Home/School Relations

Parental involvement is well established as being correlated with student academic achievement. Five-year summaries of research in this area are available on the Web site of the National Network of Partnership Schools (NNPS), located at lohns Hopkins University.

These research studies corroborate that the involvement of family in a child's schooling contributes to positive results for students, including better school attendance, more responsible class preparation, more course credits earned, and higher achievement even through the high school years. As described in this entry, areas in which parental involvement is significant for student achievement are language development, homework, television supervision, and support to pursue a higher education.

Parent-guided children's visits to informal educational institutions in the community such as natural history museums, botanical gardens, zoos, and cultural institutions such as art museums and libraries can also support a child's education. For families with a single parent or two working parents, community-based organizations (CBOs) are important in helping continue the educational process after school. Organized programs may include the supervision of homework, the opportunity to learn other skills, and assisting with the development of talent in such areas as the arts, sports, and leadership.

For teachers and active parent associations who want to strengthen home/school relations, the NNPS is an established resource that provides materials to assist with parent involvement in schools. In addition, the NNPS Web site provides summaries of research studies on effective family involvement. Currently, more than 1,000 schools, 100 districts, and 17 state departments of education are working with NNPS to use research-based approaches to establish and strengthen their programs of school, family, and community partnerships. One study by NNPS reported a hierarchical linear modeling analysis showing that ongoing parental involvement in high school ameliorated low math achievement test scores of high school students in neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty. This study also confirmed that it was not too late to initiate parent and community involvement programs, even at the high school level, as benefits accrued through 12th grade.

Research by Joyce Epstein found that the more specific and clear were the instructions for parents to help with homework, the greater the gain in student achievement. Her report also determined that the strongest results in student achievement occurred when the goals as well as the instructions were clear, and the homework help was well designed. Epstein documented that when teachers require parent-child interactions in completing math homework, and provide math materials for families to take home, the percentage of students who achieved math proficiency increased from the previous year to the next. Similarly, an increase in student reading skills was obtained when teachers involved families in subject-specific interventions in reading and related language arts. In the area of science, NNPS studies found family involvement in homework led to significant results for homework completion and for the improvement of students' science report card grades.