The Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Mathematics Achievement for Students With Visual Impairments

The effect of parental involvement on achievement has received a significant amount of research attention in the general student population, but surprisingly very little research has been conducted in this area for students with disabilities. This study investigated the association between parental involvement (both at home and at school) and mathematics achievement for students with visual impairments. The samples used for the study (N = 341 and N = 324) were taken from the nationally representative Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study. Multilevel modeling for longitudinal data was used to investigate the research questions. Parental involvement at school was positively associated with mathematics achievement for students who began the study in elementary school, and parental involvement at home was negatively associated with mathematics achievement for students without a cognitive disability. However, there was a strong positive association between mathematics achievement and parental involvement at home for students who also had a cognitive disability.