Do you actively participate in your child’s education? Why that might backfire...

If you hate helping with homework and teacher’s conferences, you’re going to love this study. 

Researchers from the University of Texas and Duke looked at three decades of statistics and measured the levels of parental participation with their children’s educational success. Their findings determined that no amount of volunteering at school or helping with homework resulted in measurable improvement in grades for the student. In some cases, it can actually backfire. Other essentially useless parenting interventions: observing a kid’s class; helping a teenager choose high-school courses; and frequently meet with teachers and principals. 

Parental involvement did not help with standardized test scores and at the middle school level, parents helping with homework sometimes even brought test scores down. The researchers did find that academically enthusiastic parents can be a great asset to the school system at large, securing extras such as better text books, playgrounds and after-school activities – but their children didn’t necessarily academically outperform those with school slacker parents.