Chinese Parents’ Effect on Children’s Math and Science Achievements in Schools with Different SES

Chinese educational system is comprised of school, family and community, and coordination between school and family is the context for school management. Family education is the foundation of personal development with advantage in education time, content and techniques. This study chooses different school districts with different socio-cultural and economic backgrounds to compare and study the ways of parental involvement in different school districts and its impact on children’s STEM achievements in mathematics and science. In addition, the study also discussed the influence of parental involvement on children’s mathematics, physics, biology and geography in different family social economic status (SES) school districts. Generally speaking, parents’ expectations ranked first among the four areas, followed by parents’ communication, while school participation lies in the lowest. The lowest SES districts use the most parental control methods, and the highest SES area uses the most parental communication methods. The top two areas of SES use the most school communication methods. Furthermore, compared with girls, parents’ school participation has a significant negative impact on boys in the highest and lowest areas. Family communication has more influence on girls than boys. In school communication, it has the least impact on boys and girls.