Do teachers make better parents? The differential performance of teachers’ children at school

Abstract

This paper investigates whether teenagers are educationally advantaged if their parents are educators, using PISA data for Great Britain and Ireland. It examines whether teachers’ children do better at tests of reading ability. The results show that children whose fathers teach at third level or whose mothers teach at second level do better and these effects are greater than effects of sex or family structure. The paper also analyses whether teenagers are more likely to be helped with their schoolwork if their parents are educators. In both countries only mothers who are educators are more likely to do so. The evidence tends to suggest that where teenagers benefit from a parent as a teacher it is through specific assistance from the mother and a more general effect on the home environment from the father.