A Maryland school district is considering scaling back or eliminating parent teacher conferences, believing they ”eat up instructional time and create a scheduling nightmare for families.” At present parents in Frederick County have to prepare for five half-days of parent-teacher conferences, which means shortened school days, complicated child care arrangements and interrupted schedules. Closing school for a day for conferences would mean having to make up for an extra instructional day, which costs more than $1 million, school officials say.
“Eliminating conferences may resolve that problem and reduce the amount of instructional time that students lose,” Maryland’s Gazette.net reports. ”The impact of the change may not be significant because parents can check grades online and use e-mail to communicate with teachers every day, said board member Michael Schaden. ‘We all know in these times there are many ways for parents to communicate with teachers,’ he said. ‘If we can scale back on conferences, we may be able to make it easier for families.’”
Is this a first? Perhaps this practice has been adopted in other districts, but a quick Google search fails to find any other examples of districts completely eliminating parent-teacher conferences.
Update: While this district looks at scrapping parent-teacher conferences, a proposed law in Colorado would give workers up to 40 hours of unpaid leave each school year to attend parent-teacher conferences or other school activities.
While I understand that parent teacher conferences can be a major scheduling nightmare (and not necessarily very useful if a lot of parents do not attend attend), I imagine there are a lot of conversations that are easier to have in person then through email or a phone.
When I taught in the Bronx we would have a half day and then parent teacher conferences in both the afternoon and the evening. It was an incredibly draining day. I think half days are hard to coordinate and not entirely productive and I understand the general feelings expoused by the District. But eliminating parent teacher conferences all together still doesn’t sit right with me.
Comment by Marnie — January 29, 2009 @ 3:54 pm
My district has two dedicated conference times a year. There is an evening session (5 – 7 PM) in the fall after the first report card, and a full day in the spring. On a good night, I will see 10% of my parents. Last time I saw none.
Comment by Obi-Wandreas — January 29, 2009 @ 4:02 pm
I think every teacher feels the exhaustion of parent teacher conferences. However, it is part of our job. Parent/teacher communication is crucial to a students education. I feel if conferences are forgotten about, so will the parents. We have to include them. Yes, e-mails, phone calls, and letters are another source of communication, but nothing beats a face to face experience. You can learn a huge amount about a student just by interacting with their parent/guardian. Parent teacher conferences need to stay.
Comment by Sara — January 29, 2009 @ 4:09 pm
What Sara said.
It’s ironic in this era of muscular accountability it would even occur to anyone to eliminate what is, at it’s base, the most potent and vital form of accountability. I think we lose that face-to-face contact at our (and our students’) peril.
Comment by Robert Pondiscio — January 29, 2009 @ 5:30 pm
With all due respect to Frederick County, this is a pretty bone-headed move. Think about what lies under the message they’re giving:
#1) What matters most is the grade
#2) We’re assuming parents have the technology tools and skills, and haven’t created a backup plan for those who don’t
#3) We’re too busy to meet with the folks who can tell us the most about the focus of our work: kids
#4) Numbers and convenience trump actual people
#5) We are asserting that parents are “too busy” to meet the schedule we set (when in fact, it may be the wrong schedule, or there may be other reasons why parents do not feel good about going to speak to their kids’ teachers)
I don’t care if only a handful of parents show up (which speaks to other failings on the part of the school organization)–not offering parents a chance to speak face to face with their children’s teachers is just wrong.
Comment by Nancy Flanagan — January 29, 2009 @ 6:27 pm
The education of a child needs to be a partnership between the teacher, the student, and the parent. If these three cannot join forces in this contract the student loses out, BIG TIME. If the youngster knows the parent isn’t going to go to the conference that eliminates the most powerful leverage the teacher has in the classroom.
Which parents don’t make it to conferences most of the time? It’s the parents of the kid who is struggling in school. Any teacher who doesn’t call these parents and demand their presence at a conference is doing that child a great injustice.
Comment by Paul Hoss — January 30, 2009 @ 10:53 am
As a parent, who is concerned about the education that my daughter is receiving, I am outraged by this decision and what it might mean to the nation at large. This would do away with the one time I have the teacher’s full attention.
Of course, I am one of the parents that do attend the teacher/parent conference.
Comment by Terry Howell — January 30, 2009 @ 1:33 pm
It’s hard to imagine many schools going this route (although I’m out of the business of being surprised). What I find unsettling about even considering the idea is that it speaks to a certain “vendor mentality,” which is actually of a piece with the idea that all accountability for student achievement rides on the shoulders of schools. If you take that idea to its logical conclusion, it means that schools are providing a service, and they are on the hook for any shortcomings. If that’s the case, then parent teacher conferences are no longer about collaboration, but a performance review for teachers.
Comment by Robert Pondiscio — January 30, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
Parents already get such mixed messages from schools about their desired level of involvement, and the message this decision would send is that the school does not want parents involved in their children’s education. Schools cannot expect needed support from the home if they close up avenues for parents to communicate with the school and become a part of their children’s educational experience. I worked in Title I schools for 6 years, and I always benefitted from interaction with parents. Though many of our families came from humble backgrounds, they all wanted the best for their kids. While there may be other important ways to connect with parents besides conferences, often my conferences with parents started the ball rolling for good communication. I wonder if there aren’t other ways to solve the problems this district is facing other than getting rid of conferences, such as decreasing the amount of conferences from five to three per year or hiring substitutes while teachers are conducting conferences.
Comment by Sarah — January 30, 2009 @ 5:08 pm
Teachers at our school do a fantastic job of developing ongoing relationships with parents. We stress the importance of proactive, honest communication being done on a regular basis. Our goal is to partner with the parents and our teachers have been amazing.
Even with the great ongoing communication, we tried something new for conferences this year. We require at least one parent to attend conference in order to receive the first quarter report card. We have one full day set aside for this. We had about an 80% success rate on the first meeting day. The few that could not make an appointment on conference day, were required to schedule directly with the teacher at a mutually convenient time. We were at 100% within 2 weeks of the scheduled conference day.
Comment by BJ Hewlett — January 30, 2009 @ 5:25 pm
I for one find the idea that the conferneces be elimanted very unsettling. True we can keep up with the grades online and calls BUT I feel a face to face at least 2 times /year is very worthwhille and neccessary to the edcuation process.
Comment by Richard Reitman — January 30, 2009 @ 9:14 pm