Parental involvement overrated? Don't buy it
updated 4:08 PM EDT, Mon May 5, 2014
Keeping parents informed about their children's progress in school can help with homework completion, the authors say.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Writers: Recent articles said helping children with schoolwork has little value
- They say it's a misreading of research because kids getting help often fare poorly anyway
- They say numerous studies show grades, attendance improve when parents onboard
- Writers: Texting parents on progress, holding meetings with teachers critical to success
Editor's note: Todd Rogers is assistant professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Lucas Coffman is assistant professor of economics at Ohio State University. Peter Bergman is assistant professor of economics and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors.
(CNN) -- Should you be involved with your children's schooling?
Several recent articles have questioned the common belief that parent involvement is critical to improving student performance in school. One recent New York Times op-ed, titled "Parental Involvement Is Overrated," and an Atlantic piece called "Don't Help Your Kids With Their Homework," touched off a heated discussion online suggesting that parental involvement is of surprisingly little value to student achievement and, if anything, does more harm than good.
This interpretation of the evidence is misguided. Worse, it sends a dangerous message to families and policymakers: Encouraging parental involvement is unlikely to improve educational outcomes or reduce achievement gaps.
Todd Rogers
Lucas Coffman
Peter Bergman
Citing their research, the authors of the Times piece, Keith Robinson and Angel L. Harris, describe provocative findings that show that students of parents who are very involved in their children's education perform worse than students of parents who are less involved.
While the authors control for certain variables, their research only implies there is a relationship between parental involvement and student performance. This caveat is important; the existence of a relationship does not tell us what causes what.
Think of it this way: If you had two children, and one was getting A's and the other C's, which of them would you help more? The C student. An outsider, noticing that you've spent the school year helping only one of your children, might infer that parental help caused that child to earn lower grades. This of course would not be the case, and inferring causation here would be a mistake.
Fortunately, a rapidly growing body of research -- including our own -- looks at whether low-cost parental engagement interventions can cause changes in student performance. We are researchers in economics and psychology who conduct randomized controlled experiments in educational settings.
Randomized experiments, modeled after medical clinical trials, are the "gold standard" for understanding whether a given behavior causes a change in a specific outcome. Results from these Opinion: Parental involvement overrated? Don't buy it - CNN.com: