Andreas Schleicher on Research on Education

We also see that that parental involvement isn't about having an academic degree as a parent or spending hours of time on homework. It's really the interest parents show for the education of their children. For example, when parents regularly ask their children, you know, "How was school today? What did go wrong?" We can see those kids actually having a significantly higher performance at school than kids -- even kids from wealthy neighborhoods where parents do not show that level of engagement.

So if you have children, or nieces and nephews, ask them, for example: How was school today? What did you learn? How did you do on your test? What did you see on your field trip? How were the other kids in the class?