How involved are your parents with your education? And what does social class have to do with student achievement?
According to , they are more important than schools when it comes to test scores.
A good
Excerpts from her story, "Parents not Schools Boost Exam Success", are below:
Parents who help with homework and attend school events can
outweigh the effect of weak schools, according to researchers in
America.
The team analysed data on more than 10,000 teenagers across the US.
The researchers found that pupils whose families were
supportive of their education and involved in school life but attended
weaker schools performed better academically than students who attended
effective schools but whose families were disengaged.
They set out
to define which was more important in boosting children's exam results,
analysing data on 10,585 teenagers from 1,000 randomly selected
secondary schools.
The researchers defined the most important factors in the
relationship between parents and children as trust, good communication
and active engagement in a child's academic life.
They also defined effective schools as those with the ability
to serve as a positive environment for learning, involving students in
extra-curricular activities, strong teacher morale and the ability of
teachers to address the needs of individual students.
"Middle class parents use concerted cultivation, creating a
full schedule of activities for their children to encourage academic
development.
"In contrast, working class and poor parents schedule far
fewer activities and instead view child development as accomplishment of
natural growth. They are less likely to actively play with their
children, leaving offspring more time to spend in free play. They also
talk with their children less."
The paper is published in the online journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility.
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