For high school youth, parents can monitor homework and encourage participation in wholesome extracurricular activities, provide a sense of proportion to TV watching and video games, talk often to teachers, be active in parent-teacher associations, and help their children develop plans for careers and further education. Data from the National Assessmet of Educational Progress support the efforts of families at home. In other words, most of the differences in achievement observed across states can be attributed to home practices. Studies also show a strong relationship between the number of higher-level courses taken and student achievement and college entrance test scores. Higher achievement results, in part, from the increased amount of homework completed by students with families who are more involved in their education.
Parents benefit as well.
They develop a greater appreciation of their role in their children's education, an improved sense of self worth, stronger social networks, and even the desire to continue their own education. Teachers report that they are encouraged by strong support from involved parents to raise their expectations for both children and parents. Read Together . Children's success in school can be linked to reading to children and listening to them read. If every parent of a child aged 1 through 9 spent one hour reading or working on schoolwork with the child 5 days a week, American parents would annually devote at least 8.7 billion hours to supporting their children's reading.