Parental Aspirations for Their Children’s Educational Attainment: Relations to Ethnicity, Parental Education, Children’s Academic Performance, and Parental Perceptions of School Climate

The article, “Parental Aspirations for Their Children’s Educational Attainment: Relations to Ethnicity, Parental Education, Children’s Academic Performance, and Parental Perceptions of School Climate” draws data from several research tests done to determine whether parental aspirations for their children’s educational achievement in relation to ethnicity (African American, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic), parental education, children’s academic performance, and parental perceptions of the quality and climate of their children’s school. The study was on mid-Atlantic state from parents (13,577) of middle and high school students from a large public school and a system within a culturally diverse county. The focus of the research is based on two questions: “(1) to what extent do parental aspirations vary by ethnicity, parental education, and children’s academic performance, and; (2) to what extent do parental perceptions of the school climate relate to the educational aspirations parents hold for their children, after controlling for ethnicity, parental education, and academic performance?” The study concluded similarly to that of many other researches on this topic- parent of all ethic and educational levels have high aspirations for their children. Also, “Caucasian parents with lower levels of education had significantly lower educational aspirations for their children than did parents of other ethnicities with similar low levels of education.” The study concludes that parents of all educational levels and ethnicity have high expectations of their children’s educational aspirations but children’s educational success is associated with the educational level of the parent.

The article, “Relationship between parental education and academic achievement of Xhosa Children from Monogamous and Polygynous Families” explores the association between educational achievements of children from polygynous families with that of their parents within a group of population in South