Correspondence between Parental Reports and Children's Actual Grades

Abstract

The current study examined how accurately parents report their children's grades. Parents of 316 students in Grades 3 to 5 reported their children's past academic performances in reading, writing, and mathematics. Moderate to high correlations between parents' reports and the children's actual grades indicate that parents' reports of their children's grades are reliable substitutes for school grades when those grades are unavailable. Analysis showed that children of parents who underrated, accurately rated, and overrated their children's grades did not differ significantly on measures of self-esteem, ability, and achievement. Similarly, children of parents who reported grades did not differ significantly from children of parents who did not report their grades. Researchers and educators can benefit by using parents' reports of their children's grades if actual grades are unavailable.