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The purpose of this study is to identify the level of expectations held by parents of secondary school students, whether these expectations differ significantly across a range of variables, and to identify the expectations of parents regarding mathematics education, difficulties they run into, and solutions they suggest. Explanatory sequential design of mixed methodology was preferred in research. The quantitative study group consisted of 398 parents who had students in secondary schools in the central district of Sivas province during the spring term of the 2021-2022 academic year, while the qualitative study group consisted of 23 parents. The “Mathematics Education Parent Expectation Scale (MEPES)” developed by Aytekin et al. (2016), and a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researchers were used to collect research data. Descriptive statistics, independent groups t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and content analysis method were used to analyse the obtained data. The research has shown that parents’ expectations are “very high” in the factors of “Expectation of Teaching for Conceptual Understanding and Active Student (ETCUAS)” and “Expectation of Donating Positive Attitude and Behaviour (EDPAB)”, and “high” in the factor of “Expectation of an Authoritative and Rule Weighted Teaching (EARWT)”, and on the whole scale. There was a statistically significant difference in the parents’ expectations levels on the EARWT factor based on the gender variable; and on the whole scale and its factors based on the educational status variable, and no statistically significant difference was found in the expectation levels of the parents on the whole scale and its sub-factors according to the student’s gender and grade level. The qualitative findings revealed that the most common expectation from mathematics education is for it to be relevant to daily life; the most common difficulty is passing over topics that are beyond the students’ grasp; and the most frequent suggestions are to ensure active participation and to cover topics in greater depth.