Parents' Reported Involvement in Students' Homework: Strategies and Practices

In this study we examined homework, the most common point of intersection among parent, child, and school activities related to formal learning, in interviews with 69 parents of first-through fifth-grade students. Analyses revealed rich information about parents' thinking, strategies, and actions related to homework. Their ideas generally clustered around 5 major themes: concern for children's unique characteristics as balanced with school demands, questions about appropriate levels of independent work by children, efforts to structure homework activities, direct involvement in homework tasks, and reflections on the personal meanings of perceived success and failure in helping children with homework. Findings suggested that students' homework represented a complex and multidimensional set of tasks for parents, for which they often felt ill-prepared, by both limitations in knowledge and competing demands for their time and energy. Strategies for involving parents more effectively in students' homework are suggested, based on the general finding that parents want to be involved more effectively in their children's school learning.