Impact of Parental Resources on Student Outcomes Using Elementary School Data

This paper examines the use of parental volunteer hours in elementary schools in the state of Kentucky and assesses whether they improve student learning in math, reading, writing, science, and social studies. A unique annual school-level panel dataset was created of over 600 elementary schools from 2000 until 2017. This approach is novel because it permits investigation of the impact of parental involvement in schools through achievement distributions in each subject area. The findings suggest that use of parental volunteer hours tends to reduce the percentage of students at the low end of the achievement distribution and increases the percentage at the high end in many grades and across several subjects. No instances were identified of detrimental impacts. The research implications are that opportunities may exist for school districts to improve student outcomes through encouragement and increased use of parental involvement in schools.