ABSTRACT

Family educational involvement is a primary component of national efforts such as Head Start and Title I to increase the academic performance of children at risk for underachievement (Nakagawa, 2000). Broadly defined, family educational involvement consists of the activities that families engage in to support or enhance their children’s learning. Although meta-analyses have found positive effects of family involvement on children’s achievement (Fan & Chen, 2001; Jeynes, 2003), other reviews have pointed out numerous methodological limitations in this research (Baker & Soden, 1997; Mattingly, Prislin, McKenzie, Rodriquez, & Kayzar, 2003). This study uses multiple methods to extend previous work on family educational involvement by highlighting links between social-ecological context, family involvement, and children’s achievement over time.