to ask what the most important factors actually are in helping children do well academically

[somewherewest]

According to a poster over on the AIBU thread about grammar schools several essays suggest that "the most deciding factor of any child's academic achievement at school is the educational background of its mother and/or the number of books in the family home".

Is parental education genuinely such a decisive factor? If it is how do we go about trying to promote an educational 'level playing field' for all children?

The first time I heard about the overwhelming importance of a mother's level of education, was in a Robert Winston documentary many years ago, where he was looking at babies and trying to predict how they would develop in later life. (Anyone remember the name of it?)

Anyway there was a quiz where he asked which was the best predictor of a child's ultimate level of educational attainment given the choices: father's job; private school education; mother's level of education; how wealthy the family were etc. And the answer he gave was that the mother's education was the one that made the most difference.

I don't remember if he tried to unpick whether that was due to passing on good genes or something to do with the way the mothers interacted with their children.

There have been studies re mother's education and books in the house so don't see how anybody was trolling.

I agree that parental attitudes to education are crucial, as are books or encouraging reading. Just one more reason why the cuts to library funding are taking yet more opportunities away from poorer families.

Educational achievement of mum (and dad), family and friends massively influences the conversation around a child.

Without thinking about it educated parents talk about science, politics, history, geography etc. some of this will be over the DCs heads if it's between adults, but some of it won't be. All of it gives the idea that learning stuff and being interested in stuff is important.

Women, who didn't engage well with education tend to chatter about real people, celebs and soaps. In front of DCs much of this gossip has to be censored and vague.

Given DCs seem to confuse fact and fiction well into reception, I'm not sure what children get out of this sort of adult conversation. Some social skills perhaps?

AmITwirly - that would be Child of our time, the one about the babies born in 2000 that he's following into adulthood.

I've seen the statement about the correlation between mothers' level of education and children's academic success several times, though don't know the original source. But I guess that if we rule out genetics for a moment (as the correlation is with mothers rather than fathers), then it must be to do with things like educated mums talking more to their children, reading to them, answering their questions and so on.

Statistically the statement is true -- if you're trying to predict children's academic success using just one factor then their mothers' level of education has the highest degree of correlation.

But that doesn't mean anything deeply profound about any individual child or any individual mother. There are going to be a whole host of factors at play.

Well I am from an immigrant family and my mum isn't highly educated.
We had hardly any books at home.

However, my parents valued education and had high expectations of us. I would go to the library pretty much every week and get several books out. I had no tuition and passed my 11+ and went to grammar school as did my sister.

I remember being invited on a course to improve my literacy so that I could help my struggling child , I went, but missed the first session as I had an interview for sister on intensive care . ( I got the job) Most of the people (all mums) on the course were perfectly intelligent women who had no idea why their child was behind. It was all quite patronising in the end. Turned out he was dyslexic.

I work in Reception and each child always has a book in their book bag to be read at home. Since very few can read at this age, it's up to the parents/careers to read to the child. I do know that there is a direct link between how often the books are read and the academic progress made by each child.

I'd agree with that wineo'clock, I work in a school too. It's not just about the reading though, it's also the things that parents must do that become apparent to us because they are the parents turn up to the meetings, write in the book, have the odd chat at the end of the school day, don't need to be chased for permission slips, send PE kit in, and just generally show that they don't regard school as an inconvenient form of childcare.

I remember this one:

centerforeducation.rice.edu/slc/LS/30MillionWordGap.html

Being discussed when I doing my teaching degree. Tiny sample though. I would question what you can extrapolate from such a small cohort.

This one:

www.first1000days.ie

Is really popular at the moment.

What I find odd, is I never see any mention of stable home life, your mother may be educated up to the hilt but if she is engaged in a war of attrition with your Father every single night, its not going to be of much help to you.

I think whatever your parents education shouldn't really matter, because the school should be able to cope with DC who have backgrounds with no learning support, of course it helps but it shouldn't be so important.

I also agree with attitude towards education being key regardless of parents attainments along with a can do positive attitude.

We had a staff meeting about this the other day (I'm a teacher) and the current 'biggest factor' that affects a child's academic progress in their family's income. One thing I've learned in my ten year tenure is that what the data suggests can be very different to what happens in real life. Personally, parents who spend time reading with their children, provide opportunities for learning life skills, support and encourage education and academic success, in addition to providing a loving home, tend to have children who achieve academic success. SEN pupils with the aforementioned parents go on to achieve success too, although it isn't always reflected in a top grades.

loki are you saying you do agree with income thing or that you do.

That should say 'personally, I think. ...'

We had a staff meeting about this the other day (I'm a teacher) and the current 'biggest factor' that affects a child's academic progress in their family's income.

I think maybe the staff needs a refresher course in causality.

I am not convinced that you can really "outsource parental input to private schools". I have taught in a boarding school and whilst the teachers were more available than the comprehensive school I taught in, having 50 children in a boarding house with one member of staff of an evening can in no way compensate for the availability of an interested parent at home giving the 1:1 attention. Independent day schools obviously aren't quite the same, but parental involvement still plays a massive part for children in those schools.

I don't think it is coincidence that my mother read to us until we asked her to stop and helped us with homework throughout our schooling and that my DB and I were some of the more successful at school. Even really well resourced schools really can't recreate that or compensate for the lack of that parental involvement.

I can't deny what the data suggests, but having come from a low income family and done very well academically I don't think it is always the case. I think having parents who are interested in supporting and promoting education is what makes the difference.

It came from government. Hence the reason I said 'the latest factor'. It changes all of the time. Pupil premium is a massive focus at the minute for all schools.

It's the factors that give rise to their higher income that lead to more academically successful children, not the income.

Id like to see studies into poor but stable and happy home lives compared to all the rest.

The research evidence is clear: educational attainment of parents is the strongest predictor of a child's school performance. A fair bit of it is due to innate ability. Another (!) fair bit of it is due to parenting behaviours and contexts - eg, income, expectations about school work, and attendance.

It's no coincidence that gypsy/roma/traveller kids have some of the poorest educational outcomes. They experience a poweful combo of poor literacy/ education levels of parents; high mobility and absence levels; and low parental value placed on education past the 'learning to read and write' stage.

Me too. We're both bright and well educated... but broke. I'd love to be able to buy some of the opportunities private school kids get and/or the extra curricular/ buying a house in a m/class area/ etc etc.

Or powerful, even.