This article provides a synthesis of research in which parents provided academic instruction to their own children. The effectiveness of parent tutoring in 37 studies was examined across grade level, basic skill area (e.g., reading, math), training feature (e.g., treatment length, availability of consultation), treatment fidelity, type of assessment (i.e. criterion-referenced or norm-referenced), and whether or not the study was published. Thirty-two comparisons were found for 20 group design studies and 25 comparisons were found for 17 single subject design studies. Separate analyses were conducted for group design and single-subject design studies using standardized mean difference between experimental and control groups, and percentage of non-overlapping data (PND), respectively. Effect size (ES) and PND were generally positive across both types of studies. A mean weighted ES of +0.55 was obtained for trimmed group design studies and a median PND of 94 was obtained for the single subject studies. Most studies involved reading and the use of primary grade students as subjects. Certain treatment characteristics appeared to moderate outcome. Implications of the current analysis for future practice and research in the area of parent tutoring are discussed.