This study examined predictors of the quality of parental homework involvement and reciprocal relations between the quality of parental homework involvement and students’ reading achievement and academic functioning in a reading-intensive subject (German). Data from 2,830 students in nonacademic tracks and their parents who were surveyed in both Grades 5 and 7 were analyzed. The quality of parental homework involvement was assessed via student reports. It was conceptualized as a multidimensional construct and measured by 3 dimensions proposed by self-determination theory: parental control, parental responsiveness, and parental structure. Whereas students’ academic functioning in Grade 5 predicted the way parents became involved in the homework process in Grade 7, the quality of parents’ help with homework did not depend on their socioeconomic background. Reciprocal relations between the quality of parental homework involvement and children’s academic functioning were observed: Low academic functioning of students in Grade 5 resulted in more parental control in Grade 7, and more parental control in Grade 5 was associated with lower academic functioning in Grade 7. Similarly, high academic functioning in Grade 5 resulted in more parental responsiveness and structure in Grade 7, and more parental responsiveness and structure in Grade 5 were associated with better academic functioning in Grade 7.

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The aim of the present study was to examine how different types of tracking— between-school streaming, within-school streaming, and course-by-course tracking—shape students’ mathematics self-concept. This was done in an internationally comparative framework using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). After controlling for individual and track mean achievement, results indicated that generally for students in course-by-course tracking, high-track students had higher mathematics self-concepts and low-track students had lower mathematics self-concepts. For students in between-school and within-school streaming, the reverse pattern was found. These findings suggest a solution to the ongoing debate about the effects of tracking on students’ academic self-concept and suggest that the reference groups to which students compare themselves differ according to the type of tracking.

Empirical studies have demonstrated that students who are taught in a group of students with higher average achievement benefit in terms of their achievement. However, there is also evidence showing that being surrounded by high-achieving students has a negative effect on students' academic selfconcept, also known as the big-fish-little-pond effect. In view of the reciprocal relationship between achievement and academic self-concept, the present study aims to scrutinize how the average achievement of a class affects students' achievement and academic self-concept, and how that, in turn, affects subsequent achievement and academic self-concept. Using a sample of 6,463 seventh-graders from 285 classes in Germany, multilevel path models showed that the class-average achievement at the beginning of the school year positively affected individual achievement in the middle and at the end of the school year, and negative effects on academic self-concept occurred only at the beginning of Grade 7, but not later in the school year. In addition, mediation analyses revealed that the effects of class-average achievement on students' achievement and academic self-concept at the end of the school year were mediated by midterm achievement, but not by midterm academic self-concept. This pattern was found for mathematics, biology, physics, and English as a foreign language. The results of our study indicate that the consequences for students of belonging to a group of high-achieving students should be analyzed with respect to both academic self-concept and achievement.