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Teachers no longer lead parent conferences at Arundel Elementary School.
The school, which serves 400 students pre-kindergarten through second grade in Maryland’s Baltimore City Public Schools, is rethinking the way it operates to boost parental involvement, said first-grade teacher Kaylah Crawford.
Crawford, who is in charge of family engagement at Arundel, said every student will lead their own parent-teacher conference this year, giving their families a glimpse of what they do in the classroom.
“Students will be leading their conferences by saying, ‘This is what I’m doing in school’ and then parents will be able to see (their child’s work) firsthand,” Crawford said. “It’s more engaging for families to hear from the student about how they’re performing.”
Parent perception of their child’s educational progress is tricky for many schools around the nation. A recently released national study has unveiled there’s a stark gap between parents’ knowledge of their child’s performance in school and their actual achievement in the classroom.
The study, released in November by Gallup and the nonprofit Learning Heroes, surveyed roughly 2,000 parents of K-12 public school students nationwide about their experiences with and perceptions of their child’s educational achievement.
What researchers found was that parents don’t have a complete understanding of their child’s progress, said Bibb Hubbard, founder of Learning Heroes, a national parent advocacy organization.
Nearly 9 out of 10 parents surveyed believe their child is performing at grade level in reading (88%) and math (89%) despite standardized tests showing far fewer students are on track. Federal data released in February showed that at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year, public schools reported on average half of their students were below grade level.
“We just can’t afford to leave parents on the sidelines right now. We absolutely don’t have 9 out of 10 students performing at or above grade level, unfortunately,” Hubbard told The 74. “We need to give parents more information.”
The study also found that nearly two-thirds of parents (64%) said report cards — often considered the “holy grail” of measurements, Hubbard said — were important in determining whether their child is at grade level. And for 79% of parents surveyed, those report cards showed their children getting mostly B grades or better.
Hubbard said oftentimes, good grades equal “on grade level” for parents.
“That’s because they’ve not been told otherwise,” she said. “Grades don’t necessarily reflect grade-level mastery. You can also have your fourth grader getting an A or B in reading and that’s because they are reading at a second-grade level and they are getting B’s on their quizzes at a second-grade level.”
Crawford said her building principal strives to be transparent with parents about grades, but recently it has become more evident that some students complete homework without understanding all of the content.
“(Turning in finished homework) doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re able to read or even always able to complete work independently,” Crawford said. “So one of the things that we’ve done to target some of those discrepancies is starting different family programming.”
Arundel Elementary School launched a program called Family University in December, Crawford said. Parents can communicate with school staff to learn more about what’s happening in the classroom. They will also get feedback about what their child needs to work on academically.
“We learned through every program that we have within the building that the goal is to teach the parents something that would better prepare them to have a scholar within the school system,” Crawford said.
When parents are more informed about their child’s academic progress, they are more likely to take action and discuss concerns with their child’s teacher, Hubbard said.
The study found that 97% of parents who know their child is below grade level in math are worried about their child’s math skills. Only 22% of the parents who knew their child was at or above grade level in math were concerned about their child’s math skills.
Parents were also asked about what worries they have about their children.
“For the parents who perceive their child to be at or above grade level, their top worries are social media and emotional well-being … reading and math fall to the very bottom of their worries,” Hubbard said. “For those parents who have information that their child is not performing at grade level, their number one worry is math or reading.”
Researchers also unearthed racial differences in parents’ perceptions of how well their child was doing in school. The study introduced a hypothetical scenario to participants where their child receives a B in math but has two below-grade-level math test scores. While more than half of parents (56%) said they would be very or extremely concerned, Black parents were more likely to say they would be concerned (72%) compared with Hispanic (56%) and white parents (52%).
Black and Hispanic parents were also more aware of their child’s academic performance in the study, Hubbard said.
Black (42%) and Hispanic (40%) parents were found less likely than white parents (54%) to say their child was performing above grade level in reading, with a similar finding in math.
Contradicting a false narrative that Black parents don’t care about their child’s education, Hubbard said, “Black parents in particular are taking more action, thinking and more deeply worrying. The Black parent in this dataset really emerges as the super active parent that’s really focused on academics.”
Lakisha Young, co-founder of Oakland REACH, a parent empowerment group that recently launched a large-scale parent-led tutoring program, said Black parents in Oakland have been more aware that something isn’t right with their child’s achievement, but they don’t know what to do about it.
“They’re definitely plugged in around something not being right,” Young said. “We asked our parents what was keeping them up at night and they just said, ‘I know my child’s not reading on the level they should be. But I’m not really getting a lot of help from the school to figure out the best thing for me to do to move forward.’ ”
The parent perception problem in education is solvable, Hubbard said — parents need to look beyond their child’s grades and engage with teachers to get to the bottom of their achievement.
“Teachers say that the number one way to know how your child is achieving is to ask them,” Hubbard writes in the study. “Asking teachers to unpack those factors and focus on grade-level learning is how to know where to lean in and help.”
Young said when her own son is struggling in his eighth-grade classes, he’s not the one to inform her — his teachers are.
“I think things that continue to be helpful for families is to be able to feel like they can engage with the school and I think it really starts with building a relationship early,” Young said. “Kind of (letting) the school know, ‘I’m here, I’m accessible. I care. I want to understand these things about what’s going on with my kid.’ ”
Learning Heroes has been working to boost parent engagement across the nation, most recently with its Go Beyond Grades campaign. The campaign partners with local nonprofits to connect parents with teachers and helps them understand achievement scores, among other resources.
In addition to the national project, Go Beyond Grades has local campaigns, most recently launched in St. Louis, Missouri, but is also in New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Houston, Boston and Sacramento.
“Grades are important, but we need to unpack that a little bit and get some additional information about how your child is doing,” Hubbard said. “The call to action is pretty simple.”
Disclosure:The Carnegie Corporation of New York provides financial support to Learning Heroes and The 74.
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Introduction
As an expert and enthusiast, I have access to a vast amount of information on various topics. While I have personal experiences or emotions like a human expert, I can provide you with accurate and reliable information based on the data I have been trained on. I can help answer questions, provide insights, and engage in discussions on a wide range of subjects.
Now, let's dive into the information related to the concepts mentioned in this article.
Parent-Teacher Conferences at Arundel Elementary School
The article discusses how Arundel Elementary School in Baltimore City Public Schools is rethinking the way it operates to boost parental involvement. Instead of teachers leading parent conferences, the school has implemented a new approach where students themselves lead their own parent-teacher conferences. This allows parents to get a firsthand glimpse of what their children are doing in the classroom and hear directly from the students about their performance [[1]].
Parental Perception of Educational Progress
The article highlights a national study conducted by Gallup and the nonprofit Learning Heroes, which reveals a significant gap between parents' perception of their child's performance in school and their actual achievement in the classroom. The study found that nearly 9 out of 10 parents surveyed believe their child is performing at grade level in reading (88%) and math (89%), despite standardized tests showing far fewer students are on track. This indicates that parents may not have a complete understanding of their child's progress [[1]].
Importance of Report Cards and Grades
The study also found that nearly two-thirds of parents (64%) consider report cards to be important in determining whether their child is at grade level. However, the article points out that good grades don't necessarily reflect grade-level mastery. For example, a student may receive an A or B in reading but still be reading at a lower grade level. This highlights the need for parents to have more information beyond just grades to accurately assess their child's academic progress [[1]].
Parent Engagement and Action
The article emphasizes the importance of parents being well-informed about their child's academic progress. When parents have a better understanding of their child's performance, they are more likely to take action and discuss concerns with their child's teacher. The study found that 97% of parents who knew their child was below grade level in math were worried about their child's math skills, while only 22% of parents who knew their child was at or above grade level in math expressed similar concerns. This suggests that parental awareness plays a crucial role in addressing academic challenges [[1]].
Racial Differences in Parental Perception
The study also uncovered racial differences in parents' perceptions of their child's academic performance. Black parents were more likely to express concern about their child's performance compared to Hispanic and white parents. Black and Hispanic parents were also found to be less likely than white parents to believe their child was performing above grade level in reading and math. These findings challenge the false narrative that Black parents don't care about their child's education and highlight the active involvement of Black parents in their child's academics [[1]].
Strategies for Improving Parent Engagement
To address the parent perception problem in education, the article suggests that parents should look beyond grades and engage with teachers to gain a deeper understanding of their child's achievement. Building a strong relationship with the school and communicating with teachers can help parents stay informed and take appropriate action. Initiatives like Learning Heroes' Go Beyond Grades campaign aim to boost parent engagement by providing resources and connecting parents with teachers [[1]].
In conclusion, the article highlights the importance of parental involvement and accurate perception of a child's academic progress. By involving students in parent-teacher conferences and providing parents with more comprehensive information, schools can foster better engagement and support for students' educational journey.
