PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] – Despite growing evidence that parent-teacher communication can improve students' academic performance, it remains "infrequent and unsystematic in most schools," says Assistant Professor of Economics and Education Matthew Kraft. In "The Underutilized Potential of Teacher-Parent Communication," written by Kraft for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, he notes the "income-based 'email communication gap' between families above and below the poverty line" and says that "implementation barriers, time costs, and the absence of schoolwide communication policies" contribute to the low rate of parent-teacher communication.