Success and Failure of School Students: Parental Expectations and Teachers’ Perceptions

Abstract

The article presents the results of RANEPA Center for Lifelong Learning Economics’ Monitoring of Efficiency of School Education concerning teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of student achievement. The study involved analysis of official statistics and data from sociological surveys of parents, teachers, and school administrators across different types of communities structured by the level of socioeconomic development.

The fact that student achievement is largely contingent on teacher expertise is beyond dispute. It turns out, however, that teachers also attribute poor student performance to low parental involvement, socioeconomic disadvantage, health issues, and irresponsible student behavior. According to teachers, the proportion of students unable to cope with the curriculum increases consistently from grade to grade, peaking in Grades 8 and 9. Better student performance in Grades 10–11 (high school) may be explained by withdrawal of some students after completing the middle school level.

Most parents perceive their children’s academic performance to be above average. At the same time, along with teachers, parents report a decline in student achievement in middle school. Families attribute this downswing in performance to various factors, including lack of subject-specific abilities, challenging curricula, and decline in student engagement. Only 9.3% of parents consider teaching quality to be a factor of low student performance. Lower average family income is associated with higher frequency of reporting low child performance at school. The influence of family income on student achievement may be explained, in particular, by differences in the opportunity to buy extra tuition, including private tutoring.