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"We started slow with student-led conferences," says eighth-grade teacher Brigid Jennings. "It was almost like a gradual release to full student-led conferences. It's important to remember that not all teachers are at the same level of comfort with giving over this time to the students. We spent a lot of time as a professional community discussing ways student-led conferences could work, and then found whatever format was best for us as teachers and also our students."

As they piloted the change, these teachers saw a big difference in the levels of engagement for both parents and students. The teachers also liked the new model better, saying that it felt less like they were defending the grades they gave students and more like a conversation about the students' learning. The pilot group's success convinced the rest of the teachers at Wildwood to keep building on the idea, and within a few years, it had become a school-wide practice.

Designating a Time

Conferences at Wildwood happen twice a year. Each conference lasts ten minutes, due to the number of families that teachers have to see. While that time seems like much, setting reasonable constraints can help the students feel more comfortable presenting.

"We never get through everything," says eighth-grade teacher Rebecca Braun. "We actually include more work than time allows. This helps the students feel less anxious and also keeps the conversation flowing."

Students know that it's OK if they don't get through everything, and teachers know that the conversation doesn't have to end after ten minutes. Parents are given the option of taking the students' presentation binder or folder home for the night to continue reviewing and discussing the work.

Teachers also work around the time limits by rearranging their schedule to allow for 15-minute conferences, or by making sure that the time blocked off for student-led conferences isn't usurped by other issues.

"If I have serious concerns and need to have a conversation with a parent," says Jennings, "I reach out to those parents and schedule separate times. I still keep their regular scheduled time for student-led conferences because I believe it is important for all students to present their learning to their parents and spend that vital time reflecting as a family."

Preparing the Work

The students prepare some kind of presentation, which differs by grade and is scaffolded to their skill level. For instance, the eighth grade classes prepare binders with their work and reflection sheets, while younger grades may prepare a poster board or packet to show their parents. But all students keep and manage a portfolio of their own work. (For examples and more information on portfolios, see the Resources section at the bottom of the article.) When students complete something that they're proud of or want to keep, they simply file that item in their portfolio. When it is time to start prepping for conferences, students can then go to that portfolio and choose what they want to include in the conference binders or folders to show their parents.

"When we begin to prepare for student-led conferences," says Jennings, "I have a conversation with students around what they feel should be included in their binders. We continue the conversation then through different lenses: What would you like to see as the student? What would your parents like to see? What would your teachers like to see? The student is the primary driver of what goes into the binders."

Some teachers set loose guidelines about what must go into the binder or folder, but the students are given a lot of freedom over what to include.

"We don't get too crazy about guidelines," says Jennings. "Each subject area must be included, and the reflection pieces also must be included. But it's important for the students to have choice in what goes into their binder. It's all about their learning and what's important to them. When students are given ample time to reflect, you would be surprised that they won't just fill their binder with every A+ paper they have. They'll include places where they struggled, places where they improved, and places where they need help. This doesn't always happen easily, but this is where teacher/student reflection and conversation come in."

Preparing Students to Lead

In addition to preparing their binders or folders, students spend the weeks before conferences talking about how to present and lead the conversation with their parents. Helping the students feel secure in talking about their learning makes their limited presentation time go much more smoothly, Wildwood teachers say.

"It's important to make sure the students understand they are in control of the conversation," says Braun. "It's not a 'got ya,' and their very best strengths are the highlight of the conference."

Teachers do this by setting expectations, facilitating student reflection, and going over the necessary elements of a successful conference.

"The teacher should be giving mini-lessons and having conversations about quality work, good conferences/bad conferences, planning, etc.," says fourth-grade teacher Georgia Melidis. "Teachers must build the capacity of their students. After all, students are in school, they are learning skills, and conducting a student-led conference is a skill that must be taught . . . We start prepping about a week before conferencing, and we practice 10-15 minutes per day. I got creative and made the prepping a station in my Daily Five reading centers."

Practice is a large component of their preparation, and students practice their presentations with each other, their teacher, and students from other grade levels. "Typically, what we do is we get with a buddy, and they can read to their friend," Melidis says. "They're giving each other feedback on their paper, so it's really an authentic way to design and conduct a student conference. And the shy ones are able to practice with people and feel prepared and then feel confident."

While preparing for conferences does take some class time, teachers find that it's just as valuable as curricular lessons. "We view the prep work as a critical time for reflection," says Braun. "Students look back on their work for the quarter and write about their areas for growth, their successes, things they'd like to work on. Kids have a tendency to forget about all the wonderful learning they've experienced in a quarter."

For teachers that may have the time flexibility to prepare, "I would say to get creative," suggests Melidis. "They can start two weeks prior to the conferences and practice for the first five minutes of class, or they can tie it into their daily journal, daily goal setting, reflection time, they can make it their exit ticket, etc."

Not only does investing time in conference prep ensure a successfully led conference, it also encourages student and parent attendance. Students are excited to tell their parents what they've learned, and parents are more apt to attend because their kids are excited. "This year, I had every parent and student show up for conferences," Melidis recalls. "Conference time was not taken as seriously before, but now the school is full and lively on conference night. I mean, let's face it -- no parent wants to let his or her own child down."

Resources

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"We started slow with student-led conferences," says eighth-grade teacher Brigid Jennings. "It was almost like a gradual release to full student-led conferences. It's important to remember that not all teachers are at the same level of comfort with giving over this time to the students.

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Parent-teacher conferences-we all know how they go. Parents troop into classrooms to talk with teachers about their children's progress in school. Often, the process feels rushed, and parents leave feeling vaguely dissatisfied, as if they didn't really get what they came for. For years parent-teacher conferences have been the primary means of parent-teacher communication. But now, many schools are trying something new-student-led conferences that communicate not only how a student's doing but also why.
For years that process has been the norm, but now it is changing. In more and more schools, students are leading conferences, and, overall, the word is that they're doing a fine job.

Many teachers themselves speak enthusiastically of the advantages of student-led conferences over teacher-led ones. "We found the [student-led] conferences most beneficial," said Keith Eddinger of the Marcus Whitman Middle School in Rushville, New York. "From a teacher's perspective, we were able to get a better picture of each child. It forced us to sit down with each student and review strengths and weaknesses. This conversation often told us the students learned more than perhaps we had measured through conventional assessments."

Eddinger added, "Our post-conference reviews with parents and students were overwhelmingly positive."

John Osgood, of C. L. Jones Middle School in Minden, Nebraska, found that "comments [about student-led conferences] from parents and board members were very positive."

Another staff member, Dick Philips, said, "Most parents listened to their child. It was interesting listening to [children] explain low grades to their parents. It did open the lines of communication."

"Several parents really liked it because it gave them an opportunity to see their child's work," said Sue Yant, another staff member. Yet "some [parents] said they hoped we [would hold] the traditional conference once a year."

Student preparation

"The format is important, but I believe the success of a student-led conference is most determined by how well students are prepared," wrote Laura Hayden, a seventh-grade communications teacher at Derby Middle School in Derby, Kansas, in Letting Students Lead Parent Conferences, an article published by the National Association of Elementary School Principals in Middle Matters.

The conference format at Hayden's school had students show parents some of their work and explain their grades in a student-led conference. Each team could conduct conferences a bit differently. Hayden's team used an open house arrangement in which students and parents visited all team members' classrooms, but other teams held the entire conference in one classroom.

The significance of format aside, Hayden focused her students on preparation. At the beginning of the school year, she had students set up a binder to contain a portfolio as well as graded work. She explained that students had to keep their binders orderly because they would use them to lead their conferences.

A week before the conferences, Hayden's team sent home a letter informing parents of the conference and the fact that their child would lead it. About three days before conferences, she had students prepare portfolios of their work to date, including a special project, a quiz, a homework assignment, and one assignment from which they felt they had learned the most. Students also wrote a reflection on their grades and study habits. They set goals for the next semester and organized their graded work section.

The day before conferences, teachers role-played, pretending to be the student, with the student playing the teacher or the parent. Teachers modeled, for example, how to explain a poor grade to parents, and they gave students a checklist of what to cover in the conference.

Student responsibility

"The preparatory time is worth it," Hayden wrote, "especially when you hear a struggling student explaining what he or she learned from an assignment and taking responsibility for the score he or she achieved."

"[Students] need to understand that they are in control of their own efforts to learn the material," said Barbara Rommel, superintendent of the David Douglas School District in Oregon. (Source: "New Method Puts Student in Charge," an article published in the Oregonian newspaper.)

The Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century requires students to meet higher standards. By having students assess how they are progressing toward those standards, educators say, students will know how far they've come and how far they have to go to meet the standards.

"It helps them accept responsibility for their learning," said Patti Kinney, principal of Talent Middle School in Oregon.

"I like being able to tell my side of the story," Josh Whitney-Wise of Milwaukie, Oregon's, McLoughlin Middle School told the Oregonian.

Advantages and disadvantages

Educators acknowledge that there are disadvantages as well as advantages to student-led conferences. Although parent attendance seems higher for student-led conferences than for teacher-led ones, a parent's failure to attend a student-led conference leads to a great deal of disappointment for a student who has worked hard to prepare.

Another disadvantage is that some parents want to spend more time with their child's teacher, receiving his or her viewpoint. Nearly all schools with student-led conferences will let parents make separate appointments to confer with teachers.

For the most part, parents support the concept of student-led conferences, though some support them with slight reservations. "My daughter was in a class that did student-led conferences a couple of years ago," said one parent of a child at Jones Middle School. "I think the object was to make the child feel a part of the whole process, to get them in tune with their own progress. As a parent, I felt like I still needed some info from the teachers and wanted more. But I do think the student gets a new perspective on their grades. Personally, I don't think it would be good to do this often, but once a year is good. When you ask if they were 'beneficial,' I can say yes and no. They were more beneficial to the student than to the parent."

But the advantages, say most teachers who have participated in student-led conferences, outweigh the downside. Student accountability is mentioned again and again by educators as a plus for student-led conferences. Another plus is the way even a struggling student can produce something positive for a conference, an art project or an essay, perhaps, that wouldn't show up in a report card grade. Overall, talks with educators indicate, student-led conferences are a growing trend.

Additional resources
Student-led Conferences Interdisciplinary Project
Student-Led Conferences Hold Kids Accountable
Would you like to find a way to actively engage students in their learning process and increase parent attendance at conferences? Student-led conferences can accomplish those two objectives. Included: Highlights of research about student-led conferences.

Student-Led Conferences Successful in Elementary, Middle Grades
As student-led conferences grow in popularity, educators are finding ways to improve their flow and productivity. Preparing students and parents for what's involved and practicing before "going live" can help. Included: Descriptions of student-led conferences at different grade levels.
Books
This site describes a detailed plan for student-led conferences at Frisbie Middle School in Rialto, California.

A School-Wide Approach to Student-Led Conferences: A Practitioner's Guide
By Patti Kinney, Mary Beth Munroe, Pam Sessions; National Middle School Association

Student-Led Parent Conferences
By Linda Pierce-Picciotto, Scholastic, Inc.

Student-Led Conferencing Using Showcase Portfolios
By Barbara Benson and Susan Barnett, Corwin Press, Inc.

Article by Sharon Cromwell
Education World®
Copyright © 2010, 2015 Education World

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parent teacher conference meeting school educators

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Education World: Student-Led Conferences: A Growing Trend

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Parent-teacher conferences-we all know how they go. Parents troop into classrooms to talk with teachers about their children's progress in school. Often, the process feels rushed, and parents leave feeling vaguely dissatisfied, as if they didn't really get what they came for. For years parent-teacher conferences have been the primary means of parent-teacher communication.

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Student-Led Conferences: Resources for Educators

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Whether you already do student-led conferences or are interested in making a shift, this list includes a variety of go-to examples, guides, tips, and forms to help launch or improve these meetings.

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Gabriella, a seventh-grade student at the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS) in New York City discusses her academic progress with her father at her student-led family conference. Learning targets, derived from Common Core standards, anchor Gabriella’s reflections on her progress. 

This video accompanies the book Leaders of Their Own Learning: Transforming Schools through Student-Engaged Assessment.

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Parent-teacher conferences provide parents with updates on their child's progress and opportunities to see their student's work. They also open communication between school and home. However, students often are passive, or even absent, during traditional parent-teacher conferences. One way to fix this is to put students at the helm, as they are the ones who are responsible for their work and progress. Here, we detail a few ways to hold effective student-led conferences and we offer a guide for each conference participant.

What Is a Student-Led Conference?

Image via Flickr by Innovation_School
In the student-led conference format, students and teachers prepare together, and then students lead the conference while teachers facilitate. "The triad then sits together to review and discuss the work and the student's progress. The message, once again, is that the students are responsible for their own success." Student-led conference models vary, but the premise is the same: "This is the student's moment to share his or her reflections on achievements and challenges."

Why Conduct Student-Led Conferences?

During traditional parent-teacher conferences, parents ask how their students are doing, and teachers provide grades and behavior reports. While these conferences seem to offer a final answer, they do not paint a clear picture of students.

According to Gus Goodwin, a teacher featured in the book, " Deeper Learning: How Eight Innovative Public Schools Are Transforming Education in the Twenty-First Century" (which in turn was quoted in this excellent MindShift article) is quoted as saying that parents appreciate student-led conferences as an alternative because they realize report cards are not useful, "and over time, the parents begin to set a higher bar for their students at these conferences."

Adjusting to the new conferences takes time, but parents become more reflective about their children's progress and understand how to help at home. The students also gain a better understanding of their strengths and challenges and the correlation between their effort, progress, and resulting quality of work.

Furthermore, teachers report more satisfaction with student-led conferences. In an Education World article, Keith Eddinger explains that, "from a teacher's perspective, we were able to get a better picture of each child. It forced us to sit down with each student and review strengths and weaknesses. This conversation often told us the students learned more than perhaps we had measured through conventional assessments."

Teacher Roles in the Student-Led Conference

During student-led conferences, teachers take on the role of facilitator, rather than that of leader. Individual teachers or whole schools may determine the conference format; for example, one teacher might meet with students and parents, or a few sets of families might meet in one space with circulating teachers. Regardless of the format, teachers play a more direct role in conference preparation than during conference time.

In preparing students for conferences, teachers outline student portfolio requirements. Often, teachers ask students to choose pieces illustrating areas for improvement, strengths, and personal choice such as work samples that make them especially proud. Teachers also prepare students for presenting their work. One strategy is to suggest discussion starters, such as "I do better in math when I..." Ultimately, the goal is to help students communicate their learning and processes to their parents through work samples.

Teachers also act as student advocates throughout the student-led conference. Parents may see lower than expected grades or hear surprising admissions from their student, so teachers need to guide discussions in a supportive manner that eliminates blame. For this reason, teachers instruct students to begin on a positive note with their strengths and then work through their challenges and areas of improvement. Next, teachers encourage families to create strategies for supporting student growth and improvement, such as setting aside designated homework/reading time or creating quiet study and work environments at home.

Students as Conference Leaders

From the beginning of the school year, students compile their portfolios consistently and thoughtfully. A portfolio for a student-led conference typically includes an agenda for the conference, a compilation of the student's work in the class, and usually goal sheets outlining academic and behavioral standards for them moving forward.

After assembling the portfolio, students maintain them in an organized fashion. Students who don't understand their teachers' requirements must ask questions if they are unsure about what to include. Usually, students use self-evaluation checklists or learning surveys to determine their areas of strength and weakness and set learning goals. Students must resist the urge to show parents their very best work and provide them with a clear picture of their school year and progress. Most important, students clearly communicate their progress and learning processes with their parents.

As the conference date draws near, students rehearse while teachers model the process and give students time to practice in class prior to the conference. Students should take advantage of this time and ask for help or guidance if they are especially nervous about their conferences. They can rely on notebooks or notecards with their written reflections or talking points to help ease their nerves and remain on track during the conferences.

Additionally, students advocate for themselves during the conference. If they feel that their parents could do more to help them, such as keeping younger siblings out of their rooms or study space during homework time, they can communicate this during the conference. Because student-led conferences are reflective by nature, students must be honest with themselves and their parents when reflecting on their grades, effort, and study habits. They also should set appropriate goals for the next grading period or semester.

Parent Roles in the Student-Led Conference

Parents are accustomed to the traditional conferences and will likely want to ask teachers about classroom behaviors and performance. Thus, parents find the most difficulty in listening to their student instead of asking teachers for clarification or explanations. During student-led conferences, parents focus the conversation on their children and reflect on their work with them. They look at samples and listen to their children's explanations and reflections. Then, they ask how they can help and what the students need from them.

Some of the best questions that parents can ask center on homework environments and a student's classroom efforts. This way they can participate in developing strategies to support their students and then remain consistent long after the conferences end. This also helps them to be open-minded about their children's areas of improvement and to support their goal-setting process. For parents, it's important to embrace the student-led conference format and allow children to take the reins so they can act as responsible learners.

In Short

Student-led conferences can be very successful in opening communication between school and home, but only if every participant understands their roles and responsibilities. This guide helps to educate participants on their roles during a student-led conference, what they can expect, and how to best use this opportunity to benefit the student, family, and teacher.

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Parent-teacher conferences provide parents with updates on their child's progress and opportunities to see their student's work. They also open communication between school and home. However, students often are passive, or even absent, during traditional parent-teacher conferences. One way to fix this is to put students at the helm, as they are the ones who are responsible for their work and progress.

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Rafael, a tenth-grade student at Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS) in New York City discusses his progress with one of his teachers and his mother during his student-led conference. Rafael and his mother discuss the merits of student-led conferences.

This video accompanies the book Leaders of Their Own Learning: Transforming Schools through Student-Engaged Assessment.