Despite griping about the quality of K-12 education, polls show that most parents are happy with public schools their children attend.
This disconnect might be explained by a recent survey which found that parents are rarely accurately apprised of the academic progress of their children. They're being deceived.
The report, by Gallup and Learning Heroes, revealed that 88 percent of parents believe their kids are performing at grade level. In reality, testing last year shows that 36 percent of American fourth graders and 26 percent of eighth graders are proficient in reading.
Yet the vast majority of students who perform below grade level still bring home report cards packed with decent grades. This makes it difficult even for involved parents to know when academic problems exist.
"Knowing whether a child is 'at grade level' is critically important to supporting them," according to the report, "as parents who recognize their child is not performing at grade level can take different actions to best advocate for their child's learning and support them at home."