The impact of parental involvement, Parent support and Family Education on Pupil Achievements and Adjustments

The aims of the review are to investigate the impact of:

•  parental support (e.g. the provision of parenting skills training, advice and guidance for parents) on pupil achievement/engagement;
• family learning (i.e. as a Parent Governor, reading to children, encouragement and help with homework) on pupil achievement/engagement; and
• parents’ level of education, e.g. the impact of parents with universitylevel education on children’s achievement.

The main aim of the proposed project is to produce a comprehensive literature review of reliable research evidence on the relationship between parents/parenting and pupil achievement/engagement. The reviewattempts to answer the following research questions:

1. What are the main findings/conclusions of research that has investigated the relationship between parenting (in terms of parental support, family learning, parental involvement and parents’ level of education) and pupil achievement/engagement.
2. On what issues are the research findings in agreement? On what issues are the research findings Inconsistent? Where are the gaps in the current research evidence?
3. What elements of parental support, family learning, parental involvement and parents’ level of education impact positively on pupil achievement/engagement? Does the effectiveness of these elements change according to: (a) pupil age; (b) the gender of pupils; (c) whether parents participate on a voluntary – rather than required – basis; (d) socio-economic group; and (e) the way in which schools interact with parents?
4. What strategies/interventions have been successfully used (nationally and internationally – especially in the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the USA) to enable parental support, family learning, parental involvement and parents’ level of education to have a positive impact on pupil achievement/engagement? To what extent can these strategies/interventions be successfully implemented in
   present-day England?
5.  To what extent can those strategies/interventions, which effectively enable parental support, family learning and parental involvement to have a positive impact on pupil achievement, be deliberately targeted to address the achievement gap – particularly towards hard-to-reach parents?
6. To what extent does the timing of interventions impact positively or negatively? For example, what is the evidence for/against intervention from birth? What evidence is there that later interventions (e.g. at KS1, 2 or 3) have equal/lesser/greater impact?