What parents and teachers told us about math

Parents are worried — and carrying it mostly alone

Worry about math is nearly universal. Ninety percent of parents told us they've worried their child is falling behind at least once, and more than half worry occasionally or often. This isn't a fringe of anxious families — it's the mainstream experience of raising a school-age child.

And these parents act on it. Nearly all of them — 93% — have reached for some kind of extra math support, and 69% spent money on it in the past year. The instinct to help is already there. What's missing is confidence that the help is the right help.

The hardest part is direction, not effort

When we asked what makes helping hard, the answers weren't about time or willingness. They were about not knowing which way to point. The most common struggle — chosen by 45% of parents — was simply choosing the right way to help. Close behind: knowing what to work on next, and making sense of the scores and reports that are supposed to explain how a child is doing.

You can hear the same thing in their own words. Over and over, the questions were about direction:

A recurring frustration deserves its own mention: parents feel locked out by how math is taught now. As one put it —

What parents reach for first

Left to figure it out, most parents start with themselves. Forty-five percent try to help directly before anything else; far fewer start by asking the teacher or hiring a tutor. The tutor — often assumed to be the default move — is the first step for just 7%.

Notice what this adds up to: plenty of tools, not much direction. Apps, worksheets, videos, tutors, Kumon — families are surrounded by options. What almost none of them provide is a clear read on what this child understands and what to do about it next. Effort meets a wall of guesswork.

Teachers see it sooner — and see it differently

The teachers we surveyed described the same problem from the other side of the desk, and their timing is the part every parent should sit with. Three in four said students are usually already moderately or significantly behind by the time parents become concerned. And more than eight in ten said those students could often — or almost always — have been helped earlier.

That last number is the quiet one. Teachers don't think parents are indifferent — they think parents are flying blind, because the reports and benchmark scores meant to inform them mostly don't. When we asked teachers where kids struggle most, the answers pointed at foundations that quietly compound: algebra readiness (67%), turning word problems into equations (42%), and fractions (33%).

The through-line: understanding, not grades

If there was one message teachers wanted parents to hear, it was this: a grade on a single quiz is not a verdict on a child's ability, and chasing grades misses the point of what math actually is.

This is the gap in a sentence. Parents are handed grades and asked to react to them. Teachers are asking everyone to look underneath the grade — at whether the concept actually landed. Bridging that is less about more effort and more about better visibility.

What we took from this

The survey didn't tell us parents need to try harder — they already are. It told us they're working without a map. They can see a grade, but not what their child truly understands, where the gap began, or what to do next. And by the time a report card makes the problem obvious, the teachers say, the best moment to act has often already passed.

That's the problem we built navr.io around: give parents a clear, plain-language view of what their child understands and where the gaps are — early, while it's small — and turn it into specific, doable ways to help at home. Not another worksheet. Direction.