When people talk about the importance of parental involvement in education, they often mean involvement in the schools--things like PTA committees and restructuring task forces. This kind of involvement can be positive or it can exacerbate tensions and conflicts. Anyway, it is a form of political activity, a way of participating in the political life of the school. There is another kind of parental involvement that we don't hear so much about and that is far more important. I'm talking about the involvement of parents with their children's education at home. This means encouraging children to read and reading to them, monitoring their homework assignments, setting reasonable limits on the amount of television they watch and making sure they go to school every day and get there on time. And it means talking to them about why school is important--pointing out friends and relatives or heroes who worked hard, did well in school and became successful. Some would say that nobody talks about this kind of parental involvement because it is just what parents do.
However, a lot of evidence shows that many parents do not take this kind of direct interest in their children's education and that the kids' education is suffering. Many children do not get such attention because both parents are working and are too tired at night or can't be bothered. But the biggest number are kids in single-parent families.
As "America's Smallest School: The Family," a report by the Educational Testing Service, reminds us, there has been a big increase in one-parent families over the past 20 years. In 1969, 9.8 percent of U.S. children lived in single-parent families; by 1989, the number had more than doubled to 21.9 percent. We know that children living with both parents do better academically. For example, 8th graders in Wyoming, North Dakota and Nebraska, a higher percentage of whom live with both parents than 8th graders in other states, scored at or near the top of the 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in math. Of course there are youngsters in single-parent families who do well academically, but these are exceptions.
The statistics tell a different story. They reflect the many children who have been born out of wedlock to mothers who are children themselves and who are living in poverty. These mothers need help if they are to help their kids to learn.
For other parents, in single- or two-parent families, there are various ways of supporting their children's education. Parents who are readers and who buy a variety of reading materials have a good chance of turning their children into readers--and kids who achieve well in school. For example, 17-year-olds who have four or more kinds of reading materials--books, magazines, newspapers and encyclopedias--in their homes scored 25 points higher on the 1990 NAEP reading exam than kids with two or less. Youngsters with this variety of reading materials available also tend to have higher average scores on the NAEP math exams.
Whether or not they are readers, parents can show their commitment to their children's education by their TV-watching rules. "America's Smallest School" says that the number of youngsters who watch three or more hours a day continues to grow. Thirty-one percent of 17-year-olds watched three or more hours in 1972; 50 percent did so in 1990. These kids spent at least as much time in front of the tube every year as they spent in school--assuming they went to school regularly.
Parents seem to know they have a responsibility here. Almost two- thirds say they have rules about television watching on school days, but, looking at the number of hours kids put in, you have to conclude that the rules aren't worth much or that parents don't enforce them. If youngsters don't go to school, they can't benefit from what school has to offer. Here, too, many parents are failing their children by not making sure the kids attend school every day. In 1988, one 8th grader in five was absent three or more days a month--- or about six weeks per school year--and 12 percent were late three or more days a month.
This kind of involvement in their children's education is hard work for parents. They have to be around the house to supervise; they have to put pressure on the kids to turn off the television and do their homework or read something; they have to make sure the kids go to school even when there is some little reason for staying home. As "America's Smallest School" makes clear, many parents are not taking on this difficult job. But it's hard to think of anything more important they can do for their kids.