How public participation shapes effective and equitable service outcomes has been extensively discussed but rarely tested in the public administration literature. This article examines how parent participation in schools affects overall student performance and whether socially marginalized students benefit more or less when schools involve greater participation. Using a 63-country cross-national educational dataset, we show that parent involvement in school activities is not significantly related to overall student performance, but such efforts reduce the performance gap between immigrant and native-born students. This finding suggests that direct participation can reduce social disparities in program outcomes.
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