Out-of-School Learning and Family Involvement

The vast majority of students' lives are spent outside of school, away from teachers and school administrators. Given estimates that students spend only about 20% of their week at school, it is not surprising that their lives outside of school influence academic achievement. This entry discusses how the time students spend outside of school impacts their engagement and achievement in school, focusing on how students' interactions with family members affect their engagement and achievement in school.

There is a wide array of activities in which parents can get involved in their children's education outside of the school building. The term parent is used here to refer to any adult caretaker of children, including biological parents, grandparents, siblings, foster parents, or other relatives or fictive kin. In ...