Parent Involvement

Every research study on parent involvement conducted in the past 20 years has shown the same result: Parent involvement increases student achievement and self-esteem. Research has shown this to be true in large and small communities. Item preschool through high school, in poor and affluent areas, in urban, rural, and suburban communities.

In their 1994 book, A New Generation of Evidence: The Family is Critical to Student Achievement, Ann T. Henderson and Nancy Berla write, "The evidence is now beyond dispute, when schools work together with families to support learning, children tend to succeed not just in school, but throughout life. In fact, the most accurate predictor of a student's achievement in school is not income or social status, but he extent [0 which that student's family is able to:

1. Create a home environment that encourages learning.
2. Express high, realistic expectations for their children's achievement
3. Become involved in their children's education at school and in the community."

Henderson and Berla go on to say, "When parents are involved in their children's education at home, their children do better in school. When parents are involved at school, their children go farther in school, and the schools they go to are better."

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