their class­mates, would you take up that challenge?

For decades, researchers have point­ed to one key suc­cess fac­tor that tran­scends near­ly all oth­ers, such as socioe­co­nom­ic sta­tus, stu­dent back­ground or the kind of school a stu­dent attends: parental involvement.

The extent to which schools nur­ture pos­i­tive rela­tion­ships with fam­i­lies — and vice ver­sa — makes all the dif­fer­ence, research shows. Stu­dents whose par­ents stay involved in school have bet­ter atten­dance and behav­ior, get bet­ter grades, demon­strate bet­ter social skills and adapt bet­ter to school.

Ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion is a peri­od of learn­ing that occurs after birth until age 5, when a child’s brain is rapid­ly devel­op­ing. High-qual­i­ty ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion pro­grams can yield sig­nif­i­cant life­long ben­e­fits for stu­dents, accord­ing to the Nation­al Edu­ca­tion Association.

Chil­dren who spend their ear­li­est years learn­ing in a pos­i­tive and pro­duc­tive envi­ron­ment are: 

• less like­ly to repeat a grade;
• more pre­pared aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly for lat­er grades;
• more like­ly to grad­u­ate from high school; and
• high­er earn­ers in the workforce.

Fam­i­ly involve­ment in ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion more secure­ly sets these stu­dents up to devel­op a life­long love of learn­ing, which researchers say is key to long-term success.

A gen­er­a­tion ago, the Nation­al Par­ent Teacher Asso­ci­a­tion found that three key par­ent behav­iors are the most accu­rate pre­dic­tors of stu­dent aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment, tran­scend­ing both fam­i­ly income and social status:

1. cre­at­ing a home envi­ron­ment that encour­ages learning;
2. com­mu­ni­cat­ing high, yet rea­son­able, expec­ta­tions for achieve­ment; and 
3. stay­ing involved in a child’s edu­ca­tion at school.

What’s more, researchers say when this hap­pens, the moti­va­tion, behav­ior and aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance of all chil­dren at a par­tic­u­lar school improve, accord­ing to researchers. Sim­ply put, the bet­ter the part­ner­ship between school and home, the bet­ter the school and the high­er the stu­dent achieve­ment across the board.

Down­load A Parental Involve­ment in Edu­ca­tion Report

What Is Parental Involve­ment and How Is It Dif­fer­ent From Parental Engagement?

Parental involve­ment is the active, ongo­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion of a par­ent or pri­ma­ry care­giv­er in the edu­ca­tion of a child. Exam­ples of par­ent involve­ment in schools include: 

• read­ing with children;
• help­ing with homework;
• dis­cussing school events;
• attend­ing school func­tions, includ­ing par­ent-teacher meet­ings; and
• vol­un­teer­ing in classrooms.

While both parental involve­ment and parental engage­ment sup­port stu­dent suc­cess, they have impor­tant dif­fer­ences.

Parental involve­ment: A set­ting where par­ents par­tic­i­pate in school events or activ­i­ties while teach­ers hold the pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty of set­ting edu­ca­tion goals. In this sce­nario, the teach­ers pro­vide the learn­ing resources and infor­ma­tion about a stu­den­t’s grades.

Often­times, how­ev­er, fam­i­lies and care­givers have impor­tant infor­ma­tion about their chil­dren that teach­ers may not know. Hav­ing both edu­ca­tors and fam­i­lies engaged enrich­es the stu­dent experience. 

Parental engage­ment: A set­ting where home and school come togeth­er as a team. Schools empow­er par­ents and care­givers by pro­vid­ing them with ways to active­ly par­tic­i­pate, pro­mot­ing them as impor­tant voic­es in the school and remov­ing bar­ri­ers to engage­ment. Exam­ples include encour­ag­ing fam­i­lies to join the fam­i­ly-teacher asso­ci­a­tion or arrang­ing vir­tu­al fam­i­ly-teacher meet­ings for fam­i­lies with trans­porta­tion issues.

Research has found that the ear­li­er edu­ca­tors estab­lish fam­i­ly engage­ment, the more effec­tive they are in rais­ing stu­dent performance.

Why Is It Impor­tant to Involve Par­ents in School?

Parental Involve­ment Ben­e­fits Stu­dent Aca­d­e­m­ic Performance

The sta­tis­tics for par­ent involve­ment in edu­ca­tion are com­pelling. A review by the Nation­al Com­mit­tee for Cit­i­zens in Edu­ca­tion found that stu­dents expe­ri­ence numer­ous aca­d­e­m­ic ben­e­fits when schools and fam­i­lies work togeth­er. These ben­e­fits include:

• bet­ter grades;
• high­er test scores;
• high­er grad­u­a­tion rates; and
• stronger enroll­ment rates in post­sec­ondary education.

Among the research find­ings that sup­port the impact of stu­dent involve­ment in improv­ing school performance: 

• One study found that high school stu­dents whose par­ents were high­ly involved in their edu­ca­tion were more like­ly to pur­sue col­lege when com­pared to their class­mates with dis­en­gaged par­ents. In this study, 80% of grad­u­ates whose par­ents were ​“high­ly involved dur­ing high school” pur­sued or earned an under­grad­u­ate degree com­pared to just 56% of grad­u­ates whose par­ents were ​“not very involved dur­ing high school.”
• Anoth­er study, pub­lished in 2015, exam­ined a week­ly inter­ven­tion that saw teach­ers deliv­er­ing a one-sen­tence per­son­al­ized mes­sage to par­ents of high school stu­dents in a course cred­it recov­ery pro­gram. The mes­sages decreased the share of stu­dents fail­ing to earn course cred­it by 41% — from 15.8% of stu­dents to just 9.3%.
• In yet anoth­er study, researchers assessed the impact of an ear­ly child­hood par­ent edu­ca­tion pro­gram in Flori­da, found that chil­dren whose moth­ers were trained to use learn­ing mate­ri­als at home had ​“sig­nif­i­cant advances in read­ing and math tests” when they entered school and that these advan­taged per­sist­ed into the fourth grade.

Research also indi­cates that class­rooms with engaged fam­i­lies per­form bet­ter as a whole, mean­ing that the ben­e­fits affect vir­tu­al­ly all stu­dents in a class­room.

Parental Sup­port Pos­i­tive­ly Influ­ences Children’s Behavior

Par­ent involve­ment also impacts the broad­er stu­dent expe­ri­ence — help­ing to sup­port more pos­i­tive behav­iors, bet­ter engage­ment and few­er absences in school. Among the research find­ings that sup­port this perspective:

• Researchers exam­ined children’s aca­d­e­m­ic and social devel­op­ment across first, third and fifth grades. Their study found that chil­dren with high­ly involved par­ents had ​“enhanced social func­tion­ing and few­er behav­ior prob­lems” rel­a­tive to their class­mates whose par­ents were less involved.
• Anoth­er study looked at fam­i­ly engage­ment across 3,000 schools and com­pared pre- and post-pan­dem­ic changes in edu­ca­tion. It found that schools with weak fam­i­ly engage­ment saw chron­ic absen­teeism grow by 16% dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, which was six per­cent­age points high­er than what schools with strong fam­i­ly engage­ment experienced.
• Two researchers from Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty looked at the effect of teacher com­mu­ni­ca­tion on stu­dent engage­ment. Their study found that, on aver­age, teacher-fam­i­ly com­mu­ni­ca­tion increased the odds that stu­dents com­plet­ed their home­work by 40%, decreased instances in which teach­ers had to redi­rect stu­dents’ atten­tion to the task at hand by 25% and increased class par­tic­i­pa­tion rates by 15%.

Par­ent-Teacher Col­lab­o­ra­tion Improves the Learn­ing Environment

Par­ents can be involved in their child’s edu­ca­tion in a num­ber of ways, includ­ing par­tic­i­pat­ing in activ­i­ties like vol­un­teer­ing at school, com­mu­ni­cat­ing with teach­ers and sup­port­ing aca­d­e­m­ic-relat­ed activ­i­ties at home. 

The Nation­al Com­mit­tee for Cit­i­zens in Edu­ca­tion review notes that schools gain the fol­low­ing ben­e­fits when they work well with families:

• improved teacher morale;
• par­ents who rate teach­ers higher; 
• high­er stu­dent achieve­ment; and
• bet­ter rep­u­ta­tions in the community.

In one study, researchers com­pared ELA and math pro­fi­cien­cy at 3,000 schools pre- and post-pan­dem­ic. While pro­fi­cien­cy declined across the board, the drop was far less extreme for schools with strong fam­i­ly engage­ment (27% less severe for ELA pro­fi­cien­cy and 37% less severe for math pro­fi­cien­cy) rel­a­tive to schools with weak fam­i­ly engagement.

How Can Par­ents Get Involved in Their Child’s Education?

1. Make learn­ing a pri­or­i­ty in your home, estab­lish­ing rou­tines and sched­ules that enable chil­dren to com­plete home­work, read inde­pen­dent­ly, get enough sleep and have oppor­tu­ni­ties to get help from you. Talk about what’s going on in school. 
2. Read to and with your chil­dren: Even 10–20 min­utes dai­ly makes a dif­fer­ence. And par­ents can go fur­ther by ensur­ing that they read more each day as well, either as a fam­i­ly or pri­vate read­ing time that sets a good example.
3. Ask teach­ers how they would like to com­mu­ni­cate. Many are com­fort­able with text mes­sages or phone calls, and all teach­ers want par­ents to stay up to date, espe­cial­ly if prob­lems arise.
4. Attend school events, includ­ing par­ent-teacher con­fer­ences, back-to-school nights and oth­ers — even if your child is not involved in extracur­ric­u­lar activities. 
5. Use your com­mute to con­nect with your kids; ask them to read to you while you dri­ve and encour­age con­ver­sa­tions about school. 
6. Eat meals togeth­er: It’s the per­fect oppor­tu­ni­ty to find out more about what’s going on in school.
7. Pri­or­i­tize com­mu­ni­ca­tion with teach­ers, espe­cial­ly if demand­ing work sched­ules, cul­tur­al or lan­guage bar­ri­ers are an issue. Find out what resources are avail­able to help get par­ents involved. 

Parental Involve­ment Out­side the Classroom

Out­side of the class­room, engaged par­ents more often see them­selves as advo­cates for their child’s school — and are more like­ly to vol­un­teer or take an active role in governance. 

Researchers have not­ed that par­ent involve­ment in school gov­er­nance, for instance, helps par­ents under­stand edu­ca­tors’ and oth­er par­ents’ moti­va­tions, atti­tudes and abil­i­ties. It gives them a greater oppor­tu­ni­ty to serve as resources for their chil­dren, often increas­ing their own skills and con­fi­dence. In a few cas­es, these par­ents actu­al­ly fur­ther their own edu­ca­tion and upgrade their job.

While pro­vid­ing improved role mod­els for their chil­dren, these par­ents also ensure that the larg­er com­mu­ni­ty views the school pos­i­tive­ly and sup­ports it. They also pro­vide role mod­els for future par­ent leaders.

Read­ing and Homework

Very ear­ly in their school career — by fourth grade — chil­dren are expect­ed to be able to read to learn oth­er sub­jects. But recent research shows that about two-thirds of the nation’s pub­lic school fourth graders aren’t pro­fi­cient read­ers.

To make chil­dren suc­cess­ful in read­ing, and in school more gen­er­al­ly, the sin­gle most impor­tant thing you can do is to read aloud with them.

Youth Sports and Oth­er Extracur­ric­u­lar Activities

Par­ents can make or break their child’s rela­tion­ship with sports and oth­er extracur­ric­u­lar activ­i­ties, so they should think deeply about how to show chil­dren the fun of mas­ter­ing a new skill, work­ing toward a group or indi­vid­ual goal, weath­er­ing adver­si­ty, being a good sport and win­ning or los­ing gracefully.

Beyond this, par­ents with coach­ing skills should con­sid­er vol­un­teer­ing to get involved. The Nation­al Alliance for Youth Sports notes that only about 5% to 10% of youth sports coach­es have received any rel­e­vant train­ing before coach­ing, with most coach­es step­ping up because their child is on the team and no one else volunteered.

Parental Involve­ment in Juve­nile Justice

Par­ents find­ing them­selves involved in the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem on behalf of their kids face a sys­tem that offers many chal­lenges and few resources. 

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juve­nile Deten­tion Alter­na­tives Ini­tia­tive has long sought to sharply reduce reliance on deten­tion, with the aim of decreas­ing reliance on juve­nile incar­cer­a­tion nationwide.

But par­ents whose chil­dren face the judi­cial sys­tem can make a dif­fer­ence. Sur­veys of cor­rec­tions offi­cials note that fam­i­ly involve­ment is one of the most impor­tant issues fac­ing the juve­nile sys­tem, and it is also the most oper­a­tional­ly challenging. 

One well-respect­ed frame­work out­lines the impor­tance of five ​“dimen­sions” that mea­sure parental involve­ment, includ­ing recep­tiv­i­ty to receiv­ing help, a belief in pos­i­tive change, invest­ment in plan­ning and obtain­ing ser­vices and a good work­ing rela­tion­ship between the par­ent and the jus­tice system.

What Suc­cess­ful Parental Involve­ment Looks Like

Experts urge par­ents to be present at school as much as pos­si­ble and to show inter­est in children’s schoolwork.

As not­ed in a ​“Parental Involve­ment in Edu­ca­tion” pol­i­cy brief, the Nation­al PTA lists six key stan­dards for good parent/​family involve­ment programs:

1. Schools engage in reg­u­lar, two-way, mean­ing­ful com­mu­ni­ca­tion with parents.
2. Par­ent­ing skills are pro­mot­ed and supported. 
3. Par­ents play an inte­gral role in assist­ing stu­dent learning.
4. Par­ents are wel­come in the school as vol­un­teers, and their sup­port and assis­tance are sought. 
5. Par­ents are full part­ners in the deci­sions that affect chil­dren and families. 
6. Com­mu­ni­ty resources are used to strength­en schools, fam­i­lies and stu­dent learning.

How To Avoid Neg­a­tive Parental Involvement

Teach­ers may, on occa­sion, com­plain of ​“heli­copter par­ents” whose involve­ment — some­times called ​“hov­er­ing” — does more harm than good. One vet­er­an edu­ca­tor recent­ly told the sto­ry of an award-win­ning col­league who quit the pro­fes­sion because of the grow­ing influ­ence of ​“a group of usu­al­ly well-inten­tioned, but over-involved, over­pro­tec­tive and con­trol­ling par­ents who bub­ble-wrap their children.” 

What these par­ents fail to under­stand, he said, is that their good inten­tions ​“often back­fire,” imped­ing their children’s cop­ing skills and capac­i­ty to prob­lem-solve. Such over-involve­ment can actu­al­ly increase children’s anx­i­ety and reduce self-esteem. 

The colleague’s plea: ​“Please part­ner with us rather than per­se­cute us. That will always be in your children’s best interests.”

Resources for Par­ents, Teach­ers, School Admin­is­tra­tors and Advocates

• Child Trends Fam­i­lies and Par­ent­ing Research
• Har­vard Grad­u­ate School of Edu­ca­tion’s Usable Knowl­edge series
• Par­ent Insti­tute for Qual­i­ty Education
• Parental Involve­ment in Stu­dent Success
• The Nation­al Par­ent Teacher Association
• Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty Nation­al Net­work of Part­ner­ship Schools
• The Casey Foun­da­tion Parental Involve­ment in Edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy brief
• The Casey Foun­da­tion’s Fam­i­lies as Pri­ma­ry Part­ners in Their Child’s Devel­op­ment and School Readiness