Sastry finds mothers' reading skills greatest determinant of children's academic success
an In The Media Reference
"Improving mothers' literacy skills may be best way to boost children's achievement" - NIH News. 10/25/2010.
Narayan Sastry and Anne Pebley (UCLA) found that a mother's literacy is the largest single determinant of her children's academic success, outweighing the effects of neighborhood or family income. This in turn suggests that programs to improve maternal literacy skills may be very effective in overcoming school achievement disparities between children in poor and in more affluent communities.