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For years, researchers and education pundits have tried to tell parents that their children are not performing as well as they might think in school. 

The message might finally be seeping in.

Since 2022, the percentage of parents who think their children are at or above grade level in math has dropped 9 percentage points to 83%, according to , a nonprofit focused on educating parents about their kids鈥� performance. In reading, it dropped 5 points to 88%. The percentages are similar to early 2021 when pandemic school closures left clear evidence that their children鈥檚 performance was suffering.聽

In New York City, the percentage of parents reporting that their children were at or above grade level dropped 13 percentage points to 81% in math and 8 points to 87% in reading. It鈥檚 one location where Learning Heroes has worked with local leaders to help parents and seek help if their children have fallen behind. In Tarrant County, Texas, which includes Fort Worth, declines went from 92% to 84% in math and 96% to 84% in reading. 

There鈥檚 still 鈥渁 disconnect,鈥� said Bibb Hubbard, Learning Heroes founder and CEO. In fact, parents say issues like screen time and their kids鈥� emotional well-being are more likely to keep them up at night than their children鈥檚 math and reading skills. 鈥淏ut parents have a more realistic picture.鈥� 

Last week鈥檚 much-discussed reflection from New York Times journalist about the neighborhood school she picked for her daughter has sparked debate over school choice, progressive politics and the Pulitzer-winner鈥檚 responsibility as a mother. But it also shows that even well-off parents knowledgeable about education can get 鈥渇alse signals鈥� about their children鈥檚 progress, Hubbard said. 鈥淪he thought her daughter was getting a better education.鈥�

Jones wrote about examining her daughter鈥檚 math assignments after learning that the school didn鈥檛 conduct a required reading assessment.

鈥淣one of them were graded. I started checking Najya鈥檚 work and discovered most of her answers were wrong,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淣ajya believed herself to be good at math 鈥� it was her favorite subject. But now I understood she thought she was correctly solving all her problems because her teacher was not checking her work.鈥�

鈥楾he drumbeat鈥�

The mismatch between parents鈥� perceptions of their kids鈥� achievement levels and objective measures, like state tests, grew into what some called an 鈥渦rgency gap鈥� during the pandemic. Schools gave students do-overs on exams and awarded credit just for completing work whether or not the answers were correct. Those policies exacerbated a trend of grade inflation that researchers identified even before COVID. 

Between 2016 and 2021, the average GPA for students taking the ACT increased from 3.22 to 3.39 even though scores on the college admissions test declined slightly, from 20.8 to 20.3. The trend was especially noticeable among Black students and those from low- to moderate-income homes. More from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, shows that a majority of high school students report consistently earning A鈥檚 in class even though at least 40% score in the bottom half nationally on the SAT or ACT.

Reports of college students struggling with serve as another warning sign that may be causing parents to question whether their kids are where they should be. 

鈥淚 do feel like the drumbeat is causing parents to question more whether an A actually means mastery,鈥� said Marc Porter Magee, CEO and founder of 50CAN, a network of nonprofit education advocacy organizations.

From 2019 to 2022, more than 80% of parents reported that their child earned B鈥檚 or better in school in the Learning Heroes surveys. Now, less than three-fourths say their kids are always bringing home good grades. 

The era of online assignments and electronic grading portals has made it harder to trust whether kids are on track, said one parent and former elementary school teacher. Chavonne Johnson, who has a sixth grader and an eighth grader in the Valdosta district in south Georgia, said she sees grades for 鈥渜uiz鈥� or 鈥淗W,鈥� for homework, but she often can鈥檛 tell what her kids were being asked to do.

鈥淚 hope that the grades in there are accurate, but we don’t know because we don鈥檛 see any work coming home,鈥� she said. As a former K-3 teacher in Maryland who sent students home each week with folders full of classwork, she said she wonders whether the online assignments are 鈥渏ust a middle school thing or are we just so electronic that we don’t have any physical papers coming home?鈥�

鈥楾alking about this issue鈥�

Some experts are skeptical that the drop in parents saying their kids are on grade level is because schools are toughening up on grading. 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know that we have outside evidence that grading has gotten hard,鈥� said Morgan Polikoff, an education researcher at the University of Southern California. 鈥淚 do know that we have outside evidence that people are talking about this issue more.鈥�

He鈥檚 one of them. He published survey data in 2023 showing a among parents about pandemic learning loss. The results included comments from parents who said they put more stock in report card grades than standardized test scores. 

Recent work by Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Education and Data Research at the University of Washington, suggests easier grading practices have continued to spread. He examined 鈥渘o zero鈥�  policies in which teachers can鈥檛 give students lower than a minimum score, usually a 50, regardless of how they perform. 

Proponents of such policies argue that they motivate students to work harder to pass, while zeros can make it mathematically impossible to pull up a grade. Critics, however, say the might be just the incentive a student needs to get extra help.

Goldhaber found that the number of Washington districts adopting such a policy more than doubled between 2015-15 and 2024-25, from 30 to almost 70. The policies, he said, vary significantly and are not always clearly communicated to families.

鈥淚t’s not super surprising to me that there’s this disconnect between what parents think and what school systems say,鈥� he said. The grading policies can be hard to find. 鈥淪ometimes they鈥檙e in handbooks. Sometimes they鈥檙e in school board minutes.鈥� 

If parents are getting a  better grasp of their children鈥檚 performance, it might be because more are at risk of being held back if they don鈥檛 pass their state鈥檚 reading test. have laws or policies that require or allow for students to repeat third grade if they score below the proficient level. Those policies 鈥渃reate an urgent moment for schools and families to discuss whether a child is on track,鈥� Hubbard said. 

But because of , only a small proportion of kids are ultimately held back, and Hubbard suggested formal letters and warnings still aren鈥檛 enough to get parents鈥� attention. Schools, she said, need to 鈥渃ommunicate early and often鈥� and 鈥渆xplain the data in clear, family-friendly language.鈥�

Parent-led groups have also taken on that challenge. San Francisco Parents, an advocacy group that formed during the pandemic, offers parent workshops focused on understanding kids鈥� literacy skills.

鈥淭hey’re bringing their child’s report card. They’re downloading their child’s test scores, and they are sitting with us for hours because they are so interested in understanding these complexities,鈥� said Rebecca Kee, executive director. 鈥淎s soon as parents see, 鈥極h my God, my kid is behind,鈥� they immediately want to advocate for their kid. They want to learn how to help their kid at home.鈥�

The Learning Heroes survey data backs that up. Respondents who knew their child was performing below grade level were more likely than parents overall to talk to their child鈥檚 teacher about performance in class (57% to 47%), ask for additional assessments beyond report cards (39% to 27%), find a tutor (32% to 19%) and ask the teacher to provide extra support (48% to 23%).

One reason why parents might have an idealistic view of their kids鈥� performance is because 1 in 5 admit they wouldn鈥檛 be able to recognize grade-level content if they saw it, the Learning Heroes data shows. Just 30% of parents, in the survey of nearly 2,000, said they were extremely confident that they know what their child should master in each subject to be on grade level.

Selena Gil, a Hispanic mom with a third grader in the San Francisco Unified School District, participated in SF Parents鈥� Read to Lead program last year. She was proud that her daughter read independently and sounded out words. But after the workshop, she realized 8-year-old Lea, an English learner, might not comprehend everything she was reading. Gil said Lea鈥檚 teacher would encourage her to help her daughter with reading but also said she 鈥渨as doing good.鈥�

鈥淏efore I thought, 鈥極h, my daughter is reading. I鈥檒l just leave her to do her thing,鈥� 鈥� Gil said. Now she and Lea take turns reading paragraphs out loud and Gil asks her daughter questions about what the characters are doing.

During the workshops, leaders displayed data showing that over 70% of Hispanic students in the district scored below the proficient level in reading on the state test. To Gil, the data was alarming.

鈥淚 was like, 鈥業 don’t want to be part of that percentage,鈥� 鈥� she said. 鈥淚 want my daughter to move forward.鈥�

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