One of the long-standing and unchanged findings of international and national student performance measures for Hungary is that there are markedly large differences between schools in terms of student composition. The top decile of primary schools includes institutions with a share of parents with a university degree of more than 60%, while the bottom quintile of schools is dominated by children of parents with a primary education. In the upper decile of secondary schools, the share of parents with a degree rises to 70-75%. Parental educational attainment has a decisive influence on the content and quality of parents' child-rearing activities at home, on parental aspirations and, through a multifaceted mediating mechanism, ultimately on pupils' school performance, so that the social determinants of achievement gaps are strong. The composition of the pupil population in schools can be explained partly by regional and settlement structure reasons, and partly by parental decisions stemming from the belief that school composition has an impact on pupil performance. Changing the inequalities in pupil composition is, of course, not expected from schools, but focusing on the consequences, it can be concluded that in segments of the school system of a not insignificant size, a low-status, uneducated, distrustful of schools and teachers, who see no point in investing in learning and are unversed in effective child-rearing practices, is concentrated. Teachers who succeed in these schools first of all establish the necessary cooperation with their partners, especially with the parents, who are the school's immediate environment, in order to provide effective education. Research aimed at improving public education, given the diversity of Hungarian parent society, the different levels of child-rearing competences and teacher-parent cooperation, cannot avoid the problem that the most important ally of the teacher is the parent, and that motivation, goal-setting, support and the development potential of leisure activities at home are essential conditions for academic achievement.
Our previous research has shown that the intensity of parent-teacher contact is below expectations and its frequency is strongly influenced by the educational level of parents. At the same time, half of the parents would like help with their child's learning and development at home and with valuable leisure activities for their child. The pandemic period has raised awareness of the importance of parenting and the development of parenting skills.
The research team aims at professional development of teachers' parenting engagement activities. The research team will explore the mechanisms of effective school practices and develop procedures that, when integrated into teacher education and training, will lead to the development of teacher-parent cooperation and the strengthening of parenting competences.