ABSTRACT

Parental involvement is one of the hottest topics in educational circles. Concurrently, urban students are probably the group most studied by educational researchers. Unquestionably, understanding the dynamics of this involvement in urban students is one of the most important quests in the social sciences today. This chapter traces: (1) the historical development of parental involvement among urban children in the United States from colonial times until present; (2) the growth of research in parental and community engagement among urban youth; (3) what the body of research indicates about the importance of parental involvement in relation to being a key to raising academic outcomes in the cities; and (4) how the body of research in this discipline can help parents, teachers, and communities become more effective in educating children.