There have been several studies done which have researched and tested the
correlation between family structure and academic excellence.  In our
research, we found that there were frequent references to a study, the
Beginning School Study (BSS).  The BSS gathered longitudinal information,
starting in 1982, from children entering the first grade as well as from there
parents, regarding grades, test scores, and other school performance measures,
plus demographic information about parents' attitudes and activities.  One
article, written by Entwisle and Alexander (2000), was organized along the
lines of two basic questions about family structure and children's schooling:
(1)  What kinds of differences in school outcome are associated with different
family structures? and (2)  what are the mediating factors?  Entwisle and
Alexander used the BSS as the basis for their research.  Cognitive and non
cognitive outcomes for BSS children over the first five years of school were
compared in three kinds of families:  children who live with their mother and
father, children whose single mothers share residences with other adults who
are not the children's fathers, and children whose single mothers maintain
residences by themselves.  Possible mediators of the effects of single parenting were also examined, including economic and psychological resources.
socialization for school, family size and living arrangements, parental
expectations regarding schooling, parental actions, and social ties.

A study done by John Fantuzzo, Erin Tighe, Stephanie Childs (1994),
developed and evaluated the Family Involvement Questionnaire (FIQ), a
multidimensional scale of family involvement in early childhood education.
The FIQ was guided by theory and constructed with parent and teachers in
preschool, kindergarten, and first grade programs in a large urban school
district.  Demographic and FIQ data were collected from 641 parents.  Factor
analyses revealed three involvement constructs:  school based involvement,
home school conferencing, and homebred involvement.  Multivariate analyses
have demographic and program differences in these constructs revealed that there were higher levels of home school conferencing and home base involvement in two parent families than in single parent households.

A study conducted in Germany by Stecher (1997), found that  schooling
enjoyment remained unaffected by family structure, it was influenced by the
parent child relationship.  Between 1993 and 1995, 305 German children,
ages 10-13, from single and two parent families were interviewed to explore
the relationship between a child's attitude toward learning and schooling and
the variable of family structure and parent child interaction quality.  Structural deficit, family process, and a model combining the two perspectives were
considered as predictors of possible outcome.  However, family structure had
an indirect effect in that the quality of parent child interaction was higher in
two parent than in single parent families.

Battle and Scott (1996), wrote about the relationship of children in mother
only versus father only households.  Their findings demonstrated that (1)
parental configuration is not nearly as important as socioeconomic status and
(2)  in 12th grade, African American male students in mother only households
outperform their counterparts in father only households and (3)  parental
configuration differences disappear when socioeconomic status is held
constant.

Anecdotal comparisons of children from "intact" and single parent homes may
be biased.  Guttman, Geva, and Gefen (1988) find that teachers and students
are more likely to report that the child shown in a film exhibits academic,
social, and emotional problems if they are told the child's parents are divorced than if they are told the child comes from an "intact" home.  As Guttman,
Geva, and Gefen warn, stereotypes about "broken homes" may adversely
affect children:  Well-adjusted children from healthy single parent homes may
"live down" to the low academic expectations of school staff.  Also, troubled
children from single parent homes may have their emotional problems falsely
attributed to their family structure, while the actual source of their difficulties, which may be centered in parenting practices, neighborhood environment, or school climate -- May never be identified and addressed.  Does family
structure influence achievement?  It makes intuitive sense that (holding
parenting skills, support systems, and other background factors constant) two
parent homes might tend to offer more resources, role models, and adult
supervision than single parent homes.  It also appears obvious that adolescents
should delay parenthood until they are ready for child rearing responsibilities.  However, we should be cautious about making generalizations regarding the
severe effects of single parenthood or divorce on children.  Many researchers
may fail to control adequately for the influence of parental education, age, or
socioeconomic status, and they may fail to consider the impact of stigma.
Furthermore, we must keep in mind that "non-two-parent household" refers to
a variety of family configurations that range from foster care placements to
isolated single parent families to single parent families connected to -- and
sometimes living with -- multi-generational networks of relatives.

We realize that Socio-Economic Status (SES) is a very important variable to
be considered, as it was included in most of the literature that we researched.
In order to acknowledge SES without introducing it as a variable in our
hypothesis, we tried to control it by sampling students who only live in the
South side of Bethlehem; an area where the variance of income, from family
to family, is assumed to be common and stable.