A new study from the Brookings Institution finds that parents and children differ massively on how much learning happens in school, according to an article in The 74.
Substantially less than half of all high schoolers believe they’re learning a lot each day, while 70% of parents say they are, according to a Brookings Institution report.
Parents also appear to overestimate how much students “love” going to school, according to the report. These divergent perceptions expand with age, driven by a significant drop in the numbers of students reporting positive school experiences after the elementary years.
“Attendance and engagement are inextricably linked,” says Hedy Chang, executive director of the advocacy group Attendance Works. “When chronic absence reaches high levels in classrooms, the churn affects all students, making it harder for teachers to teach and students to learn from each other and their instructors.”
It would help for schools and districts to offer more feedback to parents about the level of student engagement, says Nat Malkus, the deputy director of education policy at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. But it might be a tall order given the existing demands of data dissemination, he says.
“Despite quality tests and lots of communication, parent perceptions of their students’ academic progress don’t match what tests are showing,” says Malkus, who has carefully tracked student engagement and attendance problems over the last half-decade. “I am skeptical that an additional layer of data collection and communication will be a breakthrough.”
Older students need to receive more independence and options than they are currently getting in conventional schools, says Rebecca Winthrop, the Brookings report’s lead author and a Brookings senior fellow.
Alternative schooling types, such as those that emphasize student choice and even work experience during the school week, could build a healthier sense of self-determination among young adults, she says.
The 74
