The Relationship between Parents' Educational Achievement and Students' Academic Performance

Abstract

[Objective] To counter the looming United States “demographic cliff,” many researchers focus on optimizing the best writing support for international students, specifically those who are English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners. Consequently, they neglect writing support for US-educated, English-as-a-first-language learners. This study addresses that research gap, exploring how understanding mothers’ and fathers’ highest completed levels of education could direct pre-college interventions to the domestic students who need them the most.

[Methods] To better understand the relationship between parents’ educational achievement and students’ academic performance, this study used quantitative descriptive research design to analyze secondary data extracted from the 2011 12th-grade NAEP writing assessment.

[Results] The findings suggest a relationship between parental educational achievement levels and student academic performance, using 12th-grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) writing scores as a proxy for overall academic performance since writing is integral to success in all contexts at all academic levels.

[Conclusions] The findings suggest that educators have an opportunity to develop domestic students’ writing skills earlier than their first college years and, therefore, positively impact their future educational outcomes.

Keywords: NAEP writing scores, first-generation college students, writing skills, US domestic students, parental education levels