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How would you rank them from 1-6? (with 1 being the most important and 6 being the least)
- Parenting
- Competitiveness school environment
- Qualification of teachers
- Family income/wealth
- IQ
- School funding
I would rank them like this:
1. Competitiveness of school environment(competition and comparing yourself to others can work wonders. The people around you shape your personal expectations and the expectations of you.)
2. Family income/wealth(If you have parents, cousins, aunts/uncles with a lot of education then that automatically becomes your default standard. Plus, you also have to worry about maintaining the quality of life that your used to as an adult and that'll take more effort for someone from a highly skilled background. Financing college/tutoring is obviously much easier for more-affluent people.)
3. Parenting(most people will probably put parenting as their number one most important choice. Personally, I can't identify with that since I had parents who rarely pushed me at all, couldn't give two craps about how I did in school and would constantly argue and create a hostile environment but i've still managed to be successful in school all the way up to completing my college undergrad curriculum very recently [on time w/honors]...Who knows, maybe i'm just an outlier?)
4. Natural Intelligence(sometimes people are just born w/less natural intellectual abilities. I still think enough effort&drive can correct this).
5. School funding(of course schools should have adequate funding to take care of basic operations but throwing money at the problems has little benefits).
6. Qualification of teachers (I think this is almost completely irrelevant. I've had so many teachers who were fresh college grads who were AMAZING and incredibly effective; while a lot of my tenured teachers with decades of experience and qualifications have been absolutely horrific).
EDIT: I would define success as performing above your grade level by national standards. As for college standards, I would say 3.0-3.5 Cumulative GPA or higher (of course depending on your major).
So really you mean family educational attainment. You are using wealth as a proxy for that.
Growing up in Scotland with a Father who left school at age 13 and a Mother at 14, their appreciation of the school environment was limited. Back in the 60's you tested into a higher level school at 11/12, then studied with kids who had the same goals.
My Sister and I were the first in our respective families to attend university. If she and I would have attended schools where higher learning wasn't an aspiration, we would have been bullied and ridiculed for years on end. The quality of your academic competition is key, just as it is with sports. Someone who is 5' 4" and 130 lbs isn't playing football for the University of Georgia.
Similarly, like minded academic talent should be in the same environment.
I also wanted to add, READING TO YOUR KIDS ON A REGULAR BASIS.
Starting at an early age. My Mom read to my sister and I almost every night at bedtime, and a lot of times during the day, if we pestered enough. She was good, too. Each of the Three Lil Pigs had a different voice, and her Big Bad Wolf was both frightening and hilarious.
Mom continued to read to us until we were preteens, we read The Wind in the Willows, Stuart Little, Black Beauty, the original Winnie the Pooh stories, etc. We read crappy fun stuff, too, but she really made the effort to introduce us to the classics.
My Mother was a frustrated librarian, she opened up a whole world to my sister and I via our small town Carnegie Library. I will be forever grateful for her efforts.
I think it depends on your definition of 'successful.' If you mean a kid who gets decent grades, doesn't get into trouble, is involved in a few activities and goes off to college after HS, then I would say parents are probably the biggest decider. But for stuff beyond that, like being valedictorian or getting into Harvard...then IQ probably comes first, then parenting/wealth (I think these two go hand and hand) and school environment, then teaching quality, then school funding.
Many parents dont take the time to teach their children ANYTHING and rely on the teachers and then there is no communication between them.
Thank goodness we homeschool!
There is definitely something besides parenting when it comes to academic success. If you take two kids, one with 130 IQ and one with 90 IQ, with equally good parents they will not have equal academic success.
Good parenting is a contributor to academic success. But it is hardly the ONLY thing that is important.
If you are defining success in school as making good grades, learning most everything being taught, getting prepared for life after high school and being a well behaved student, then I agree with kayanne that inner drive is the most important factor above and beyond everything else.
There are many many students who excel despite their lack of a supportive home life, being dirt poor and/or despite being in a less than stellar school system. They may or may not have a top IQ, but if they have that drive and determination they will succeed at all costs.
There are students who have an impressive IQ, have parents who are supportive and can afford everything they need and are in good schools who just don't care and therefore never live up to their potential. I don't call that being successful.
I think that low quality teachers can derail a student's success just as much as an parent who is not supportive, however students can overcome those obstacles as well.
Funding is the least important, in my opinion because people are educating their children very successfully in home environments without spending tons of money, therefore proving it CAN be done.
My experience is that there are three main components and average students generally do well if they have at least two of the three: positive parent involvement, great teachers/schools, and individual drive. Particularly talented and motivated kids may do well with fewer and kids with particular difficulties may do poorly even with all three.
So really you mean family educational attainment. You are using wealth as a proxy for that.
Intelligence. It runs in the family and is closely-correlated with parental wealth.
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