Encouraging School Achievement in Mexican American Children

Parents of 33 high-achieving and 49 low-achieving Mexican American fourth-and fifth-grade children completed questionnaires on beliefs and values related to education and childrearing. On questions about the value of education in general, the importance of a high school diploma for enabling their children to get good jobs, the amount of education they expect their children to attain, whether or not parents should help children with homework, and the frequency at which they helped their children with schoolwork, parents of high and low achievers did not differ Parents of high achievers were more likely to be upset with grades of Cs and Ds, were more likely tofeel that there were many things they could do to help their children do well in school, and modeled reading skills morefrequently than parents of low achievers. Results are discussedfrom two theoretical perspectives-cultural/ecological theory and primary cultural discontinuities theory.