Parental involvement in education and its effects on students' academic performance Educational standards have recently become a controversial issue especially in secondary schools. One of the controversial issues regarding educational standards is the lack of parental involvement. Various forms of parental involvement range from parental encouragement to parental collaboration with the school. By examining parental involvement in secondary education, it can be determined that positive parental involvement will have a profound effect on students' academic performance. Defining parental involvement, family relationships and self-esteem, and parent-teacher relationships can improve parental involvement. Definition Parental Involvement When dealing with the education system and finding ways to improve it, the need for parental involvement cannot be overlooked. The question that arises from this is: what exactly is parental involvement? According to Catherine Hickmann, in “Future of High School Success: Importance of Parental Involvement,” the various forms of parental involvement in secondary schools are parent as communicator, parent as supporter of activities, parent as learner, parent as advocate, parent as decision maker , parent as volunteer/professional and parent as home activities teacher. In the article “Relationships Between Parental Involvement and Student Achievement,” Joyce Flood uses researchers to break down parental involvement into three categories; parent-child relationships at home, parent training or involvement in performance contracts and parent-school-community partnerships. These categories can be further defined. Parent-child relationships at home enable... middle of paper... bonds for students and parents to learn together and offer community education classes to convince parents to come to school. In the article "Promoting Parental Involvement" there are other ideas for promoting parental involvement in education that leads children to excel academically. Conclusion This field of research was about parental involvement and its effects on students' academic performance. The focus was on family relationships at home and parental involvement at school. When researching this topic, it was necessary to establish a definition of parental involvement. The research was not time limited, as the concern was the general effects of parental involvement on students academically. The research consists of several suggestions on parental involvement, rather than focusing on a specific method by which to involve parents in students' education.