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The authors analyze the subtle mechanisms at work in the interaction between families and schools that underlie social inequalities at the transition point from elementary school into secondary-school tracks in Berlin, Germany. They do so by combining quantitative data from a large-scale survey and assessment study (N = 3,935 students and their parents) with qualitative data from in-depth interviews with parents (N = 25) collected during the 2010-11, 2011-12, and 2012-13 school years. The quantitative analyses show that students from high-socioeconomic status (SES) families were more likely to enter the academic track than were students from low-SES families, even if they performed equally well on a standardized achievement test, had the same grades in school, and received the same track recommendation from their teachers. The qualitative analyses illustrate the many ways in which parents intervene during the transition process, with high-SES parents having particularly effective ways of getting what they want for their children. (DIPF/Orig.).

When studying an educational system, the relationship between school and parents is one of its most important components. The literature shows that highly effective schools demonstrate good parent–teacher relationships, while schools with low effectiveness are generally characterised by a lack of good parent–school linkage. The purpose of the research carried out in this article was to identify the differences between parent–school relationships in highly effective and less effective primary schools in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Twenty-five interviews with members of management teams from both types of schools were analysed in order to understand the existing school reality. The results obtained show that parental involvement, parent–school communication, the perceived needs of the parents, the parent–teacher association, the relationships with entities of the educational community and parental complaints about the school are all factors that contribute to differentiate parent–school relationships between highly effective schools and schools with low effectiveness. The conclusions reached reveal that highly effective school management teams perceive greater involvement of parents and better parent–teacher association functioning. However, the people in the schools with low effectiveness highlight the complaints they receive from parents and the needs they present.

Through school-based networks, parents obtain information, practical help, and other resources. Because networks vary by size and structure, access to these resources is uneven. What accounts for differences in access to social ties and in the mobilization of those ties to provide resources? In this article, we analyze a network of mothers of eighth graders at a Philadelphia public school. With a near-complete census of network ties, we explore mothers' access to and mobilization of information and practical help through social ties. We find that mothers' school-based participation, rather than their race or class-based social position, is associated with resource access and mobilization. Importantly, greater levels of participation increase the likelihood that a mother will provide—but not obtain—information and practical help. Our results can help inform public policy and practice on family and community engagement in schools.

Despite widespread recognition of the critical role that family–school partnerships play in student learning, preservice teacher programs globally still provide only limited preparation for authentic parent engagement. This article synthesizes thirty years of international research, policy analysis, and accreditation standards to identify persistent gaps in teacher education. A review of legislation and professional frameworks from the United States, Europe, and Ireland, shows that although most jurisdictions now mandate family–school collaboration competencies, implementation remains uneven. A practical framework for reimagining teacher education is presented, centered on relational skills, cultural competence, experiential learning, and reflective practice. Authentic parent partnership must be treated as a core professional competency—on par with subject expertise—and systemic alignment among accreditation bodies, teacher education institutions, and school leadership is essential for translating policy into practice. Recommendations target policymakers and educators committed to preparing all teachers to collaborate effectively with the families they serve.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been shown to benefit from parent-implemented interventions (PIIs). This meta-analysis improved on prior reviews of PIIs by evaluating RCTs and multiple potential moderators, including indicators of research quality. Fifty-one effect sizes averaged moderately strong overall benefits of PIIs (g = 0.553), with studies having lower risk of research bias yielding lower estimates (g = 0.47). Parent and observer ratings yielded similar averaged estimates for positive behavior/social skills (g = 0.603), language/communication (g = 0.545), maladaptive behavior (g = 0.519), and to a lesser extent, adaptive behavior/life skills (g = 0.239). No other study, intervention, or participant characteristic moderated outcomes. PIIs with children with ASD tend to be effective across a variety of circumstances.

Attendance in kindergarten and elementary school robustly predicts student outcomes. Despite this well-documented association, there is little experimental research on how to reduce absenteeism in the early grades. This paper presents results from a randomized field experiment in 10 school districts evaluating the impact of a low-cost, parent-focused intervention on student attendance in grades K–5. The intervention targeted commonly held parental misbeliefs undervaluing the importance of regular K–5 attendance as well as the number of school days their child had missed. The intervention decreased chronic absenteeism by 15%. This study presents the first experimental evidence on how to improve student attendance in grades K–5 at scale and has implications for increasing parental involvement in education.

As privilege-dependent organizations, U.S. public schools have an interest in catering to higher-SES White families. But, what happens when privileged families’interests conflict with schools’ stated goals? Focusing on the case of homework, and drawing insights from organizational theory, cultural capital theory, and research on parent involvement in schools, I examine how schools’ dependence on higher-SES White families influences their enforcement of rules. Using a longitudinal, ethnographic study of one socioeconomically diverse public elementary school, I find that teachers wanted to enforce homework rules, but they worried doing so would lead to conflict with the higher-SES White “helicopter” parents, on whom they relied most for support. Thus, teachers selectively enforced rules, using evidence of “helicopter” parenting to determine which students “deserved” leeway and lenience. Those decisions, in turn, contributed to inequalities in teachers’ punishment and evaluation of students. Broadly, these findings suggest privilege-dependence leads schools to appease privileged families, even when those actions contradict the school’s stated goals. These findings also challenge standard policy assumptions about parent involvement and homework, and they suggest policies aimed at reducing the power of privilege are necessary for lessening inequalities in school.

Parents play important roles in their children's lives, and parental involvement in elementary school in particular is meaningful for a range of child outcomes. Given the increasing number of school-aged children with incarcerated parents, this study explores the ways paternal incarceration is associated with mothers' and fathers' reports of home- and school-based involvement in schooling. Using Fragile Families Study data, we find that a father's incarceration inhibits his school- and home-based involvement in schooling, but associations for maternal involvement are weaker. Results are robust to alternative specifications of incarceration that address concerns about selection and unobserved heterogeneity. Findings also hold across levels of father-child contact. We also conducted a test of the system avoidance mechanism and results suggest it partially explains reductions in school involvement for fathers following incarceration. Given the reoccurring interest in the interconnection between families and schools and how this translates into success, this study suggests that paternal incarceration is associated with lower parental involvement in schooling and highlights the role of system avoidance in this association. Attachment to social institutions like schools is quite consequential, and this work highlights another way mass incarceration influences social life in the United States.

Using longitudinal time diary and survey data from a community sample of dual-earner couples across the transition to parenthood, the authors examined change in divisions of paid and unpaid work and assessed the accuracy of survey data for time use measurement. Mothers, according to the time diaries, shouldered the majority of child care and did not decrease their paid work hours. Furthermore, the gender gap was not present prebirth but emerged postbirth with women doing more than 2 hours of additional work per day compared to an additional 40 minutes for men. Moreover, the birth of a child magnified parents' overestimations of work in the survey data, and had the authors relied only on survey data, gender work inequalities would not have been apparent. The findings have important implications for (a) the state of the gender revolution among couples well positioned to obtain balanced workloads and (b) the utility of survey data to measure parents' division of labor.