According to UChicago Economics Professor Stephen Levitt, the following eight factors are highly correlated with test scores:

• The child has highly educated parents.
• The child's parents have high socioeconomic status.
• The child's mother was thirty or older at the time of her first child's birth.
• The child had low birthweight.
• The child's parents speak English in the home.
• The child is adopted.
• The child's parents are involved in the PTA.
• The child has many books in his/her home.

And eight factors that are NOT correlated with test scores:

• The child's family is intact.
• The child's parents recently moved into a better neighborhood.
• The child's mother didn't work between birth and kindergarten.
• The child attended Head Start.
• The child's parents regularly take him/her to museums.
• The child is regularly spanked.
• The child frequently watches television.
• The child's parents read to him nearly every day.

The study basically states that the first eight factors depict what parents are, whereas the last eight are what they do. Much like how a politician needs to have people like him as a person (regardless of how much money he raises) to secure a vote, it isn't about what you do but who you are, at least in this context.

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