Parental Involvement in Education

Abstract

This chapter examines the key factors of parental involvement in relation to African-American students' academic success. Researchers identified that school failure is common among low-income African-American youth in the United States. This achievement gap requires a review of areas, such as poverty and crime, family environments, parenting styles, and academic race stereotypes, that could possibly affect African-American's academic achievement. Data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey revealed that opportunities exist in reducing poverty and crime in African-American communities. Additionally, factors such as school-district locations may impact African Americans' perception of education. Most low-income schools lack educational resources to support students with increased learning needs which leads to greater disparities in developmental outcomes. Using social-cognitive theory as a framework, the authors found that increased parental involvement may improve African-American students' self-efficacy for increased academic motivation.