Getting involved in your child’s school has long-lasting, positive effects on both their academic performance and their overall attitude about school. Hundreds of research studies over the last three decades have highlighted the tremendous benefits to school, students, and community when parents get involved in their children’s education. Here are some highlights.
Benefits to Students
When parents are involved in their children’s education, the children are more likely to:
- Earn better grades
- Score higher on tests
- Pass their classes
- Attend school regularly
- Have better social skills
- Show improved behavior
- Be more positive in their attitude toward school
- Complete homework assignments
- Graduate and go on to post-secondary school.
- Better morale among teachers
- Higher ratings of teachers by parents
- More support from families
- A better reputation in the community
- Be more confident at school
- Be more confident in themselves as parents and their ability to help their children learn
- Be held in higher opinion by teachers and have teachers expect more from their children
- Enroll in continuing education to advance their own schooling
- Succeed academically
- Participate in extracurricular activities
- Enjoy school
- Enroll in continuing education to advance their own schooling
- Have to repeat a grade
- Be suspended or expelled
Benefits to Schools
Schools with involved parents enjoy:
Benefits to Parents
When parents become involved in their children’s education, the parents are more likely to:
It Works
In both two-parent and father-only households where dads are highly involved at school, children are more likely to:
They are less likely to:
When parents get involved early in their children’s education, the results are more pronounced and long-lasting.
The more parents are involved in education, from working with their children at home to volunteering to fundraising to decision-making at school, the better for student achievement.
One study found that students from families with above average parental involvement were 30 percent more successful in school than those with below average involvement. Success was measured by GPA; test scores in math, science, reading, and social studies; promotion and retention rates; and teacher ratings.
Sources of Parent Involvement Studies
There are many noted scholars who study parent involvement. Two of the most prominent, and among the first to quantify the benefits of involvement, are Anne Henderson and Joyce Epstein.
Anne Henderson is affiliated with New York University’s Institute for Education and Social Policy. She has co-written three books synthesizing the current research on involvement. The most recent is available as a free download: A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement.
http://www.sedl.org/pubs/catalog/items/fam33.html
Joyce Epstein is director of the Center on School, Family, and Community Partnerships at Johns Hopkins University. The Center oversees the National Network for Partnership Schools. Check out the Network’s website for information about its many involvement-related programs.
http://www.csos.jhu.edu/p2000/default.htm
The Parent Institute, an organization that offers products to help school administrators build involvement, has an eight-page, footnoted compilation of research online. You can get it here.
http://www.parent-institute.com/educator/resources/research/research.php