We do check our kids general knowledge, but we don’t grill them regularly or anything. We are all too busy for that, and given the amount of time they are at school, and how much it costs, it’s not unreasonable to assume a bit that it going well when the report cards look good.
Our first hint was when our daughter stopped having any homework. Her teacher said it “upset the children’s work-life balance” (really!). We started to see declining proficiency in reading and writing at home.
Then the standardized test scores started dropping precipitously. They are reported on by grade, and you can literally see which grades have the higher percentage of bad teachers from that.
It is crazy that our kids were in a legally required and tax payer funded school for 6-7 hours a day, 9 months a year, and weren’t being taught.