Tips for Teachers to Lead Successful Parent-Teacher Conferences
The start of a new school year is a great time to refresh your strategies for family engagement and prepare a new approach to parent-teacher conferences. We know that school-to-home connections are key for student success — parental involvement has been linked to positive academic outcomes, social and emotional skills, and attendance. Each of the teachers, administrators, parents, and other caregivers in a child’s life wants to see them thrive, and the odds of success are far greater when school and home are aligned in a close partnership.
Here are some tips to lead meaningful conversations with families — during formal conferences and throughout the school year.
Put Students in the Driver’s Seat
Putting student voice at the center of conversations with families, and even letting students lead their own parent-teacher conferences, can be a powerful way to allow students to own their learning. Second-grade teacher and guest blogger Melisa Hayes believes student-led conferences are an option no matter age and ability. She says, “Kids love having the control and teachers are so proud of their kids!” Teacher and guest blogger Skylar Primm agrees. He says, “It requires some preparation and scaffolding, but it’s absolutely worth it.”
To confidently lead their own parent-teacher conference, students will need the right tools and a safe environment to own their learning throughout the year. You can prioritize student agency through project-based learning, art, Genius Hour (great for littles!), teaching executive functioning skills, and technology.
When possible, give students real-time access to reporting so they can visualize and track their own growth. The creators of our new tool, McGraw Hill Plus for PreK-12, have found that students naturally view their Standards and Skills Graph (which tracks individual student progress in a subject across state standards and corresponding skills) as a motivating factor to do better in areas where they can grow. They love looking at their graph and talking about where they see improvement. Allowing students access to clear representations of their growth and opportunities for reflection will prepare them (and even get them excited!) to share with their families.
Lead with Empathy
Empathy is critical when fostering relationships with families. Not every parent or caregiver has had a positive experience with school as a child. Some may distrust institutions, lack confidence in their ability to support their children academically, or simply be navigating a plethora of obstacles to engage with their child’s school — from work to other obligations to language barriers or health challenges. Educator and guest blogger Jenn reminds us, “Meet parents where they are. Have tissues, many parents have had traumatic school experiences themselves.”
For more on empathy in teaching, see:
Adopt a Strengths-First Approach
When talking to families about students, lead with the positives! If you’ve spent a good amount of time with your class ahead of the conference, write down positive encounters and observations about each student in a notebook to remember before meeting with families.
To address challenges, try a “positive sandwich,” opening first with a conversation about the student’s strengths, then transitioning into the tougher parts of the conversation, and closing with another reminder of what the student does well. This approach can help families be more receptive to partnering to address challenges. It’s also so important for parents to hear positives about their children from teachers, especially those students who struggle behaviorally or academically. Framing of the student among their caregivers and teachers will inevitably reach the student in indirect ways. A strengths-first conference can even trickle down to improve the student’s self-perception and behavior.
Consider Culture and Language
When possible, consider how you can make accommodations for language communication barriers during parent-teacher conferences. Use non-linguistic cues like color-coding, symbols, and patterns in notes home and include an interpreter or school liaison in the meeting if your district provides one. Never assume all parents have easy access to technology and send home paper reminders as well as digital ones when you can.
From the first day of the year, be sure your classroom is an inclusive environment, welcoming of all the cultures and backgrounds your students’ families represent. Sometimes, families of multilingual learners may not feel welcome in schools or may feel that they can’t attend events or conferences because of the language barrier. Extending a personal invitation to these families can help demonstrate that they are both welcome in school and a valued contributor to their child’s success.
For more on partnering with families of multilingual learners, see:
Use AI to Help
Have you considered how generative AI tools like ChatGPT could help you prepare for parent-teacher conferences? Educators Crystal Frommert and Lainie Rowell suggest using ChatGPT to nurture relationships with parents. They see ChatGPT as a tool to help teachers communicate more often and clearly with families. In this blog, they describe how to use AI for home communications without sacrificing authenticity:
Try using ChatGPT to refine your pre- and post-conference communication with parents, ideate talking points, questions, or conversation structure, or brainstorm how to respond to particularly tricky issues you think may need to be addressed during conferences.
Communicate All Year Long
Finally, it’s important to maintain open, consistent channels of communication with families all year long, not just during parent-teacher conferences and open houses. Establishing a dialogue about student behavior ensures that your relationship with families isn’t isolated to a conference, allowing you to begin the conversation with a degree of trust and common understanding. Regular communication regarding academic progress reporting can also be beneficial leading up to a conference. Be sure to include clarification on any acronyms, terminology, or other confusing elements of the report so that parents feel confident interpreting it and come to the conference with a firm understanding of their child’s performance.
For more on collaborating with families, see:
