Last year researchers from the University of Hampshire concluded that:
“Parental effort is consistently associated with higher levels of achievement, and the magnitude of the effect of parental effort is substantial. We found that schools would need to increase per-pupil spending by more than $1,000 in order to achieve the same results that are gained with parental involvement.”
You can read the press release about the study here, and you can read the actual study, Parental Effort, School Resources, and Student Achievement.
I have to admit that I’m a bit wary about quantifying parent involvment/engagement in those terms, even though the results certainly support my perspective.
I’d be interested in hearing from others who are more experienced with this kind of research — does the methodology of this study look good?
I’m not a social scientist, but as a teacher (and parent) I would in a heartbeat take a class with engaged parents in exchange for a $1000/per student cut in resources. (In effect that’s what a lot of charter schools do, and most of them outperform the public schools in proximity because of the difference in parent interest and engagement.)
I taught in the NYC public schools, which (in my failing public school) had far more resources per head than I had as a child in my local public school – and yet the performance gap is enormous. That is the parenting gap.
Thanks for highlighting the importance of parents!