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Students Lead the Conference; Meetings Among Teachers, Parents, Kids Get High Marks All Around

Posted on: Monday, 31 October 2005, 18:01 CST

By HOWARD BUCK, Columbian staff writer

Parent-teacher conferences at local public schools each autumn and spring just aren't what they used to be.

Good thing, say educators, parents and students who praise the sweeping change.

From grade school through high school, students now are typically asked to lead the meetings. They explain specific learning goals, share work done in class and long-range plans. The conferences are scheduled morning, afternoon or night to accommodate parents' hectic lives. An interpreter might be on hand to assist, or child care provided on campus to remove one more barrier for families.

It's a far cry from many a tired, old-school parent-teacher night the student staring at the floor in boredom or with red face, adults talking as if alone and has school leaders cheering.

Parent participation is up, even at higher grade levels, administrators report. Students get a positive push and another opportunity to take charge of their learning, they add.

"It's a student's conference, they're running the show. The parents are much more likely to be there," said Tom Bergemann, seventh-grade science teacher at Cascade Middle School.

Conferences at Cascade and other Evergreen district schools are taking place during October. The Vancouver district schools will have conferences Thursday and Friday. All across Clark County, it's school conference time. And student-led conferences are quickly becoming the norm, modeled after pilot programs elsewhere in Washington and other states.

After years of inviting only parents of the lowest-achieving 20 percent of students and having barely half show up Cascade instructors said parent-child attendance soared to 98 percent last year, the first time all families were asked to engage.

The three-way meetings leave each party more focused and upbeat, participants say.

"I like it, because it gives me her view of how she's doing," said Teresa Thew, who sat in Room 146 with her daughter, Jordan Jay, and math teacher Scott Bristol for a 20-minute session at Cascade on Tuesday. "We're looking at it together, instead of her thinking she's doing one thing and me thinking she's doing another."

Jay confidently described studies in her six class periods, showing off writing samples, math problems, hurricane charts, sheet music from choir and an attitude-behavior checklist. She also vowed to avoid slacking off later in the year: "I'm going to try harder, 'cause this is when it really matters."

Earthquakes explained

Across the room, Bergemann and language arts teacher Karen Morningstar held court with other parent-student sets. They and Bristol comprise the three-subject, core academic team for Jay and her classmates.

As Morningstar moderated, Kaleo Lyles cheerfully explained to his grandmother and guardian, Jody Smith, how seismologists find earthquake epicenters, sketching a diagram to make his point. He's a high achiever, though he did admit to skipping a few daily goal- setting exercises.

Smith favorably compared the student-led format with dour sessions with her two sons long ago. "It's much better than with the child sitting there saying nothing, and the teacher saying, 'He needs help here, he needs help here.'"

Both Jay and Lyles gave the sessions a thumbs-up. "It's kind of a challenge, because usually you just sit there," Jay said. "This time, you get to talk."

The conferences do eat some class time, as students prepare their briefings and organize materials. Teachers log many more conference hours. But the payoff can be great. Class rules and expectations are reinforced with parents, who in turn get critical exposure to teachers. That makes parents more likely to assert themselves the rest of the year.

"It's worth it," said Bergemann, a 10-year teaching veteran. The old-style conferences were "not very effective at bringing change with the students," he said.

Across town, Peter S. Ogden Elementary School has embraced the new format. In all Vancouver schools, a detailed benchmark database is used to pinpoint individual pupil needs and objectives. By fifth grade, students write learning plans and goals they present during parent-teacher conferences.

"'This is what school's going to do to help me, and this is what I'm going to do to help myself,'" Ogden Principal Curtis Smith explained. "It's very powerful, and it's a change from the last few years."

New options boost turnout

Other reforms respond to Clark County's shifting population and parent needs.

At Ogden, interpreters are made available for non-English- speaking families. At Pioneer Elementary School near Sifton, a large non-English-speaking population helped spark creation of a "welcome center" two years ago, set up in a portable classroom building. Child care, games and reading materials are available, clearing the way for more parents to attend conferences without distraction.

"With (sibling) children being able to come, we've had much greater participation," said Pioneer Principal Holly Myers. To further help, conferences run as late as 8 p.m., she said.

Improvements also are evident in high schools, where drawing parents often has been a tougher sell.

At Vancouver's Skyview High School, flexible meeting times and a mass-mailing to a quarter of student households targeted for conferences has boosted turnout, said Principal Ed Little.

He estimates about 50 percent of parents now meet with teachers; the other half communicate by telephone or e-mail during the year. A new, computerized system installed this autumn lets parents closely monitor students' class assignments, exam scores and attendance, he added.

During autumn conferences, parents learn mostly about how to help their child succeed. By spring, students must describe what they've accomplished and also articulate their "four-year-and-beyond plan." A formal version of the latter is now required of all Washington high school graduates, starting with this year's sophomore class.

"It's more of a dialogue ... to talk about what we as parents and as educators can do to support (school performance)," Little said.

That support goes only so far, he added. "The students really are taking more responsibility for their education, and that's how it should be. We can be the guides, the counselors, but they have to do the work."

Howard Buck writes about schools and education. Reach him at 360- 759-8015 or e-mail howard.buck@columbian.com.

Source: Columbian

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