Turning the Tables

By Mary Ellen Flannery

In a twist on the traditional parent-teacher conference, teachers are inviting somebody else to run the show: their students.

This is definitely not the parent conference of old, and Maya, perched eagerly on the edge of her seat, is reveling in the opportunity to be in charge.

"Ta-da!" she exclaims, emptying a carefully prepared red

folder. This is her science poster on the blue poison dart frog—discovered by scientists "a very long time ago" in 1971—which won 98 points. This is her final math test, a mess of decimals and division, which earned a depressing 87 percent.

"Nines, fives, and twos are easy, but sixes are not very good," Maya explains.

In Portland's David Douglas School District and many other districts across the country, it's an increasingly popular scene. Instead of inviting parents to that often hurried sit-down meeting at the teacher's desk, teachers are switching to these longer, student-led conferences, in hopes of engaging more parents and making students responsible for their learning. And despite the extra time and pay the sessions require, many educators still give them a thumbs-up.

"There are a few nice advantages," Hackmann says.

First, teachers say, parents come to these conferences. And then, with everybody at the same table, more gets done. Kids set specific goals with their parents, which hopefully lead to increased academic performance, and teachers avoid the usual he-said, she-said conflicts.

'Tonight's the night!'

Lori Ellis, an Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, first-grade teacher, is a pioneer in student-led conferences. Back when most teachers were still meeting parents for 10 minutes in the cafeteria, she took out trays of chocolate-chip cookies and soft drinks and asked her kids to host the get-together.

Her students all begin their conference the same way. "Today I'm going to tell you all about my learning and I want you to ask me questions along the way. Okay, Mom and Dad?"

"I'm going to show you the book I'm reading during my guided reading group and read you my favorite page. … Do you have any questions?"

Simple enough, but Ellis put a lot of work into developing scripts and checklists for her students, plus conference-related lesson plans. Although she was able to combine most of her work for her master's degree classes, few teachers have the spare time to get started, she acknowledges.

Still, her efforts were rewarded when she surveyed Greenland School parents a few years ago. While 9 percent preferred the traditional conference, 49 percent said they liked the new style and 42 percent wanted both—a traditional conference in the fall and a student presentation in the spring.

For her own part, Ellis prefers the spring. While it's nice to meet parents one-on-one, their questions usually can be answered in notes, e-mails, or calls. Plus, the student-led meetings are much more successful at getting parents through the door.

"I have had fall conferences where parents don't show up," Ellis said. "(In the spring), the kids would never let them forget—it's like tonight's the night!"

At their young age, Ellis' first-graders can't do much in the way of self-analysis. The student-led conferences in her classroom are more celebrations than critiques. But by third grade, students can identify their specific weaknesses and parents should be able to help them.

Who's responsible?

"There's going to be a lot of math in fourth grade," Cherry Park third-grader Ariana Hunter tells her mother, as they look over a few funky figures in her folder. (Math, unlike art or lunch, is not her favorite.) "Maybe it's something to work on this summer," offers her mother, Sandra Reed.

By middle school, students should be actively engaged in setting goals, says Laura Hayden, an integrated computer studies teacher in Derby, Kansas.

Every Friday, her kids describe the most important thing they learned that week and set a new weekly goal. They also evaluate themselves on "employability" skills—were they punctual? Did they follow directions? Get along with their "co-workers?"

Then, during the conference with their parents, they're able to explain in detail what they did to get an A or what they didn't do to get a D, and set well-defined goals, she says. "Not just a letter grade—but specific goals like 'I'm going to look at my notes every night,'" Hayden says. "I tell them, 'If you go the cheap way out, you'll get a cheap grade.'"

Hayden doesn't have fond memories of the old conferences, which she likens to moving cattle. "When we were in the cafeteria, people would wait 20 minutes for me to say, 'Here's your child's grade. It's nice to meet you.'" But the new style can really affect a student's performance, she says, when kids realize they're the ones responsible for their grades. "I want them to think about their learning….It's not my grade, it's theirs."

No lies, now

Compared to Ellis and Hayden, math teacher Cris Orff of Noble High School in North Berwick, Maine, is a relative newcomer on the scene. He ceded control of parent conferences four years ago, at about the same time that he and some colleagues decided to try a team approach to teaching.

High school students obsess about a lot of things—cell phones and school dances—but not necessarily their class work. Freshmen, he says, laughing, "tend to be detached from reality….Our goal was to tie them to reality and get them thinking again."

But, like his colleagues from all over the country, Orff discovered other benefits. "All of a sudden, they're sitting here with you and their parents. They can't say, 'Oh, it's the teacher's fault or it's my parents' fault,'" he says. "They're there between a rock and a hard place, and they have to be honest."

But Orff noted that parents do need a little time to adjust. "They keep looking at you, keep asking you for direction. You have to redirect it to the students," he says.

Demand compensation

Districts also need time to catch up. When Wisconsin's Ellis first prepared for student-led conferences, she wasn't compensated for the extra time. A few years later, it became part of the contract, and all her colleagues jumped on board.

Likewise, Orff began voluntarily, knowing each 30-minute conference would eat up more time. But this year, it became an issue at the bargaining table and now all Noble High teachers will qualify for compensatory time off, he said.

Students, on the other hand, adapt quickly. At Portland's Cherry Park, Maya revels in her student-led conference. The sneaky sixes aside, the third-grader's reading and writing skills are very strong, says her teacher, Stephanie Myrhe.

"Very well-presented, ma'am," her mother says.

Maya bows.

Student-Led Conference Tips

• Prepare Students. Explain the process. Model their role. Ask them to practice introducing their parents to you.
• Prepare Parents. Invite them with a letter that emphasizes that their child needs to come. Let them know what to expect.
• Prepare Yourself.  Have a good handle on how your students are doing. Which students might need more support?
• Prepare the Environment.  Consider light music in the background, cookies, and messages on boards.
• Have work for students to share. A Microsoft PowerPoint portfolio or special project is helpful for parents to see students' progress.
• Always point out positives to parents.  It's good for kids to hear these as well. Help set goals so parents see a plan for growth.
• Be on the lookout for negative situations to defuse.
• Be a part of the process—but don't take over.

—Laura Hayden
Derby Middle School