A top grade isn't the same as understanding

Your child got a top grade on a test. Did they understand the topic? Not always. Tests often check what a child remembers, not what they have understood and what they can do with it.

A well-known example: on a national test, teenagers were asked how many buses were needed for a certain number of people if each bus had a certain number of seats. Many did the division correctly and wrote: “31, remainder 12.” The arithmetic was right, but the meaning was wrong: you can't order part of a bus — 32 buses are needed. That is the difference between knowing and understanding.

What understanding looks like

Educators Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe proposed six facets of understanding. You can check them at home with simple questions:

1. Explanation: “Why is it like that? Explain it to me.”
2. Interpretation: “What does this mean? How does it relate to our lives?”
3. Application: “If we were at the store, how would we use this?”
4. Perspective: “What do other people think about this? Is there another way?”
5. Empathy: “If you were in their place, how would you feel?”
6. Self-knowledge: “What is still unclear to you?”

Three tips for parents

• Instead of “What grade did you get?” ask “What did you understand today?” and “What is still unclear?”
• Let your child “teach” you. Explaining to others is the best test of understanding.
• Connect knowledge to life: fractions in cooking, percentages in store discounts, geography on a trip.

Grades matter, but they are not the goal. The goal is a child who can use knowledge in a new situation. No test fully measures that skill, but life tests it every day.