Many Parents Don't Know the Full Picture of Their Child's Performance
A new report from Gallup and Learning Heroes, B-flation: How Good Grades Can Sideline Parents, finds that while nearly eight in 10 U.S. parents (79%) say their child is receiving mostly B’s or better and almost nine in 10 believe their child is at or above grade level in reading (88%) and math (89%), they may not be seeing the full academic picture. Parents’ perceptions of their child’s performance deviate sharply from other measures, including standardized test scores, that suggest less than half of children are performance at grade level. As a result, children may not receive the academic support they need.
To address the gap between parents’ perceptions of their child’s academic performance and reality, Learning Heroes has partnered with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, National Urban League, UnidosUS, National PTA, UNCF, and GreatSchools.org to launch “Go Beyond Grades,” a national campaign in English and Spanish for families and educators to find free tools, resources, videos and more. For more information, visit GoBeyondGrades.org.
These findings highlight the critical need for parents and teachers to team up for their children’s success. Parents are unlikely to get their children the targeted support they need when they do not know their children are not on grade level. If left unaddressed, the historic levels of learning loss wrought by the pandemic will have devastating effects on our children personally and our community collectively. Research shows that if students do not recover from pandemic-related learning loss, the economic impact could total nearly $1 trillion in future earnings nationally, ranging from $11 billion in Chicago to $22 billion in New York City. Business and community leaders must support high-impact measures to ensure that our students get the help they need.
