Nagging the School: An Empirical Analysis of Parent-School Contact and Academic Achievement

Abstract

This paper examines detailed parental contact data to determine the relationship between specific types of parental contact and academic achievement. Using one primary dataset and two secondary datasets from the National Center of Education Statistics, I estimate a nonparametric regression model and a supplemental linear model for each type of parental contact. I find that parental contact for all purposes except fundraising or volunteering is negatively correlated or has no statistically significant relationship with the student’s reading and math achievement, with more frequent parental contact being associated with lower achievement.