Dr. Chandra Muller is assistant professor of sociology at The University of Texas at Austin. Parents and Schools Parental involvement captures the attention of a nation that makes education a top priority.
Parents recognize the benefits and value of active participation in their children's education.
School administrators realize that a parental involvement policy is an appealing tool for dealing with student problems and declining budgets, and most school districts have instigated such policies. State and national policy makers discuss parental involvement policies at conferences and in the media. Sociologist James Coleman, in his influential 1966 study, showed that attributes of parents made more of a difference in how students performed at school than any measurable qualities of the school. Not only did family background make a difference in achievement, he pointed out, but it affected how well students used the school's resources. Perhaps most controversial, the combined family background of students in a school affected the achievement of each student, independent of the student's own parents' attributes.