Currents

The Mamas and the Papas

Volume 6 / Issue 3 / Spring 2006

The Youth News Team is a Kentucky-based group of students and parents committed to engaging young people in education policy issues. The organization’s 2005 report, High School Students Have Parents, Too, explores the relationship between parents and their children’s high school academic success. Surveying 3,883 Fayette County high school students, Youth News Team asked 43 questions ranging from the weekly number of sit-down family meals to degree of parental attendance at school events. While 48 percent of students with GPAs of 3.5 or higher have parents who attend school events, only 25 percent of students with GPAs below 2.0 do. Interestingly, 65 percent of both students with GPAs of at least 3.5 and students with GPAs below 2.0 have parents who rarely or never help them complete their homework. Parents can support their high school students’ academic performance by

• helping their children select courses and encouraging them to take the most challenging math classes possible;
• making sure that they have a quiet place to study;
• showing interest in their school assignments and confidence in their ability to complete them;
• researching postsecondary options with their children; and
• sitting down to a meal with their children often and discussing daily events.

—Dinh Xuan Phan