This study examines the impact of parenting practices on scholastic performance ofrnhigh school students, the relationship between ethni city and parenting style, and the type ofrnparenting style dominantly practiced among Ethiopian fam il ies. The subjects of the studyrnwere tlu'~e hundered thirty five eleventh-grade students attending two ComperehensivernSecondary Schools in Wolayta Soddo and Bahir Dar. Based on Maccoby and Matin's (1983)rnrevi sion of Baumrind's conceptual framework, families were class ified into one of fourrnparenting groups (authoritative, authoritarian, indulgent, and neglectful) on the basis of thernadolescents' ratings of their parents on two parental dimensions: acceptance/involvement andrnstrictness/supervision. The students were then contrasted along their scholastic performance.rnResults indicate that parenting practices have a significant impact on scholasticrnperformance of high school students, explaining 13. 14% of the variations in academicrnachievement. However, the impact of parenting practices is moderated by the effect of sex ofrnthe students. That is, male students who characterize their parents as authoritative sco re higherrnin scholastic performance than their counter parts who perceive their parents as nonauthoritativernand female students who come from all four parenting sty le families. Malernstudents who come from authoritarian fami lies perform better in school than their counterrnparts who are from neglectful homes and female students who come from indulgent andrnneglectful families. The scholastic performance of female students is not significantlyrndifferent as a function of parenting style they have in their familie s. Moreover, the results alsornreveal that ethnicity and parenting style are not related and that authoritative parenting style isrna type of parenting style dominantly practiced among Ethiopian families. The implications ofrnthe results to child-rearing practices and child sociali zation and the adaptabi lity of Ethiopianrnfa milies to modern patterns of child-rearing practices are di scussed.