How to Evaluate Your Child’s Academic Progress (Beyond Grades)
When you think about how your child is doing in school, grades are probably the first thing that comes to mind. And while these are a reflection of your child’s mastery of particular content, they may not actually be the best measure of their academic progress. Here are some ways to think about creating a mindset towards school that will truly prepare your child for life.
Why Grades Are Not the Best Measure of Your Child’s Academic Progress
Grades and GPA, even if they’re cumulative, are still merely reflections of your child’s performance in singular moments. They’re helpful to track content mastery, but when it comes to really digging into their learning skills, grades are a very surface-level picture that could mask deeper struggles.
Here’s what we mean…
If your child gets average grades, they may be considered on track for their age. But what does it take for them to get those grades? Are you constantly providing support, studying with them, nagging them about getting homework done, etc.? If so, then we’d argue that those grades—while decent—are not truly a picture of how well your child is learning.
The Parts of School That Translate to “Real Life”
School isn’t just about biology class or history class. We have Google or Siri to answer questions about content. What is really important is that your child is learning how to learn.
No matter what job they go into, they’re going to have to learn on a daily basis. They’re going to have to manage their time. They’re going to have to meet deadlines. These are all common experiences whether you’re a server in a restaurant, a welder, a lawyer, or a doctor (or anything in between).
School is primarily a training ground for THESE skills, so when you’re evaluating your child’s academic progress, looking beyond their grades can give you a better idea of how they’re actually doing.
Insightful Questions to Gauge Your Child’s Academic Progress in a Way That Really Matters
So how can you identify how your child is progressing in their ability to learn confidently? Here are some questions to guide you through this process:
- How much are you supporting your child in their planning, studying, time management, etc.?
- Are they staying on top of their assignments?
- Are they turning them in on time?
- Are they managing their time so they’re not staying up really late to get something done at the last minute?
- Do they break up their study sessions ahead of a test or just review the material the night before?
These are the things that translate to real life: making sure you show up to work with everything you need, making sure you pay bills on time, that you’re able to get that long-term assignment finished when it’s due, that you remember to dot the i’s and cross the t’s… The list goes on.
If you find that your child’s grades are fine but they’re really struggling in one or more of these areas, it’s important to dig in a little deeper and find out why.
The Skills Beneath These Learning Skills
The ability to stay on top of assignments, think ahead on getting projects done, and study effectively doesn’t come naturally to many students—but these skills can be trained!
Executive functioning skills govern the way our brains process the world and break it down into actionable steps. If your child struggles to study, manage time, or get assignments turned in, it’s important to dig into these skills to find out exactly where their unique hiccup is happening.
Click here to learn more about what executive functioning skills are and how to strengthen them!
