Education is one of the most influential and important factors of a child's life. One approach to helping children academically succeed is to increase parental involvement in student's education. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between parental involvement and student academic achievement. The study also looks at the influence of family structure, socioeconomic status, and student's sex and race on academic achievement. Secondary data from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS) of 2002 is utilized for analysis. When looking at the total variance, the SES model segment had the greatest impact on student achievement, while the parental involvement model segment had the second greatest impact. However, when investigating unique variance, the SES segment accounted for 41%, while the parental involvement model segment accounted for 43% of the unique variance in standardized test composite scores. In conclusion, SES and parental involvement are important factors that influence student academic achievement.