School readiness of children of immigrants: Does parental involvement play a role?

Objective. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Kindergarten Cohort, this article analyzes the link between parental involvement and the school readiness of children of immigrants. Methods. Multivariate regression models estimate the association between parental involvement and the school readiness in English proficiency and math scores of children of immigrants. They also estimate the impact of this association on the gap in math scores between children of immigrants and children of natives. Results. Results demonstrate that parental involvement is associated with an increase in the level of English proficiency for children of immigrants. Parental involvement also is associated with a decrease in the gap in math scores between immigrant children from English- and non-English-speaking backgrounds. Parental involvement decreases the gap in math scores between children of immigrants and children of the native born by a third of a standard deviation. Conclusion. Given that parental involvement appears to benefit children of immigrants and given that they have lower academic achievement than children of the native born, these findings suggest that parental involvement policies and practices targeting children of immigrants could help decrease the academic achievement gap between children of immigrants and children of the native born.