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Parental Involvement on Educational Outcomes

August 1, 2008 |

The Impact of Parental Involvement on Educational Outcomes: An Integrative Review

by Doris A. White (August 2008)

The efficacy of parental involvement in schools is usually taken for granted, but the issue is so complex that a single study cannot reasonably measure the effectiveness of parental involvement and its influence on educational outcomes. This review of literature examines several propositions regarding the influence of parental involvement on educational outcomes by synthesizing the findings of using the tools of meta-analysis, literature synthesis, evaluation synthesis, vote-counting, and best-evidence synthesis. Each of these methods combines results of a large number of studies to determine aggregated results of relevant existing studies. Meta-analysis reviews quantitative studies to provide statistical indicators of aggregate results. Meta-synthesis reviews qualitative studies to yield information regarding various education practices. Vote-counting is close to meta-analysis, but focuses on summing the rejection of null hypotheses and ascertaining the dichotomy of significant versus nonsignificant results.

This integrative review was organized around several research questions regarding the impact of parental involvement on educational outcomes. Based on the findings of this review, promising practices regarding salient practices with respect to parental involvement in schools are recommended.

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