An article from Maine’s Bangor Daily News shares some interesting research regarding parental engagement in education. According to this article, “Overwhelmingly, research strongly indicates that parents’ educational interactions with their children at home have a more significant, positive effect on student learning outcomes than most types of parent engagement in school.”

And what does this home-based parental engagement look like?

“Studies suggest the most effective strategy for parents is engaging in collaborative homework and educational activities in the home. This might involve asking questions about characters and themes in a reading assignment, reading together or playing a math game together.”

The article points to the importance of having educational resources in the home. To help out, the article recommends that schools provide enrichment materials and create a lending library for students. And as always, the key is parental communication:

Parent communication with children about their learning strongly influences students’ motivation and achievement.

You can read the whole article which includes four key characteristics of effective parental engagement by clicking here. England has also recently begun to talk about the importance of home learning. You can read about that by clicking here.