Archived: The Educational System in the United States: Case Study Findings

Parents’ Views
Parents also focused on the family, although other explanations were also men-
tioned. Some parents expressed the belief that individual differences in academic
achievement result from a combination of both innate ability and family support,
as did this mother of a Rockefeller Elementary School student:
Well, I believe in nature and nurture. I happen to have two very bright chil-
dren for whom I take very little credit. A lot of that is genetic. On the other
hand, I chose to stay home with them and there is a lot of nurture there and
we have chosen to live here, because we value education so highly. A great

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number of our decisions are based on our children, on providing experiences
for them. Not just education. We are providing the environment because we
feel that is a very important thing. On a personal note, we waited a long time
to have children. We both had careers and did a lot of things before we de-
cided to have children. When we both decided to have children, we then de-
cided that that is where our energies would go. We have provided a lot of
nurturing and there’s a lot of difference between families who are able—lucky
enough—to be able to do that. There are wonderfully intelligent children all
over who just don’t have the opportunities we have because of the schools
and family situations. I’ve been very lucky not to have to work at all through
the kids’ formative years.
Later, suggesting that her belief in the importance of family support in generating
individual differences was not central, this mother elaborated her belief in the
importance of innate ability and genetics in generating individual differences in
the following statement:
Students in this district perform really beautifully, wonderfully, way above
average. If everyone’s parents are brain surgeons, then it’s pretty likely the
gene pool is going to create children that are going to do well and so test
scores are excellent. I don’t place a great deal of emphasis on test scores, but
you will find that all along the districts in this area the kids are above average.
Notes from an interview with a parent at Midtown were more typical of the
parental attitudes we encountered:
She talks about how a lot of children are experiencing parents divorcing and
this sometimes worried her kids. But she feels her children feel secure that
she and her husband will stay together. Family plays a large part in how chil-
dren succeed in school.
Parents in poorer communities also looked to the family as an explanation of indi-
vidual differences. Family disintegration, along with drugs and other social prob-
lems created by poverty, were frequently cited by parents in these communities
as explanations of low achievement.
Indeed, observations at Parks Elementary School in Metro City during parent-
teacher conference day suggested low parental involvement in school. In fact, the
school was passing out small gifts of candy and magic markers as incentives for
parents to come to school to pick up their children’s report cards. Despite these
incentives, one teacher estimated that fewer than 10 percent of parents would
visit the school.

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