The researcher believed that parental involvement was critical to student achievement. Parents are their children's first teachers; parents have long-term relationships with their children and have a vested interest in them. Therefore, parents are essential to their children's academic success (Jeynes, 2010). Problem Statement The problem for this study was to examine the inadequacy of parental involvement as one of the most prevalent conundrums facing public schools, especially in rural American regions with evidence of extreme poverty (Semke & Sheridan, 2012). Educators are faced with proliferating accountability standards as they are challenged to overcome academic inequities highlighted by unparticipatory parents in their children's educational process. This study explored facilitating parental involvement, defined barriers created by poverty, and suggested methodologies for reducing academic learning disparities among students attending a high-poverty rural school district. Research (Howland, Anderson, Smiley, & Abbott, 2004) has indicated that active parental involvement in the child's educational progress has an ongoing and powerful effect