The Importance of Parents in K–12 Education

In today's Seattle Times, columnist Jerry Large interviews University of California education professor W. Norton Grubb. Grubb, an economist and author of The Money Myth: School Resources, Outcomes, and Equity, notes that although a variety of factors—such as money, class size, and teacher experience—can have small effects on academic achievement, family is a strong predictor of outcome. This finding, Large reports, points to "a need for more emphasis on early education and parent education" and for "shifting focus from what's easy to count to what really counts."

That parental involvement is important to children's educational achievement has, for many parents, long seemed self-evident. It makes sense intuitively that children who have parents actively supporting and helping to foster their educational progress would have better outcomes.

Exactly why parents have such a big effect, however, isn't as simple as it might seem. New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell, for instance, argues compellingly in his book Outliers: The Story of Success that who one's parents (and grandparents) are has a huge effect on achievement (as do one's birthdate, culture, and class). Success is not, as we like to think, simply a product of an individual's effort; rather, it is largely determined by factors beyond a person's control.

So although focusing on early education and parental education is certainly, as Large says, "a good first step," we must also recognize that any widespread change will likely take years—even generations—to effect and, consequently, to measure.