Attendance at traditional parent-teacher conferences has declined in recent years, according to an article in Education Week. In 2016, the most recent year that the National Center for Education Statistics published statistics, an average of 91% of parents of elementary school students attended teacher-parent conferences. But that number dropped to 73% by the time students hit middle school. And when students reached high school, only 57% of parents attended these conferences.
Some schools are showing significantly higher attendance numbers.
David Gundale, the principal of Open World Learning Community, a public magnet school in St. Paul, Minn., serving grades 6-12, says between 85% to 100% of parents routinely show up for twice-a-year conferences. The secret? Students lead the parent-teacher conferences.
“The participation level is over twice the amount of a traditional parent check-in with teachers,” says Gundale. “[Traditional] conferences are adult to adult versus the student at the center of things.”
During these meetings (about 30 minutes), students often share the academic goals they’ve developed for themselves, showcase their work, and explain how they arrived at the final version of an assignment. This could be one they’re proud of and perhaps one they wish they had done differently. At end-of-year conferences, they also question the growth they’ve made over the school year.
“It changes the relationship between the learner and the teacher and the learner and the parent, but it also requires the student to do some goal-setting, to do some reflection on their own progress, and to really demonstrate, through that conference, their thinking and learning process,” says Cheryl Jones-Walker, the director of the Center for School and System Redesign at the Learning Policy Institute. “Both the teacher and the parent really have a clear sense of where [students] are in their learning process.”
Preparation is a big part of the student-led conferences that take place at Open World Learning Community. It starts before the school year begins.
The week before the first day of class, students and their parents meet with their crew leader (a faculty member who serves as an adviser) to come up with an academic, social, and personal goal for the year. Students start school knowing what is expected of them—or what they expect of themselves.
Later in the fall, students lead the first of two school-year conferences. The school refers to the first one as HOWL, which stands for habits of work and learning. Students “check in” with the goals established during the pre-school-year conference and prepare for the conference that comes later in the year, where they’ll showcase to their parents the academic work they’ve completed over several months.
“We know that a student’s habits will set the tone for the full school year and lead into the mastery of skills and knowledge,” says Megan Hall, who teaches life science at Open World Learning.
A feeling of celebration pervades the end-of-year student-led conference at Open World Learning, particularly for 12th graders. That conference lasts an hour per graduating student, each of whom gets the opportunity to reflect on work throughout their time at the school.
“In many cases, it’s almost like a master’s dissertation. They’re not necessarily defending anything, but they’re sharing things,” Gundale says. “And they invite a large number of people. Sometimes, it’s 20 people in a room of friends that celebrate their work and their time. It’s a touching event.”
Parents of students at the Open World Learning Community feel like they’re joining a celebration, especially during the final event of their child’s high school experience. And students want their parents there.
“When a student has invested time to put together their presentation, they want their parents to come,” says Hall. “You can even see that in the hallway; they’re kind of dragging their parents toward the room, as if to say, ‘Pay attention to me. I did this work. I want to show you what I learned.’”
Education Week
