ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire)—When it comes to being involved in your kid’s schooling, there is a fine line for parents. You want to be engaged, but you also want to avoid being the helicopter or snowplow parent, hovering overhead in case there’s a problem or plowing the way by pressing teachers on your child’s behalf. Now new research offers some fresh perspectives about the benefits of parent involvement in school.
Want to help your child thrive in school? A new study finds one simple way is to be more involved in your student’s learning. Researchers from the University of Illinois analyzed data from 448 studies involving more than 480,000 families. They found the more involved parents were in their child’s schooling, the better the student’s academic achievement, motivation, and social adjustment. Kids were consistently better adjusted when their parents were more active in their school life, both at school and at home. And those with parents who were more involved were less likely to face delinquency.
Some ways to be more involved: volunteer in the classroom, attend school functions, read at home with your child, communicate with their teacher, and discuss school-related events regularly.
The analysis did uncover one caveat: kids whose parents were highly involved, or too involved with their homework had lower academic achievement. But homework assistance was positively associated with better engagement and motivation.
Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Supervising Producer; Julie Marks, Writer; Roque Correa, Editor.
Produced by Child Trends News Service in partnership with Ivanhoe Broadcast News and funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
(Source: https://www.readingrockets.org/article/getting-parents-involved-schools)