Parents have traditionally relied on grades to gauge how their children are performing in school.
But new data suggests that’s changing.
In a recent national survey of 20,000 parents, respondents said they trust communication from their children’s teachers more than any other source of information to judge whether their kids are on track. That was the case regardless of whether parents thought their children performed on grade level.
The finding
As president of Learning Heroes, a nonprofit, Bibb Hubbard focuses on ensuring parents understand student test data and teachers feel prepared to discuss it. (Courtesy of Bibb Hubbard)
“For the first time, grades are not the number one factor,” she said. “Teachers really are on the front lines in terms of communicating to families about where their kids are.”
As one who urges schools to level with families about student progress, Hubbard zeroed in on that point among the trove of data that 50CAN, a national education advocacy organization, released in October.
One reason for the shift, she said, is the falling importance of grades as a dependable measure of learning. Long before COVID, research and news reports pointed to examples of grade inflation: While grade-point averages have steadily increased, objective measures of performance like ACT scores remained flat. States and districts further relaxed grading standards during the pandemic, and parents took notice. The growth of online communication apps that allow teachers to update parents throughout the year on children’s progress have also lessened report cards’ influence, Hubbard said.
“Just putting the grade in the portal is not going to be sufficient for any parent right now,” she added. “They want that connection. They want that relationship.”
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