Discusses the cultural, socioeconomic, and community patterns that facilitate parental involvement and offers suggestions for further research on student developmental stages. Parental involvement affects academic achievement through two mechanisms: (1) social capital, which allows parents to gain information and additional skills to help their children through observation and interaction with teachers and other parents; and (2) social control, where the families and the schools create a consensus to determine appropriate behavior while at school or in the home. Community and cultural characteristics such as socioeconomic status and ethnicity influence parental involvement and parental psychological state. Additionally, school policies exert great influence on whether teachers encourage parental participation. Further research is needed in the following areas: (1) capturing the multidimensional nature of parental involvement with standardized definitions and consistent measurement tools; (2) integration of all stakeholder perspectives, parents, teachers, and students; and (3) understanding the changes in parental involvement as the children get older and parents adopt a more advisory role. The practice of implementing parental involvement can be improved by exposing teaching students to parental inclusion methods as well as the effects of income, barriers and resources of communities.