Impact of parental education and support on pupil performance

[mids2019]

I have a PhD in physics and in a fortunate position to help with my daughter with GCSE maths work in terms of algebra, trigonometry etc. as I have a mathematical background and still use maths

I have to say that assistance has brought on results in terms of test results etc. Of course my daughter is primarily responsible but I can't deny parental support and education really helps.

In some ways I can see it as a bit of an unfair advantage as other pupils in her class don't benefit from one to one tuition on the whole. I don't know if this should be viewed as unfair and you can't use having non university educated parents as a mitigation for any exam performance but it did make me think

Universities contextualise for living in deprived regions but should we also look at parental education when looking exam results to level the playing field?

Did you get help from your parents?

I speak fluent French and used to help my kids with French. Apart from the fact they have beautiful accents, they’re still both rubbish at it. I’ve clearly not passed on my linguistic genes at all. They’re both into science (vet med student and Biology student).

My elder brother is a Maths genius. I was good at Maths, but nowhere near his level. He would happily help with my Maths homework if I needed it.
How could you contextualise something like that? Or an another relative, or next door neighbour, or paid tutor..

I don't consider the help I give my children an "unfair" advantage. Its acknowledged that supportive parents increases attainment.

There are schemes for being first in family to go to university, aren't there?

I don't see how you could possibly control for all the variables that might impact a student's results, and level the playing field accordingly in a way that was actually fair.

It's possible to have parents who are highly educated but give very little help with homework or school activities, just as it's possible to have parents who have not received a high degree of formal education, but who are nonetheless very intelligent or engaged and play a big role in their children's education.

No I didn't which really brings this to focus. My parents left school with 3 o levels between them but I was self motivated.

I have my daughter constantly asking for help with maths and science which of course I give but I don't think she realises not every parent can do this

And you did fine 🤷‍♀️

I have my daughter constantly asking for help with maths and science which of course I give but I don't think she realises not every parent can do this

well common sense should tell her they don’t / can’t

and is she needing extensive help for these subjects at GCSE? I can count on one hand the number of times my year 11 son has called upon me for help. And he does very well.

is the bigger question around whether your daughter is struggling op?

My DS is a talented writer, as am I. The only way I helped was with reading with him and encouraging him to write. The talent is his.
He chose to go down the politics route at university though.

I dont believe in contextual offers anyway.
i think its a big issue that schools especially primary are carried by parents helping kids (for 11+ etc). Parents at dc school do all the reading practise. They wrre listened to 6 times a year if that by a teacher...

in terms of your op i have maths,bio, chem alevels but cant even really help with higher level gcse paper. As i cant remember -its 28 years ago now! But also the gcse work is much harder than we did. I think i woukd only get a 6 maybe 7 now. a
Dd has asd and cant get started on any work. But the maths tests etc have very short time limits.

The school homework is rubbish its almost 50% revision. So they almost never actually learn the tooic before revising.
i expect most parents around here are paying for tutoring for maths from y9.
We are also only getting about 20mins of maths homewokr aweek compared to getting some after every lesson like i used to.

My parents didn’t help me, but I was self motivated and very successful academically (not professionally, but that’s another thread). I am here to help my child - I’m a low-key tiger mum. However, my dc, so far, has not been interested and he’s not really benefitting, regardless of my availability + keenness.

Your daughter’s success is on her.

I helped DD1 with almost all her GCSEs. She has dyspraxia and couldn't revise alone. I reckon she ended up at least 1 grade higher in everything than she would otherwise have achieved.

Universities do look at whether the applicant is first in family to go to uni I think

Lots of Universities do include parental education in their* *criteria for making contextual offers, presumably for this reason.
I don't think there is any way of correcting for all possible advantages as they can only use fairly broad criteria and they won't always end up fair anyway. For example, my DC would have got contextual offers from some Universities based on our postcode. They have two professional parents and live in a nice detached house in a small desirable village. Nothing disadvantaged about them. But our village shares a postcode with a fairly deprived small town a few miles away, so scores highly on indices of social deprivation. Much of the rest of the postcode is farmland so there are not many residents who have attended university either. So statistically it's reasonable to make contextual offers to children in that postcode but in reality, it's only fair to make such offers to some of that population.
Likewise, you might assume that all children with well educated parents are at an advantage, but for all we know some of them will have been primarily raised by a nanny and have parents who work long hours who barely see them, never mind help with homework. Nor does not being highly educated mean that parents can't make a difference. My Mum grew up dirt poor in the 30s, one of a large number of children of a widow and her educational opportunities were limited. But she was very bright and extremely well read. In another time or place I am certain she would have been an academic high achiever. My Dad was far from stupid too but Mum was highly intelligent and that definitely gave me an advantage. I was reading the classics when most of my classmates were still struggling with Janet and John. We were no better off financially, in fact poorer than many, but there was a lot more what I suppose they'd call cultural capital these days in our house than most of my friends. That definitely helped me, not least by just showing me that there were possibilities beyond what was expected of most girls from my background. Something like that could never be picked up by the kind of criteria used to determine contextual offers but I do feel I was privileged compared to many of my classmates. Even when I went to University I found that I had a broader world view and thought more critically about things than many people who had much "better" backgrounds than me, and I credit my parents completely for that, though they'd never so much as seen a University themselves.
It's impossible to truly level the playing field. Contextual offers, if applied well, are a step in the right direction but they are very blunt tools.

lot of Universities do include parental education in their criteria for making contextual offers

source @AgeingDoc ?

This is a bit like the debate around MFL students having a parent who has the language as their mother tongue. I just don’t think it is in any way workable to take account of the very many advantages that may accrue.

MFL is my subject (hence comment above) so I was able to support my DC with their GCSEs and A level in one case. Not that I was much needed or asked for haha.

If someone had a parent who was an engineer, a teacher of any subject, a translator, a writer, a doctor... all of these will have expert knowledge in some area. Some parents will pay for a tutor. Some DC will have an older sibling who has just done the exams and done well and can give absolute excellently relevant help.

Then there are the parents who go out of their way to support with regular meals, somewhere to study, stationery as needed – many many students do not have these things. I don’t know know how practical it is to take account of all this?

YY universities in their contextual offers take account of some of the factors (eg living in a specific area which may mean lower income, being first in family to go to uni). But at GCSE level it's really hard.

Personal experience when volunteering at a school with a lot of pupils in that position, albeit some years ago. First generation to go to University was a factor for quite a lot. I'm sure you can Google individual institutions' policies if you wish.

There are so many possible variables that can positively or negatively impact a child's academic and emotional development.

Some children will benefit from wider 'social capital' that may help with applying to university or getting internships and work experience for example. Schools cannot cater for all such variables.

DS's secondary school make contextual offers including whether one or both parents have been to university and whether the child was on free school meals.

That's about as far as schools will likely go.

Yes definitely.

I think a big part of the advantage of having parents who are university-educated is growing up the expectation that university will be part of your future. Plus well educated parents are more likely to be able to encourage critical thinking and intellectual curiosity.

My children are both amazing at maths and science, luckily for them, because I am atrocious and definitely couldn't help them with anything. However, I am very good at English, which mine sometimes struggled with, but every time I tried to help they got annoyed and stormed off so it doesn't always work out!

I’m university educated as is my partner. DS has low academic attainment regardless. Early years neglect has affected his development, throw in genetics, likely in utero alcohol/smoking/drugs and a trauma response (he’s adopted). Our educational attainment and ability to help has been useful in terms of advocating for him but not impacted significantly in terms of academic percormance. So many variables at play and so hard to unpick!

Ok so no source that “lots of universities” do this at all.

The OP’s child is “constantly asking” for help, and this is just GCSE level, so I think that perhaps you’d be better off having a chat with the school Op, because being “constantly asked” for help at this stage would indicate she’s struggling

As I understand it generally the big difference is between those children with supportive and engaged parents, and those that aren't.

They didn't help with homework but they cared very much where I was, what I was doing, and whether I had done that homework properly. Any interest was encouraged, regular library trips, new books every birthday/christmas, trips to museums every school holidays - just because it was interesting. The general expectation was that I would work hard and achieve something, whatever that turned out to be.

But its nature vs nurture isn't it? I was always academic, I have siblings that never were. We are all happy and successful in different ways.

The biggest predictor of success at primary is your parents/home life apparently. There are many advantages/disadvantages at secondary too.

My parents didn't really help me with homework but they did:

• Provide nutritious food
• Provide a warm house with quiet space to study and sleep
• Buy me what I needed e.g. school supplies, revision books
• Allow me to focus on my school work e.g. I didn't have caring responsibilities, didn't need to work for money, wasn't worried about adult things as a teenager
• Have high aspirations for me and encouraged me by attending parents evening etc
• I didn't have a tutor, but they paid for one for my brother in certain subjects when he was worried

All of these things really helped me succeed
Of course you can do well without these advantages but it helps. Schools try to level the playing field by supporting kids at school, but some will always be dealt a tougher hand than others.