ABSTRACT
The home can be a nurturing place for the achievement of students, or it can be a place of low expectations and lack of encouragement in learning. Most parents, however, begin with positive aspirations for their children: certainly children are born into a set of expectations and these expectations can be critical to the success of children when they go to school. A major concern is that some parents know how to speak the language of schooling and thus provide an advantage for their children during the school years, and others do not know this language, which can be a major barrier to the home making a contribution to achievement. This chapter investigates the influences of the family resources, the family structure and environment, television, parental involvement, and home visiting. A theme developed in this chapter is that parents can have a major effect in terms of the encouragement and expectations that they transmit to their children. Many parents, however, struggle to comprehend the language of learning and thus are disadvantaged in the methods they use to encourage their children to attain their expectations.
