Should students attend parent/teacher conferences?

Posted by teacher on July 16, 2011

Your experience is intriguing to me, #9. I taught for 28 years, and I’ve had plenty of administration/parent/teacher/student conferences, and most were productive and inspired some kind of positive change in student–and often parent–behavior. I taught in both Christian school and public school, and, admittedly, these kinds of meetings were more effective in the private schools that in public. But it was generally encouraging for the students because, while we addressed the issues we all knew were problem areas, we were also able to affirm the positives and potential from each teacher’s perspective.

I’m not recommending this for every circumstance, for sure, but I have seen it work. New homework patterns, attitude changes, and some specific help (even something simple such as checking in with each teacher at the end of the day) generally made a difference in the student’s educational progress.