Delores Leonard, right, helps her daughter Erin with her homework at the breakfast table before heading to work at a McDonald's Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois.
In the largest-ever study of how parental involvement affects academics, Keith Robinson, a sociology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and Angel L. Harris, a sociology professor at Duke, mostly found that it doesn’t.Image: Jim Young / Reuters
Parents and children meet outside the Brooklyn New School, a public elementary school, at the end of the day in New York.
The researchers combed through nearly three decades’ worth of surveys of American parents and tracked 63 different measures of parental participation in kids’ academic lives, from helping with homework to talking about college.Image: Mark Lennihan / AP
Jennifer Wonnacott holds her son, Gavin, 8 months, as she joins other mothers and children at a news conference to show their support for proposed legislation that would require parents to vaccinate all schoolchildren in Sacramento, California.
Most measurable forms of parental involvement seem to yield few academic dividends for kids, or even to backfire—regardless of a parent’s race, class, or level of education.Image: Rich Pedroncelli / AP
U.S. Senator Cory Booker, center, addresses a gathering of students and parents at his childhood school, Harrington Park School, in New Jersey.
Once kids enter middle school, homework help can actually bring test scores down, an effect that could be caused by the fact that many parents may have forgotten, or never truly understood, the material their children learn in school.Image: Mel Evans / AP
Delores Leonard, center, walks her daughters Emmarie, right, and Erin to school before heading to work at a McDonald's Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois.
Students whose parents frequently meet with teachers and principals don’t seem to improve faster than academically comparable peers whose parents are less present at school, according to the study.Image: Jim Young / Reuters
Iana Williams, 8, who is homeless, does her homework at a School on Wheels after-school program in Los Angeles, California.
No Child Left Behind required schools to establish committees and communicate with parents in their native languages. The theory was that more active parents could help close the test-score gap between middle-class and poor students.Image: Lucy Nicholson / Reuters
Araiz Avalos, center, and her husband, Richard, right, help their daughter Stephanie with her homework in their apartment in Stockton, California.
The researchers did find a handful of habits that make a difference, such as reading aloud to young kids (fewer than half of whom are read to daily) and talking with teenagers about college plans.Image: Max Whittaker / Reuters
Deirdre Pierce, left, with the DeKalb County Council of PTAs, listens as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools reads the findings of a report before announcing the school district has been removed from probation in Stone Mountain, Georgia.
Although it’s often said that poor students perform badly in school because their parents don’t care, the opposite is true. Across race, class, and education, the majority of parents reported speaking about the importance of school.Image: David Goldman / AP
Gary Parkes, president of the PTA at Carmel Elementary School, stands in an empty classroom in Woodstock, Georgia.
Upper-middle-class kids aren’t just told a good education will help them succeed. They are surrounded by family and friends who work as doctors, lawyers, and engineers and who reminisce about their college years around the dinner table.Image: David Goldman / AP
Education supporters arrive at the Capitol for a Parent-Teacher Association rally in Tallahassee, Florida.
Although Robinson and Harris didn’t look at school choice, they did find that one of the few ways parents can improve their kids’ academic performance is by getting them placed in the classroom of a teacher with a good reputation.Image: Phil Coale / AP
Shelton Stroman, left, and his partner Christopher Inniss, right, help their son Jonathan, 9, with homework in the couple's kitchen in Snellville, Georgia
Pesky parents are often effective, especially in public schools, at securing better textbooks, new playgrounds, and all the “extras” that make an educational community come to life, like art, music, theater, and after-school clubs.Image: David Goldman / AP