DC Education Research Collaborative member the Brookings Institution recently published a report that sheds light on a critical issue affecting students across the United States: student engagement as both a path to improving student attendance and a way to help young people thrive in school. In their report The Disengagement Gap: Why Student Engagement Isn’t What Parents Expect, authors Rebecca Winthrop, Youssef Shoukry, and David Nitkin examine the results of a nationally representative survey of more than 65,000 3rd-through-12th-grade students’ perspectives on their learning experiences, as well as perspectives from almost 2,000 parents of students of 3rd-through-12th graders on their own children’s schooling experiences. By focusing on student engagement, the authors work to understand student engagement, more accurately assess engagement, and ultimately help improve it.

Among the findings was a persistent gap between what students perceived and what their parents did—for example, only 26 percent of 10th graders said they love school, but 65 percent of parents with 10th graders think they do. Researchers also found that the older students were, the less they love school or report learning a lot. Finally, the authors disaggregate feelings of engagement by race and location, revealing important (and sometimes surprising) differences in positive school experiences between urban and rural students and between students of different races and ethnicities.

The results of this nationwide report are relevant to students in Washington, DC, as educators, families, and city leaders work to create a school system where students regularly attend schools that serve them well. Understanding students’ perceptions of their own experiences—and that those perceptions might not be what parents and caregivers hope or expect—is a critical step in helping schools become places where students feel engaged and motivated.

To learn more about the findings and their implications for policy and practice, read The Disengagement Gap: Why Student Engagement Isn’t What Parents Expect.