| Abstract: | A national data base from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) was employed to examine the effects of family commitment in education on student achievement in seventh grade science. The backward elimination procedure in the Statistical Analysis System (SAS) was adopted in this study to select significant variables of family commitment at α = .05. The results show that around 22% of the variance in student science achievement can be explained by the selected significant LSAY variables. An analysis of the impact of family commitment seems to indicate that parental education and encouragement are important factors in the improvement of student achievement. However, educators, including school personnel and parents, should exercise caution regarding how they help students with their homework and how they reward students for good grades. |
