A report on a new British study begins this way:

A study by the Royal Economic Society, to be presented this week, finds that parental effect on test results is five times that of teachers’ influence.

I haven’t gotten a chance to read the study yet, but plenty of other studies have found that non-school factors control over two-thirds of student academic outcomes.  I’m assuming that this study includes socio-economic issues under “parental effect,” since those are major issues.  If it doesn’t, that raises big questions about the study’s accuracy.  But clearly parents have a huge effect either way….