Is Daily Parental Help with Homework Harmful? Reexamining Heterogeneity in National Data

• In Event: 2484 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 15. Parents and Families in Education

Abstract

Conventional wisdom suggests that parents have a positive influence on student learning when they help with homework. However, previous studies using national datasets have shown a negative relationship between parental homework help and student achievement. This study uses data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class to examine heterogeneous associations between daily parental homework help and student achievement based on the propensity for a parent to provide daily help with homework. Results indicate that parents of low-income minority children with low academic achievement are most likely to provide daily help with homework. These same children were also most likely to show gains in achievement from daily parental help with homework. One implication of these results is that daily parental help with homework may be a beneficial source of support for low-income minority students with low prior achievement.

Authors

• Angran Li, University of Connecticut

• Daniel Hamlin, Harvard University