Although teachers believe students are comfortable with the amount and difficulty of homework; parents describe children with disabilities as overwhelmed with homework assignments.
Parental Involvement.
Parental involvement in education has received much attention in recent decades. Parent participation including involvement in student homework is related to student achievement and personal attributes leading to achievement (Hoover-Dempsey, Battiato, Walker, Reed, Dejong, & Jones, 2001). Parental involvement with children's education is important for positive academic experiences and successful outcomes (Carter & Wojtkiewicz, 2000). The greater variation in parent monitoring and assisting with homework may contribute to the degree of students' dedication to and time spent on homework, which may result in fewer secondary than elementary students completing their assignments (Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2001). Time on homework leads more students to complete their assignments and then leads to improved skills or other indicators of success. Students' achievement influences teachers to assign more demanding homework that takes time and may continue to help increase the achievement of more successful students (Epstein & Van Voorhis, 2001).
Parents' motivation for involvement, the content of involvement and the consequences of their involvement are important factors when looking at why parents are involved. Parents appear to be involved for three major reasons: they believe that they should be involved; they believe that their involvement will make a positive difference and they perceive invitations to involvement (Hoover-Dempsey, et al., 2001). Researchers reported that parental involvement positively affected the grades and math test scores of adolescent students, decreased the odds of a student dropping out of high school, had positive effects on the grades of high school seniors and the amount of time in higher ability mathematics groups (Carter & Wojtkiewicz, 2000).