Eric Walthall, a seventh-grader with brown hair and wire glasses, sits
at a classroom conference table with his mother Tammy and his language arts
teacher Dena Kent. Eyes cast downward and palms sweating, he's giving a
report of his recent progress at Iroquois Middle School.
"I know I talk too much in school," he says to his mother. "I
wanted you to hear this from me first. Other than that, I got pretty good
grades."
Reading from his self-evaluation, Eric describes his goals: to do more independent
reading, to become a veterinarian, to concentrate in class.
Kent congratulates him for his candor and his willingness to see his positive
and negative traits. Then she gently asks him a series of questions designed
to draw him out.
"You say you deserve an A in your (writing) portfolio, but you got
a B," she says. After hesitating a moment, Eric admits that he has
missed some assignment deadlines.
"Why is that, Eric?" Kent asks.
"I was looking for some better ideas," he says.
He pauses. Kent keeps silent.
"And I talked too much with my friends," he says.
A few minutes later, Kent steers the conversation in another direction.
"What do you like about yourself, Eric?" she asks.
"That I'm getting good grades in everything but social studies."
"What is it about social studies that makes it different?" Kent
asks. "You're very analytical. Think about it."
Eric doesn't have an answer. After a moment, he begins to read from his
evaluation again. "One way my teachers have helped me is to push me
to do my best," he reports.
When Eric finishes his self-evaluation, Dena Kent shows his mother samples
of his writing, describing the purpose of each assignment and how it meets
the goals of the Kentucky Education Reform Act. Then she asks whether they
have any questions or concerns.
Mrs. Walthall thinks Eric may have been marked absent incorrectly one day.
Kent promises to look into the matter and thanks them for coming in. A few
minutes later, the process begins again, and another Iroquois 7th grader
sweats out Dena Kent's unusual approach to the parent-teacher conference.
Student-led conferences emphasize responsibility
Three years ago, when the Jefferson County Public Schools began requiring
schools to schedule conferences with parents at least once a semester, Dena
Kent decided to involve a third party in the discussions -- her students.
Each spring, about a week before the conferences begin, Kent asks each student
to write a formal letter of introduction to their parents and a self-evaluation
that identifies their strengths, weaknesses and career goals. To give them
a better idea of what she expects, she shows them videotapes of former students
leading their own conferences. Then she conducts practice sessions so her
students can polish their presentations.
Kent believes that when students accept responsibility for their own academic
performance, they begin to understand that school is not just something
that happens to them. The student-led conferences, she says, also underscore
that point for parents. "When students deliver the bad news, parents
are more receptive. It's not the teacher to blame."
While most parents appreciate hearing their children's self-appraisals,
others question giving so much control over the conferences to adolescents.
Some say they would prefer to talk to Kent alone.
"It sort of put a crimp on things," Cathy Messex says after she
leaves a conference with her daughter Alison. "I find this a little
intimidating. If I had concerns, I wouldn't feel comfortable saying anything
in front of Alison. I can't say I got a lot out of it."
But Iroquois Principal Mark Rose supports Kent's approach. He believes that
while all teachers go into conferences with the intention of communicating
well with parents, some are more effective than others. Kent's method of
including students in the evaluation is one he "would like to do more
formally schoolwide in the future."
Asking students to assess their own work teaches them to accept responsibility
for their actions and effort, Rose says. "The more we can get kids
to understand that, the better off they'll be in life."
The parent-teacher dilemma
Effective and efficient communication with families presents a dilemma for
middle school educators throughout Jefferson County. The middle years are
tough enough on parents -- as emerging teenagers, children often become
more distant, more independent and more unpredictable. The schools they
attend can seem the same way.
When students reach the middle grades, they learn from up to six different
teachers a day, instead of the one teacher most had in elementary school.
From the family's perspective, staying in touch with school becomes more
difficult than ever before.
"I don't think there's enough communication going on," said a
mother with two children at Meyzeek Middle School, where she was waiting
outside a classroom on conference day last March. The mother, who declined
to give her name, said she rarely hears from teachers unless her children
are in trouble or until they've fallen so far behind in their assignments
they can't catch up. Periodic school newsletters, one of Meyzeek's efforts
to alert families to activities, mean little to this mother because they
don't tell her "anything about my child."
"The teachers know if they're not doing their homework or responding
in class. I need to know that," she said. "To some teachers it
comes naturally to talk with parents. But some teachers want to put the
blame on us and don't realize we're both there for one accord -- the children."
Research has shown convincingly that children do better in school when their
parents are actively involved in their education. But barriers inside and
outside school tend to limit that contact, from the resistance of teachers
to the reluctance of parents. Both groups can be defensive.
Jefferson County's annual parent-teacher conferences are an obvious place
to start building better relationships. Participation by parents and teachers
has grown steadily in the past three years -- more than twice as many middle
school conferences were held this school year, for instance, compared to
two years ago.
JCPS leaders like Middle School Advocate Sandy Ledford believe the conferences
are the perfect place for teachers and parents to talk about the higher
academic standards the district expects children to meet, and how families
can help make that happen. But two days of observations and interviews during
the March sessions make it clear that while many good things go on during
parent-teacher conferences, the district needs to do a better job helping
teachers and parents focus on student success.
Becky has spent the last six months in a program for recovering alcoholics.
During that time she temporarily lost custody of three of her children.
Now, she says, she is ready to take charge of her life again and begin to
help them with theirs. One of her sons, a seventh-grader, had been most
affected by her drinking and absences from home.
"We're glad to see you," Ruscelia White, the boy's science teacher,
says to Becky when the conference begins. "You have a lovely, young
son. He's well-mannered. He does have a problem bringing in his assignments.
We really are concerned about him. We want him to make it."
"When he does it, he does beautiful work," says social studies
teacher Libby Enlow.
Becky provides some details of her personal troubles, but says she's now
in a better position help her son succeed in school. She suggests that the
teachers require the boy to get her signature and theirs on homework assignments
to verify that he has completed the work. They agree, and they also support
Becky's suggestion that her son resume taking the drug Ritalin to control
his hyperactivity. The teachers also suggest that he stay after school for
tutoring.
"I'm willing to try anything and everything to get back on track,"
Becky says.
"We all care about him," says math teacher Cindy Hayes Nichols.
"I think he knows that."
After the meeting, Becky smiles as she walks down the halls of the school.
She says she feels as if she's tossed a heavy weight from her shoulders.
"I feel really good about this," she says. "They had confidence
in him. They're open-minded. That's all I ask. I used to think it was all
up to them to make him learn. Now I think it's much more of a give and take.
Everybody has to put in the time or we're going to lose a lot of kids.
"It takes more than teachers to make good students." says the
mother of four. "It takes parents, too."
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"Building Better Parent Partnerships"
-- Ideas for successful teacher-parent conferences