Concerted Cultivation and Academic Achievement

Anne Lareau (2003) argues that parents child-rearing§practices §have a profound effect on academic and later§occupational success §for children, even holding constant such important§factors as §gender, race and school effects. She says that§social class impacts §these child-rearing practices and that middle-class§families use a §specific type of practice called concerted§cultivation. Concerted §cultivation involves parents organizing children s§daily activities, §using reasoning skills in talking with children, and§teaching them §how to interact with the institutions around them. §Using the §National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) of 1988,§the current §study tests the theoretical validity of concerted§cultivation. The §results show that concerted cultivation significantly§predicts both §student GPA and standardized test scores. Amongst§the elements of §concerted cultivation, parent and student habitus, in§the form of §expectations, play the largest roles. This book§would be an §important read for educators or academics studying§the ways that §social class impacts the life chances of youths in§America''s schools.