This article synthesizes findings from an international virtual conference, funded by the United States National Science Foundation, focused on the home mathematics environment (HME). In light of inconsistencies and gaps in research investigating relations between the HME and children’s outcomes, the purpose of the conference was to discuss actionable steps and considerations for future work. The conference was composed of international researchers with a wide range of expertise and backgrounds. Presentations and discussions during the conference centered broadly on the need to better operationalize and measure the HME as a construct—focusing on issues related to child, family, and community factors, country and cultural factors, and the cognitive and affective characteristics of caregivers and children. Results of the conference and a subsequent writing workshop include a synthesis of core questions and key considerations for the field of research on the HME. Findings highlight the need for the field at large to use multi-method measurement approaches to capture nuances in the HME, and to do so with increased international and interdisciplinary collaboration, open science practices, and communication among scholars.

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Parental involvement is a key ingredient in school policy and various parental involvement programs aim at raising children’s school success. Adding to existing meta-analyses summarizing the findings on the effectiveness of parental involvement programs, we included academic and nonacademic outcomes, and analyzed the correspondence between changes in parents’ involvement and changes in children’s outcomes. We synthesized findings regarding the effectiveness of parental involvement interventions for children’s academic and nonacademic outcomes from preschool to third grade. A total of 307 effect sizes were obtained from 39 studies included in the meta-analysis. Using a random-effect approach, the average effect suggested that parental involvement interventions had a positive and moderate effect on children’s overall performance, as well as on academic and nonacademic outcomes when considered separately. School-based and home-based interventions were not significantly associated with the overall effect. Further characteristics of the intervention were analyzed as moderators. The effects of the intervention on parental involvement itself were significantly associated with the effect size differences on children’s outcomes. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

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