The end of this school year is already in the air. Summer plans are taking shape, and final report cards are just around the corner. As a parent, you’re probably wondering: how did reading go this year? Did grades hold up? Did my child make sufficient progress overall?

When those grades end up looking good, it's natural to exhale. A report card full of B's feels like evidence that things are on track. And for many families, it is.

But there's something worth sitting with before you close the chapter on this school year.

79 percent of parents surveyed by Gallup said that their child gets mostly B’s or better in reading. You’d think students earning at least B’s are proficient readers. However, we know from the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that only 33 percent of American students are actually reading proficiently. That’s a gap of 56 percentage points! 

After conducting their parent survey for Learning Heroes, the Gallup researchers labeled this gap "B-flation" and explained that it has been quietly growing for decades.

A big contributor to the problem is that grades can measure many things at once — effort, participation, behavior, improvement — with concrete reading skill measurement being only one aspect. A child who is diligent, cooperative, and turns in their homework can earn a solid B while quietly struggling with the reading skills that will matter most next year.

Unfortunately for already stressed parents, grade inflation can make it even more difficult to determine there’s a problem. So, if you see decent grades on a report card, but have the nagging sense that your child isn’t doing well in reading, trust your gut! Research consistently shows that parents who sense something is off about their child's reading are right.

In today's issue, we examine how the murkiness of grades as an indicator of skill mastery plays out at different ages — and what parents can do to confirm their gut instincts and get a clearer picture.

TL;DR: End-of-year grades are almost here, but research shows they may not be telling you the whole truth. Here's how to look past the B's and get a real read on your child's skills before summer.

In today’s issue:

• Why ‘satisfactory’ could be hiding a reading issue

• When grades measure compliance, not reading skills

• What college acceptance letters can’t guarantee

“Satisfactory” is Sneaky

A study of second graders published in Paediatrics & Child Health found that when parents felt concerned about their child's reading, they were right 81 percent of the time. Parental instinct, it turns out, is a remarkably reliable early warning system. More reliable, in many cases, than the report card sitting on the kitchen counter.

For families of early elementary students, the report card is rarely alarming. It often includes softened language showing forward motion, progress, a trajectory. Instead of letter grades, there may be numbers on a scale, or descriptive words such as ‘developing,’ ‘emerging,’ or ‘satisfactory.’ Learning Heroes research warns that this nice-sounding “edu-jargon” can confuse or falsely reassure parents that their concerns are unfounded and everything is fine.

That can lead to missed early warning signs that kids need reading help. The reality is that more young children than ever before need such help. In fact, a survey of over 200 kindergarten teachers indicates that nearly three-quarters of today's students are behind in early literacy compared to just five years ago.

So as those report cards arrive, remember: if something feels off about your young child's reading, trust your gut. Don’t let hidden gaps grow.

“B” is for Behavior

Recently, a group of parents in Cincinnati made headlines by pushing their school district to change what appears on their children's report cards. Their concern was simple: kids were coming home with A's and B's, but nobody knew their child’s reading level. The school board listened. Starting next year, K-6 report cards in Cincinnati will include students' actual reading and math levels alongside letter grades.

It shouldn't take a parent advocacy campaign to get that information. But as the Fordham Institute notes, what happened in Cincinnati reflects a reality playing out in communities across the country. Letter grades reflect many things at once — behavior, effort, participation — and academic mastery is only one of them. A child who works hard, behaves well, and turns in assignments on time can earn a B in reading while quietly struggling with the skills that will matter most in middle school and beyond.

According to the Hechinger Report, research tracking 2,000 parents found them more likely to step in and seek help when grades slipped, but much less likely to act if grades stayed high, even when standardized reading test scores fell. In other words, an inflated report card could be delaying important reading interventions for students. And the consequences of waiting too long to build key reading skills in the late elementary grades, especially fluency and comprehension, are huge.

“Accepted” isn’t All Set

For decades, a college acceptance letter has been the ultimate signal that everything worked out — the grades, the test scores, the resume building, and all the years of schooling have added up to something real. But new data suggests parents and students should think twice before celebrating.

According to Chalkbeat, in 2024, 53 percent of 12th graders reported being accepted to a four-year college. But the national reading proficiency rate for those same students was only 35 percent. This means that many freshmen on college campuses this fall won’t be ready to tackle college-level reading assignments. Their acceptance letters arrived. But the reading skills didn't.

This is grade inflation's final chapter, and its most consequential one. Research presented by Jeffrey Denning at the Harvard Graduate School of Education earlier this year found that even if students with inflated grades managed to get into college, they were far less likely to complete it. And they were more likely to earn significantly less over their lifetimes. Inflated grades may make getting accepted easier, but, in the end, they quietly narrow futures.