Over the past decade, over 40 million m o re children, many of them girls, have attended school worldwide (EFA GMR, 2 0 1 01 ). While this has been cause for celebration in many countries, there are persistent and increasing concerns that, in spite of this significant incre a s e in school attendance rates, children are not actually gaining the knowledge nor developing the skills that will realistically improve their life chances. Though there are many strategies for i m p roving student learning, two i n fluential factors that appear f requently in academic literature are teaching/teacher quality and pare n t a l involvement in childre n ’s education (Edge et al., 2009a). However, the criteria defining how teachers and p a rents best contribute to meaningful c h i l d - c e n t red learning remain a subject of active international debate.