Chapter 4 looks at the effect of maternal employment on parent involve-
ment and student outcomes. Families in which the mother works part-time
tend to be more involved in encouraging their children to be successful in
school. Children whose mothers are employed part-time tend to score
higher on achievement tests and those whose mothers are either employed
part-time or not in the labor force receive higher grades.

How schools facilitate or inhibit parent involvement, especially school-
based involvement, is examined in Chapter 5. Parental involvement is most
effective by the presence or absence of family resources including mother's
employment status, parent education levels, and family composition and
income. While most parents demonstrate concern regarding their children's
education, the lack of resources can be a major obstacle to being involved
in school activities. However, African American and Hispanic parents
manage to compensate for limited resources and exhibit higher rates of
involvement in the school when compared to white parents of similar
background characteristics.

Finally, Chapter 6 examines which parents take advantage of school
choice opportunities in either the public or private sectors and what effect
expanded choice might have for increasing equality of educational oppor-
tunity for disadvantaged students. Our analyses suggest that educational
disadvantages due to race and ethnicity are different than those created by
low parental education levels. For example, African Americans show a
high propensity to respond to expansion of school choice in the public
sector. Parents with low education levels demonstrate a deeper form of
disadvantage; they show less investment in their childrens' education than
those parents with more years of schooling even when controlling for
family income.

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