In the quest for improving education, politicians are ignoring an important metric: parental involvement.

The No Child Left Behind tests and Utah Performance Assessment System for Students can carve up the results according to a variety of demographic groups and subgroups such as race, social status and English proficiency, all in an attempt to measure whether children are learning, or to explain why not. Yet the tests ignore the question of how much help comes from the home.

It is foolish to ignore the effect a child's home situation has on his or her educational performance. How can anybody expect teachers to overcome homes where parents do not care about academic achievementfi

Teachers work with children only six hours a day, five days a week. The rest of the time, the kids are under their parents' or guardian's care. Parents have greater influence over their children's performance than teachers.

One of the least-stated reasons for the success of private schools over public schools is the former's ability to compel parents to be involved in the educational process. If parents do not want to work with their child, and the child fails, the school can move for expulsion. Public schools can ask, beg and plead with parents to help, but they cannot force them to do it. And they must keep low-performing kids in class.

Someone needs to invent a way for educators to measure parental involvement and include that with the rest of the educational statistics. It's a fairly slippery proposition, but if low scores tend to correspond to low parental involvement, it might suggest a new emphasis for improvement.

We're not suggesting that every parent be certified to teach advanced math and science, but parents can and should act as educators along with their other roles. If children see that their parents value education, they will be more likely to do better in school.

Probably the easiest thing that a parent with young children can do is read to them. The lesson that reading is valuable is further reinforced when kids see their parents reading just for the joy of it (and we're talking about quality reading, not trash).

On the other hand, if there are more DVDs than books on the shelves at home, parents should not be surprised when their kids turn out to have reading or other language problems.

Some schools help promote parental involvement through programs such as Dads and Donuts, where parents can come and read books with their kids while enjoying some pastries at the school library. Another way is to help kids with homework. Granted, it's been a while since some of us had to do algebra or geometry, but most people find that it comes back quickly.

If it doesn't, what better chance is there to bond with one's child than to sit down and figure out a problem together. It also gives the child a chance to be a teacher and apply what he or she has learned in class by explaining the lesson.

Schools should be accountable for the education they provide. But it's important to remember that parents are a key component. They should not get a pass if they don't fulfill that duty.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.