Topic > School Achievement and Academic Achievement

Academic achievement is an important issue for adolescents. Compared to that of children, academic achievement during adolescence has greater implications for the future. Steinberg (2013) defines academic achievement in three different but related concepts; academic achievement which refers to the grades obtained in school, academic achievement which refers to the student's performance on standardized tests, and academic achievement which is defined as the number of years of school completed by a student. Much research has been conducted on this topic to find factors that can explain differences in student academic achievement. Although studies have shown that personal factors such as a student's abilities and motivation significantly affect student achievement, environmental factors are also extremely crucial (Eccles & Roeser, 2011). One of the most discussed environmental factors is the home environment. It is believed to be a better predictor of academic achievement than the school environment (Azmita, Cooper & Brown, 2009). However, the term “home environment” is broad and there are many ways in which students' home situations can influence their academic outcomes. One of these is parents' values ​​about education (Steinberg, 2013). In simpler terms, this refers to how important education is for parents. Research has shown that the more value parents place on education, the better their children's academic outcomes will be (Jodl, Micheal, Malanchuk, Ecles & Sameroff, 2001). Parents' value on education is usually manifested through their expectations and involvement in their children's education (Steinberg, 2013). Undoubtedly, these influence all three concepts of academic achievement. Parents who place a high value on education are more… middle of the road… in children's academic achievement. To conclude, family factors such as parental values ​​are significant in predicting one's educational outcomes. Studies have shown that parents who place higher values ​​on education can encourage their children to get better grades in school, higher scores on standardized tests, and higher educational qualifications. Therefore, more research should be done on how to increase parents' value on education and how parents can express it so that it can be useful in their children's studies. Furthermore, research should focus more on the effect of mediators in this area of ​​study as it can give us a better understanding of how to improve student outcomes. It is also recommended to conduct further studies on how to improve the effectiveness of parent-focused programs that will help improve their values ​​about education.