Academic Achievement of Homeschool and Public School Students and Student Perception of Parent Involvement

This paper presents the results of a survey of 127 seniors in a diverse subur-ban high school to determine the impact of the subjects ’ perceptions of parent involvement on their levels of achievement as measured by the standardized national ACT test. Independent-samples t tests were then used to assess wheth-er there were any differences in achievement as reported in national test scores among students with a perception of a high level of parent involvement, stu-dents with a perception of a low level of parent involvement, and homeschool students. The findings of the study were that the perception of a high level of parent involvement does have a significant impact upon achievement. Students who perceived a high level of parent involvement performed significantly bet-ter on the national ACT exam than students who perceived a low level of par-ent involvement. There was no difference in academic achievement between public school students who perceived a high level of parent involvement and homeschool students