Book Review: The Broken Compass: Parental Involvement with Children’s Education

Abstract

On April 12, 2014 an opinion piece authored by Keith Robinson and Angel L. Harris, authors of the book The Broken Compass, appeared on the New York Times blog website The Opinionator. The opinion piece titled “Parental Involvement is Overrated,” suggested that the evidence supporting parental involvement as a means of improving children’s academic lives has been overstated. In fact, it made the claim that “most forms of parental involvement . . . do not improve student achievement” at all and “in some cases” it may “actually hinder it.”