No safety net: Look at the test scores, not the grades

"Students, you have a right to know where you really stand," writes Charles Cole III. "Ask for your test scores, not only your grades. If the two don’t match, ask why."

Thanks to his first elementary school, which made everyone master reading, Cole was placed in gifted classes when his family moved to Oakland. (He was 10. It was his 11th school.) He earned excellent grades in top-track classes, then tested into remedial classes at a second-tier Cal State campus. He had to work very hard to catch up. "And I was one of the lucky ones"

Cole runs a nonprofit called The Agentic Institute, where he works with Oakland students who are earning good grades. Eight in 10 think they're reading at grade level. The real number is closer to three in 10, he writes. "Somebody told them they were fine."

Some Oakland parents listened to Nikole Hannah-Jones, when she argued that leaving a low-performing school was abandoning the community, Cole writes. He's seen mothers cry when they were told it was wrong to choose "a charter, or a stronger district school across town, or a private school with a voucher." Black parents felt guilty about putting their children's needs first, he writes. Yet these parents couldn't afford tutoring or private testing if the neighborhood school failed to educate their children. "When the grades lied," they had "no safety net."

Students and parents need to know the truth earlier enough that they can do something about it, Cole writes. Don't trust the grades.

In The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman got a word of advice from a family friend: "Plastics. There's a great future in plastics. Think about it."

My one-word advice is: Testing. It's the future of education and employment. Think about it.

Most parents think their children are doing well in school. They trust grades more than test scores. But that's starting to change as parents hear about grade inflation, reports Linda Jacobson on The 74.

"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 new data from Learning Heroes," she writes. "In reading, it dropped 5 points to 88%."

There’s still “a disconnect,” said Bibb Hubbard, Learning Heroes founder and CEO. “But parents have a more realistic picture.” 

In 29 states, third-graders risk repeating the grade if they score below grade level in reading, a policy that pushes "schools and families to discuss whether a child is on track," Hubbard said. But parents don't always understand the data.

Parent-led groups are trying to help parents understand how their children are doing, writes Jacobson.

San Francisco Parent Coalition offers workshops to help parents understand their child's report card and test scores, said Rebecca Kee, the executive director. “As soon as parents see, ‘Oh my God, my kid is behind,’ they immediately want to advocate for their kid. They want to learn how to help their kid at home.”

Only 30 percent of parents in the Learning Heroes survey were "extremely confident" they know what students should learn at each grade level, notes Jacobson.

Selena Gil's eight-year-old daughter was reading independently and sounding out words. Her third-grade teacher said she was doing fine. After the workshop, Gil realized her daughter might not comprehend everything she was reading. "Now she and Lea take turns reading paragraphs out loud and Gil asks her daughter questions about what the characters are doing," writes Jacobson.

More than 70 percent of Hispanic students in San Francisco Unified schools score below proficient in reading on state tests, Gil learned in the workshop. She doesn't want her daughter to be part of that percentage.

It shouldn't be hard for parents to track their children's progress, writes Kelsey Piper in The Argument. "If a student is getting good grades, their parents ought to be able to assume that they’re adequately academically prepared for the next year’s material."