Assessing the effects of parental decisions about school type and involvement on early elementary education

Low achievement in public schools as well as wide achievement gaps between learners of color and low income and their white and higher income peers are persistent concerns in the United States K-12 schools. Two promising reforms have been proposed to improve educational outcomes: school choice and greater parental involvement.; The main goal of this study is to examine how school type and parental involvement affect elementary-level student achievement.; Although both school types and parent involvement have been the subject of extensive research, the literature is very limited in linking both, and even sparser in linking school types and parent involvement simultaneously to student achievement. This study contributes to the literature by linking school types and parent involvement to student achievement using nationally representative longitudinal data on early elementary grades in the United States.; The study found that school types (Catholic, other-religious, non-religious private schools; choice public, assigned public, assigned-also-chosen public schools) do not have any association with reading scores, but religious private schools tend to be negatively correlated with math scores. Among the 8 parental involvement variables tested, "academic expectations by parents for child" and "child reading at home" have robust correlations with reading and math scores. The study notes that "active school involvement" by parents have no correlation with reading scores, and very little association with math scores. The study also found that parents who choose schools other than the assigned public school tend to be more involved---school type and parent involvement are complements.; These findings hope to inform education policies and parent-involvement programs to equalize opportunities and bridge achievement gaps across different race/ethnicities, income levels and parental education background.