This paper is focused on parental involvement in Germany. As in many other countries, the concept of parents as partners dominates the discussion on parents and parental involvement. Looking at the legal background, the nation-wide regulations as well as those in the 16 federal provinces ap-pear to be rather insufficient. It is in the responsibility of schools to think about parental involvement and cooperation with parents in a more concrete way. Based on a representative survey in Germany (Killus & Paseka 2014, Paseka 2014), we want to analyze how parents view their cooperation with teachers and school and to what extent they want to become engaged. The study is representative for Germany covering parents with children attending school (from 6 to 16 years). The sample includes parents from all federal provinces, living in different family-types, coming from different ethnic background and social classes. Parents were reached randomly per telephone and the interviews lasted about 30 minutes. The data show that parents differentiate between various forms of cooperation. The extent of school- and class-based involvement varies depending on the options that schools offer. Parents prefer activities which are less time-consuming and more sporadic (e. g. accompanying school trips) whereas continuous activities that are closely tied to learning processes at school and in classes or participation in school development are rather rare. The extent of school- and class-based parental involvement depends significantly on whether their children feel comfortable at school and if teachers signal that parents are welcome. The extent of home-based involvement is much larger and parents feel obliged to support their children in doing their homework and in preparing them for tests and exams. Home-based involvement depends on their own education level, the school type their child attend and on whether they think their child is over-stressed or not. Key-words: home-based parental involvement, class-based parental involvement, school-based parental involvement, quantitative study

References Paseka, A. (2014). Elternbeteiligung auf Klassen- und Schulebene. In D. Killus & K.-J. Tillmann (eds.), Eltern zwischen Erwartungen, Kritik und Engagement. Ein Trendbericht zu Schule und Bildungspolitik (pp. 111-130). Münster: Waxmann Killus, D. & Paseka, A. (2014). Elterliches Engagement für das schulische Lernen des eigenen Kindes. In D. Killus & K.-J. Tillmann (eds.), Eltern zwischen Erwartungen, Kritik und Engagement. Ein Trendbericht zu Schule und Bildungspolitik (pp. 131-148). Münster: Waxmann.