What, No Parent-Teacher Conferences?

When I first came to Grosse Pointe almost 10 years ago, I was surprised to find the district did not have parent/teacher conferences at the high school level. A better description for my feelings may have been shock instead of surprise. I expected parents in GP to be heavily involved in their child's education, so I fully expected that P/T conferences were a given.

Through the years that I have been in this chair, every once in a while the topic comes up. It is still a rare occurrence, however. But it did come up recently from one parent, and in this case it was a middle school parent.

That got me to thinking. I've thought a lot about the changes over the years. Back when I was teaching, I distinctly remember P/T conferences. The parents would come in twice per year, spring and fall. They would sit across the desk from me and I would show them their student's work. Sometimes, it consisted of grades from the gradebook, while at other times it may be a recent test or term paper. In either case, we discussed the progress of their child in my class. The individual conference was limited to ten minutes, meaning that sometimes there were many things left unsaid.

It was the norm that I would see parents of students that performed adequately or well. However, it was also the norm that I did not get to see the parents I really wanted to see because their students were not doing as well as they should. That was probably the most disappointing aspect of P/T conferences.

Fast forward to today. Much has changed. First of all, all teachers are accessible via email and voicemail. I usually encourage parents to use email because of the ease of responding. You can get to it as soon as you can get to it, and I rarely get a complaint that teachers are slow to respond.

Beyond email and voicemail, however, is the immediate access that parents have through Parent Connect. It gives parents the opportunity to see grades and attendance almost immediately. It more or less provides a video of what has gone on in the classroom on a daily basis. When I think back to P/T conferences of old, they were strictly a snapshot of the student's progress only two times per year.

This is the summary of my thinking. Although I'm surprised we have not had P/T conferences in Grosse Pointe, I'm equally surprised that other school districts have not gone away from it. With the ready access of data available to students and parents, the twice per year meetings seem kind of passe.

I don't anticipate a change in the near future. From the lack of requests that I have had to look into the existing practice, it's apparent most parents feel their needs are being met through Parent Connect and email access to staff.

I wish all of you the best of the Easter season, and feel confident our students and staff will come back refreshed from spring break.