Longitudinal data from kindergarten to 5th grade on both family involvement in school and children's literacy performance were examined for an ethnically diverse, low-income sample (N ϭ 281). Within families, increased school involvement predicted improved child literacy. In addition, although there was an achievement gap in average literacy performance between children of more and less educated mothers if family involvement levels were low, this gap was nonexistent if family involvement levels were high. These results add to existing evidence on the value of family involvement in school by demonstrating that increased involvement between kindergarten and 5th grade is associated with increased literacy performance and that high levels of school involvement may have added reward for low-income children with the added risk of low parent education. As such, these results support arguments that family involvement in school should be a central aim of practice and policy solutions to the achievement gap between lower and higher income children.

This article explores the complex relation between employment and family involvement in children’s elementary education for low-income women. Mixed-method analyses showed work as both an obstacle to and opportunity for involvement. Mothers who worked or attended school full time were less involved in their children’s schooling than other mothers, and mothers who worked or attended school part time were more involved than other mothers. Yet subtle and positive associations between maternal work and educational involvement also emerged. Working mothers described several strategies for educational involvement. The findings reframe current ecological conceptions of family involvement and call for policy and research consideration of the dilemma of work and family involvement.

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Family involvement in school, children's relationships with their teachers, and children's feelings about school were examined longitudinally from kindergarten through fifth grade for an ethnically diverse, low-income sample (N ¼ 329). Within-families analyses indicated that changes in family involvement in school were directly associated with changes in children's relationships with their teachers and indirectly associated with changes in children's feelings about school, with student-teacher relationships mediating this latter association. Increases in family involvement in school predicted improvements in student-teacher relationships, and, in turn, these improvements in student-teacher relationships predicted improvements in children's Eric Dearing, PhD, is affiliated with the perceptions of competency in literacy and mathematics as well as improvements in children's attitudes toward school, more generally. These results are consistent with systems theories of child development and help answer why family educational involvement matters for low-income children.

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