What to Discuss During Parent Conferences
It’s early October, so parent conferences, data meetings, and report cards are on all of our brains.
Because my school starts the first week of August, I just wrapped up all of these things. My parent conferences are done, my report cards were due last week, and we’ve had our first round of data meetings and started RTI a couple of weeks ago.
And I’m EXHAUSTED. October teaching is not for the weak!
But, I am on a (well-deserved) Fall Break now, and I thought I’d share my parent conference agenda. I want to chat about what I discuss, how I structure my conferences, and how to navigate surprising questions from families.
Parent Conferences Agenda
I hosted most of my parent conferences via Zoom, but I did have a few in person for parents who requested it. This will be different at different places, so do what works best for your community and your schedule.
24-48 hours before conferences, send your families an email. In the email, include the agenda of what you plan to discuss. This is also where you could include the Zoom link if you are meting virtually. Each of my conferences was 15-20 minutes, so I didn’t have a ton of time to chat with each family.
Sending an agenda ahead of time assured my families that I was running the show, and that I was being intentional with our time. It also showed them at what point they could share their questions or concerns, if they had any.
My agenda was:
Review data. We complete the Aimsweb Fall Screener as our diagnostic data. We use other data points, but I only refer to those if they are relevant. (For example: If a student showed up low in reading fluency, I may cite other reading fluency data that I collected to confirm that they are consistently below the benchmark. If they showed up ‘bubble’ in math concepts, I may cite classroom tests to show that they are barely passing classroom assessments, etc.)
Share the action plan. I didn’t actually type this part out for parents to see, but i did not share any data without sharing what we were doing about it as a team. I do not recommend simply stating that a child is below benchmark in one area and trying to move on. If the child is in an RTI group and is being progress monitored to track their growth, explain how that process works. If they are bubble, but you have created a way for them to get extra practice during the school day, share that. If you need parent support at home with extra math fact or reading practice, ask for that help here.
Discuss social and emotional observations, along with work habits/organization observations. I believe in presenting a compliment sandwich. Start with their strengths, point out one or two things you want the student to work on, then close with additional strengths.
*Example: Mary is so organized and keeps up with her materials! Her desk is always so neat, and she clearly takes pride in her work and her workspace. I’m working on keeping her confidence up when she is working in math. I’ve noticed that she can become withdrawn and a little down on herself if she gets a question wrong. I’m giving her pep talks when I see this happen to keep her perseverance up! Socially and emotionally, she adapts well to change, gets along with others, and works well in groups and partners. I’m really enjoying being her teacher!
Leave time for questions. If you discuss the data, share what you’re doing with the data, and hit on how they are doing in class and with friends in general, most parents won’t have questions for you. I just held 25 conferences, and I only had a handful of parents who had questions outside of the things that I discussed. But, it’s important to give them a chance to ask for clarification on anything you said, or share additional concerns or questions that you may not have covered.
What if a parent asks something I’m not prepared to answer?
If a parent asks a question or shares a concern that catches you off-guard, my number one suggestion is to buy yourself time. Make a note of the question, promise to follow-up with the proper resource or that you will double check the answer with someone else and get back to them. Give a deadline of when you will get back to them if you can (end of the week, before next week, etc.)
A parent can catch you off guard for a variety of reasons. They may be combative about something that you didn’t know they were upset about. There may be a family issue that you weren’t aware of that they ask for support with. Or, there may have been some things the student struggled with in years past that you weren’t made aware of, and they want to know what you’ll do if the child starts struggling again.
I’ve had everything from parents telling me that they are getting divorced, they’ve been diagnosed with cancer, etc. and they want help with supporting their child emotionally. to the parent asking where they can go to get their child screened for dyslexia or another learning disorder.
If I’m truly uncertain of the best answer, I do not answer. You do not want to make promises you can’t keep, or assure parents that the school offers a resource it may not offer.
Provide a generic, comforting, professional response. “Thank you so much for sharing this with me and trusting me with this information. I am making a note to follow up with our counselor (school psychologist, admin, etc.). I will get back to you by the end of the week with the exact resources we offer and tell you where we can go from here.”
What data should I present if we do not do diagnostic screening?
I saw this question in a Facebook group recently. If you do not give Aimsweb, MAP, STAR, iReady, etc., it may not be as cut-and-dry what you share with parents at conferences.
I recommend sticking with data that you can compare to a grade-level benchmark or norm. Classroom tests aren’t as helpful, because although a student may score a 90% or higher on a couple classroom tests, that doesn’t tell the parents that they are truly on grade level. Your tests may be easy. Or they may be really strong in the topics you’ve taught so far.
Data points like the DRA, a phonics screener, a developmental spelling assessment, reading fluency test, diagnostic math pre-test, etc. will give parents a better idea of whether they are on grade level or not. It’s more cut and dry to tell parents that they are at level 16 n the DRA. You can tell them that this is where they needed to be by the end of first grade, so you have a little catching up to do. Then, you can set a goal to have them at a level 20 by Christmas to try to catch them up a bit. This gives the parents a goal to look for as you share data in the future, which creates more investment in the families. It’s a win, all around!
Get the Parent Conference Pack
I have a resource on TPT with a page to organize your notes about each child, a sticky note template to print and have sticky notes at the ready to make notes about follow up steps to take for each kid, and a student reflection page that you can share with parents if you want to get into how the students think they are doing!
