In response to:
Why Canadian students are among the globe's smartest
Published in the Globe and Mail (August 23, 2013)
The article entitled “Why
Canadian students are among the globe’s smartest” (August 23, 2013), correctly
reports OECD evidence demonstrating the lack of relationship between a handful
of common parent activities in schools and student achievement. However, the
article draws the sweeping and incorrect conclusion that “Parental
involvement in schools appears to result in lower test scores, not higher
ones.” Parent involvement in school occurs both in the school and in the
home. The evidence about parental involvement is more nuanced than the
article conveys.
The evidence concerning parental
involvement with school in the home context indicates that parents make
significant contributions to the success of their children at school when they
engage in practices of the following kinds: reading to their
children, communicating high expectations and
aspirations for their children’s success at school, providing access
to school- related social and intellectual resources, talking frequently
with their children about school-related
issues, and promoting their children’s critical
thinking.
Considerable
evidence also indicates that parents are better able to do these
things when they involve themselves in the school for the purpose of
communicating with teachers about their children’s challenges and
progress, and learning about the school’s curriculum, the language of
schooling and the opportunities available to their children through the
school.
Thus, while some forms of parental
involvement in schools have little to do with student learning, others are
quite critical to such learning. It is a disservice to parents to categorically
conclude that there is an adverse relationship between their involvement and
school performance.
- Ruth Baumann
- Ron Canuel, CEO, Canadian Education Association
- Gerry Connelly, Co Director Education Sustainability Development Academy, York University
- Lorna Earl, Director, Aporia Consulting Ltd. and President of the International Congress of School Effectiveness and School Improvement
- Sue Ferguson, Associate, Curriculum, Teaching & Learning Dept., OISE
- Kathleen Gallagher, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
- Joan M. Green, O.Ont., Former Director of Education, Founding CEO of EQAO, International Consultant on Public Policy
- Bill Hogarth, Retired Director of Education, Education Consultant
- Ken Leithwood, Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
- Penny Milton, former CEO, Canadian Education Association
- Charles E. Pascal, Professor, University of Toronto, Former Ontario Deputy Minister of Education
- Jim Slotta, Professor and Canada Research Chair, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
- Charles Ungerleider, Professor Emeritus (The University of British Columbia) and Director of Research (Directions Evidence and Policy Research Group, LLP.
Illustrative Studies
Borgonovi, F., Montt, G. (2012). Parent
involvement in selected PISA countries and economies.France, OECD (07 May)
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis
of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London, UK:
Routledge.
Hawes, Carmen Ann, Plourde, Lee A. (2005). Parental
involvement and its influence on the Reading achievement of 6th grade
students, Reading Improvement, 42, p. 47.
Jeynes, W. (2005). A meta-analysis of the relation of
parent involvement to urban elementary school student academic
achievement, Urban Education, 40, 3, 237-269.
Park, H. (2008). The varied educational effects of
parent-childcommunication: a comparative study of fourteen countries,Comparative
Education Review, 2008, 50, 2, 219-243
