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So you've decided to implement student-led conferences. Congratulations! You are well on your way to empowering students to own their 21st century learning. If you're still new to the process (or want fresh ideas), be sure to begin with our student-led conference practical starter guide and resources.

Here, we focus on guiding questions for all parties concerned during conference. After all, student-led conferences are new territory for most of us, and providing all possible support will help everyone leave feeling their time was well-spent. Share these questions with parents and students a day or two beforehand, and leave a stack of printed copies by your door during conferences. Note: many of these questions are geared toward elementary grades, but they can be easily adapted for older students!

Guiding Questions for Parents

What made you decide to share this piece with me?

How did you feel as you read your guided reading book out loud?

How might I better support you as a reader at home?

What's the hardest part about the writing process for you? Why do you think so?

What's your favorite part about the writing process? Why?

How you do feel when you're asked to explain your math thinking?

How do you feel during math practice time on your own?

What do you think about where you sit?

What makes you most excited about coming to school?

How do you feel about your overall learning so far in [subject/topic]?

How might I better help this team that's dedicated to your learning? (can ask student and/or teacher)

Guiding Questions for Students

What growth have you seen in my reading so far this year?

What do you enjoy most about my writing?

What growth have you seen in my math thinking so far this year?

I'm having a hard time with (anything you wish your parents or teacher knew). Can we talk about ways to help?

What materials can I use to better organize my learning space?

How might I better help this team that's dedicated to my learning? (can ask parent and/or teacher)

Guiding Questions for Teachers

How often do you feel in charge of your own learning? How can I help you better take charge of your learning in [subject]?

How comfortable do you feel with the reading materials I provide in class? (too challenging, too easy, or just right)?

How might I better model the writing process for you?

What's your favorite way we learn new math concepts and why?

How comfortable are you with sharing your ideas with classmates? Why do you think that is? How can we help?

How might I better help this team that's dedicated to your learning? (can ask student and/or parent)

For a printable single page copy of these questions, click here (page 1 has all the questions; page 2 has just the parent and student questions).
Photo Credit

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23 Guiding Questions to Make Student-Led Conferences More Informative

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So you've decided to implement student-led conferences. Congratulations! You are well on your way to empowering students to own their 21st century learning. If you're still new to the process (or want fresh ideas), be sure to begin with our student-led conference practical starter guide and resources.

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Have you ever felt parent teacher conferences become a blur of shallow compliments and trite suggestions? Have you ever worried about the quality of students' involvement? Do you want parents to gain more meaningful insight on how their children spend 7 hours a day, 5 days a week? Then consider shifting to student led conferences!

Background

After a couple years of traditional parent teacher conferences, I began to doubt their value. Attendance was patchy, and the bulk of meetings that did take place often felt inconsequential. Given the vast expenditure of time and energy in preparations, conferences generally seemed to yield trivial returns-goals quickly forgotten, behavior largely unchanged, and work samples simply discarded. All that changed when my school introduced student-led conferences.

Step-by-Step Guide
Note that this is geared toward upper-elementary. However, it can easily be adapted for younger and older students-our entire school adopted student-led conferences.
Stage #1: Introduce Student-Led Conferences to Students (Estimated time: 30 min)

Stage #2: Make Goals (Estimated time: 45 min.)

Brainstorm as a class possible areas for improvement in math, reading, writing, and behavior.

Teach class about writing goals according to your school or grade level standards. Our team used SMART goals (s=specific, m=measurable, a=attainable, r=relevant, t=time-bound). I also like Kath Murdoch's idea of 1-word goal-making.

Have them write 1 goal for each subject area on the brainstorming sheet and turn them in.

Give back to students to write their final goals after you have reviewed them.

Stage #3: Meet with each student (est. time: 5 min. per student)

Make sure their conference folder has all required items in order (I gave each student this list to organize their work. I also post it on the whiteboard, and have students sign up to meet with me once their folders are completely ready).

Double-check the finalized goals.

If your grading system has a "social skills" or behavior field, consider having the student self-grade with you. Have a discussion on what each grade means (ie, 4 means "I rarely need reminders or help in this area," 3 means "I sometimes need reminders and I could work on this area," etc.). Not only have I found that students are often harder on themselves than I am, but the increased ownership better prepares them for sometimes tough conversations with their parents.

Go over the "During Conference" checklist together. Discuss any questions on how to present each area.

Stage #4: Final Preparations

Send letters home to parents from teacher and/or from students to prepare them for student-led conferences. If you want to provide questions in advance to help prepare parents, students, and yourself, check out our printable Student-Led Conferences Guided Questions list!

Have students practice going over their checklist with a classmate (tell them they can leave out sensitive items like their report cards). Use a stopwatch to give them a realistic idea of the timeframe.

Stage #5: After Conference Tips

Student and Parent Response

After each conference, I surveyed parents and students. Below is some of the feedback I frequently received.
Students loved:

Removing the frightening anticipation of grown-ups discussing unknown issues during conferences (avoiding situations such as the one on the right).

The opportunity to "show off" some of the things they were most proud of.

How professional they felt as they took the lead.

Parents loved:

How knowledgeable students were about their own progress and responsibilities.

Students taking the lead with the teacher helping where needed.

How students explained their report cards themselves.

The pride and ownership students took in showing their work.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Time allocations: Make sure there's plenty of time for parents to ask questions and have further, informative discussions as needed!

Inadequate student practice: Let students practice at least 2 times in class. This will help them with both confidence and purposeful time management.

Inadequate student organization: Use the conference folder items list to go through every item as an entire class one more time right before conferences start.

Hesitation to Jump In: One parent voiced concern that problems were sugar-coated, and that she could not speak freely because of the student's presence. Let your students know beforehand that in order for conferences to be effective, everyone needs to be 100% on the same page, and that you will redirect the conversation if necessary.

Unengaging Parent Homework: At first, we assigned parents to write a letter to their children reflecting on their feelings about the conference. However, very few parents completed the assignment. We switched to emailing a Google Form survey for them to share feedback on conferences. Some of the questions we asked included:

What made you feel proud?

Do you feel your student's goals match the areas in which he/she can improve? If not, what are additional areas in which you feel he/she can improve?

How can you help your student remember and succeed at his/her goals at home?

List of Resources Linked Throughout:

Photo Credit:

Featured Image: Claire Burge
Kathy Cassidy

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Student-Led Conferences: Practical Guide & Resources

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Have you ever felt parent teacher conferences become a blur of shallow compliments and trite suggestions? Have you ever worried about the quality of students' involvement? Do you want parents to gain more meaningful insight on how their children spend 7 hours a day, 5 days a week?

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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.
Preparation and practice are keys to successful student-led conferences, several educators said, as the format continues to spread to more schools and to lower grades.

Veterans of student-led conferences, who have refined their programs over the years, say the extra effort to offer them is worth it for both parents and students.

"I can't even begin to tell you what a great experience this is for all," said Mary Lou Bettez, a teacher at Flat River Middle School in Coventry, Rhode Island. "For the most part, students will say (if it is their student-led conference and it usually is) that it is the first time that they are 'heard' and not 'talked at.' Parents have commented that it is the first time that their children really talked to them about their work. The conference now puts the responsibility of the work more on the shoulders of the student, forcing all stakeholders to realize that the adults are present as supporters, not doers."
Part of the curriculum
During student-led conferences, teachers act as facilitators as students review their work and progress with their parents. Often students work from a portfolio filled with assignments they have collected before the conference. Some teachers also provide checklists of items for students to cover during the conference or a rough "script" for them to follow.

Preparing for the conferences helps students take a more active role in their learning throughout the year. "I began student-led conferences to involve the students in their learning and to give them ownership of it," said Sherri Clifford, a second grade teacher at Hagemann Elementary School in St. Louis, Missouri.

Students in Sandra Brand's third grade class in Madison, Connecticut, start the year by completing a self-evaluation, including a list of strengths and areas on which they need to improve. During the student-led conferences, they update their parents and Brand as to where they are in meeting their goals.

At Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Forest, Virginia, all students in kindergarten through fifth grade know they will lead a conference in May. They spend the year collecting material in a portfolio, said principal Bruce Shafferman. The aim of the conference is for students to explain to parents, using examples, how far they have progressed since September.

"Even the kindergarteners can read a book to their parents and show them how their writing has improved," Shafferman said.

Students at the Cape Fear Center for Inquiry, a charter school in Wilmington, North Carolina, also collect portfolio material throughout the year. The school uses two student-led conferences in place of report cards, said Teresa Glenn, an eighth grade humanities/reading-writing workshop teacher.

Clifford's second graders compile material including a quarterly spelling profile, which is 50 words from the year's list, and a math profile, with a graph illustrating the skills they expect to master each quarter. They also select their best story every quarter from the class Writer's Workshop; they attach a self-evaluation in which they explain why they are proud of the piece and what they hope to improve upon in the next assignment.

Teachers at Flat River Middle School realized after their first year of conferences that having students reflect on their work throughout the year not only helped them prepare for the conference, it helped them learn more effectively, said Bettez. "During our first experience, we had students preparing portfolios two weeks prior to the conference," she told Education World. "When we integrated reflection more naturally [into daily work], the students' abilities to present their work to parents was much more effective. In addition, after the first conference, parents were also interested in students sharing work in which they needed to improve. So this was added as well."
Preparing students, parents
The more students prepare and the more parents know what to expect, the more successful student-led conferences will be, educators said.

At Bettez's school, teachers participated in training before the school began using student-led conferences.

About a month before the conferences, information about the conferences is sent home to parents, Bettez told Education World. Two weeks before the conference, students prepare written invitations accompanied by more information from teachers regarding the content and process for the conference; such as, allow your child ten minutes of uninterrupted time to present his or her portfolio and then take five minutes to ask your child questions. After that, a teacher joins students and parents for a post conference wrap-up. At that time, parents, teachers, and students review strengths and needs and set goals for the upcoming grading period.

Since switching from the traditional conference format to student-led conferences, attendance at parent conferences has increased from 20 percent to 90 percent, Bettez added.

Glenn, from the Cape Fear Center for Inquiry, which will be holding student-led conferences for the second time this year, said she has added checklists of talking points on the table where the students hold their conferences so that the youngsters have some guidance during their presentations.

"We develop this checklist as a class," Glenn told Education World. "We also develop the order of the conference and role-play conferences. One thing I think worked well was doing a post-conference reflection for the parents. They could reflect on what their child had communicated and how far their child had progressed throughout the year."

While not necessarily a deterrent to holding student-led conferences, Glenn has found that they require a significant time investment.

"Students need lots of rehearsal time to practice the conferences," Bettez said. "I wouldn't say this is a disadvantage, exactly -- but it is something teachers need to be aware of. I role model a conference, then have each kid do his or her conference for a group of peers who play their parents."
Overcoming glitches
Teachers also are finding ways to adjust to some of the challenges they encountered in the first few tries at student-led conferences. One problem that can arise is that children who fail to complete assignments have few items to put in a portfolio. To address that, Bettez asks those students to reflect during their conference on why a piece of work is missing, what prevented that work from being completed, and what plans they have to prevent them from failing to complete other assignments.

She also assigns peer tutors, students who have prepared model portfolios, to help other students complete their portfolios.

In a few cases, parents do not attend the conference. Glenn then sends the student's portfolio home, although she admitted often there is no response. In Bettez's case, if a parent cannot come to the conference, the student presents his or her portfolio to another adult in the school.

Some parents also still want to speak to the teacher privately, in a more traditional conference. Several educators said they tell parents they can arrange to hold another conference with them, or speak with them on the phone.
Student presenters get high marks
While some parents, and even some teachers, are at first wary about students running conferences, practitioners told Education World that in most cases, the experience has left everyone pleased.

"Some parents are scared at first -- they think they won't have a chance to talk with the teacher in private," said Brand of Madison, Connecticut. "But I tell them they can speak with me on the phone if they have other concerns. Then the parents always are amazed [after the conference] that the child knows him or herself so well and is so self-motivated."

"Seeing the children's pride in their accomplishments warmed this teacher's heart," said Clifford of Hagemann Elementary School. "I believe my second grade students were on the way to becoming life-long learners at the age of 8."

Student-led conferences also can supplement, rather than supplant, parent-teacher conferences. "I wouldn't eliminate the others [traditional parent-teacher conferences,]" said Shafferman of Virginia. "There are times when it is good for the teacher to relay information to the parent. We have two parent-teacher conferences and one student-led conference. Each serves a different purpose." The student-led conferences do impress parents, he added. "It's an extremely powerful conference when you can get parents and students together. Parents can really see the differences from the beginning of the year."

Jackie McCarthy, director of communications for the National PTA, said she is not aware of any parent dissatisfaction with student-led conferences, and agreed they can be positive. "Parents hear one thing from the student, another from the teacher," McCarthy told Education World. "This way, the triangle is complete. You have parents, students, and teachers together."

The conference process helps students comprehend the importance and means of taking charge of their own learning. "There is nothing like having a child be the locomotive for his own education," Brand said. They can't move forward unless they really understand how."
Additional resources Student-Led conferences: A growing trend Student-Led conferences hold kids accountable

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Student-Led conferences successful in elementary, middle grades

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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.

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When Students Lead Parent-Teacher Conferences - ASCD

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Our middle school students, like most, struggle between wanting adults to make decisions for them and wanting to wrest control from those in charge so they can be responsible for themselves. We wanted our students to learn to exercise choice, take responsibility for their learning, and do their best

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How a New Hampshire school gives its students more responsibility-and freedom-to shape their academic lives

PITTSFIELD, N.H.-Pushing up the cuffs of his plaid shirt and adjusting his glasses, the ninth-grader Colton Gaudette looks across the small classroom conference table.

"Welcome to my student-led conference," he says.

"Thank you for inviting me," answers his mother, Terry Gaudette, sitting next to Colton's adviser and biology teacher.

This meeting, which happens twice a year, has replaced the old format of parent-teacher conferences at Pittsfield Middle High School, a rural New Hampshire campus that takes a "student-centered learning" approach to schooling. With this model, students are given more freedom to connect their individual interests to their academic learning and future goals. Teachers are considered collaborators and coaches, and students are expected to shoulder more responsibility for their school lives-including organizing all the details of these twice-yearly conference with parents and advisers.

More From The Hechinger Report

Pittsfield began shifting to this student-centered approach after being rated one of the state's lowest-performing high schools, and qualifying for a federal School Improvement Grant in 2009. It's also part of a coalition of 13 New England schools that share another $5 million federal grant, and was awarded $2 million from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation in 2012, specifically to foster student-centered learning.

"Kids have to be honest with themselves and I think that's fantastic," said Paul Strickhart, who teaches math at Pittsfield and is Colton's faculty adviser. "They have to own up to why they're not passing a class, or, if they're doing well, they have to be able to identify what's contributing to that and how they can keep going."

The student-led conferences are also a way to teach skills you can't learn from a textbook: organization, long-term planning, confidence with public speaking, collaboration and self-reflection -even how to shake hands and make introductions in a more formal setting. That aligns with a larger goal for Pittsfield's students - to move beyond rote knowledge to develop the kind of critical-thinking skills needed for "real world" success, said John Freeman, the district's superintendent. The unique conference format has helped to kick-start family engagement, helping the combination middle-high school to better serve its 260 students and the rest of the former mill town's 4,500 residents.

Indeed, from New York to Washington State, student-led conferences have been praised for breathing new life into an otherwise perfunctory process. According to school officials and families at Pittsfield, before the new format was adopted a few years ago, turnout for the traditional parent-teacher conferences was dismal-less than 20 percent participated. Now, more than 90 percent of parents regularly show up.

Students are responsible for writing a letter inviting their parents or guardians to attend, coordinating with their faculty adviser to schedule the conference, and preparing a portfolio of their academic work. The conferences typically last about 30 minutes, including time for parents to ask questions and for the faculty adviser to give feedback on the presentation. Students are expected to discuss their academic, social, and emotional progress and outline their short- and long-term goals.

At the classroom table, Colton lays out samples of his schoolwork -showing some of his strongest work and several assignments with which he had less success. In English class, Colton says he had an easier time crafting his literary analysis of Lord of the Flies than the subsequent assignment for The House on Mango Street. He's working hard to keep his grade up in geometry, and intends to earn at least a 3.5 (out of possible 4) for both semesters. His geopolitical-studies class is going well, as is computer-assisted drafting - his blueprints for a set of shelves turned out better than his first effort designing a stone bench.

Colton also shares the results of several questionnaires the school uses to help him learn more about his personality and learning style. The results: "I'm empathetic, artistic, and kind of shy," Colton says. His strengths include music, writing, and hands-on learning. The personality assessments bolster the plans he has for the future: He wants to study creative writing in college and potentially launch his own comic-book company. So his biology teacher encourages Colton to look for more opportunities to connect his artistic interests with his academic learning - he could have gone further with an in-class assignment asking him to describe the life cycle of a cell, for example.

"I felt down when I got that [assignment] back and you wrote that we could be more creative," Colton says. "I want to try that."

At the conclusion of the conference, Colton thanks the adults for participating, and says he is feeling good about where things stand for him.

"That was very well done, very thorough," his math teacher tells him.

His mother is also impressed.

"You've been so nervous about this - I think you did an excellent job presenting," she says. "And you know how to better prepare yourself for some of this academic work."
"How many of us appreciated, as a student, being talked about in the third person as if we were invisible?"
At Pittsfield, students are expected to begin preparing for the conferences about a month ahead of time, using a checklist to mark off each of the requirements -including confirming the meeting times with all of the adults, reviewing their portfolios, and preparing answers to the self-reflection questions. Lauren Martin, a Pittsfield senior, said even though it means more work for her, she prefers the revised format to the traditional conference, which didn't usually include the students. Instead, she would have to wait at home for a replay - and then only get her parents' perspective on the discussion.

Now, as each semester progresses, Lauren said she's keeping an eye out for projects and papers she wants to add to her portfolio. "It gives me more control of what I share," Lauren said. "I know more about my academics than the one teacher who's my adviser, so it's up to me to decide what I'm going to include from each class."

While not a new idea, the student-led conference is an approach that's "gaining speed and traction," said Monica Martinez, an education strategist and senior scholar for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. (The Hewlett Foundation is among The Hechinger Report's many funders.) The co-author of a book of case studies examining school approaches to "deeper learning," Martinez said the student-led conferences can be a powerful tool for improving students' engagement with their learning process.

"How many of us appreciated, as a student, being talked about in the third person as if we were invisible?" Martinez asked. "When it's just the teachers and parents participating in the conference it can end up as 'we're going to dictate what you're good at and what you're not good at.' That's taking away the power."

That being said, a student-led conference by itself won't mean much, Martinez added. "The school must be really transferring ownership to the students and making it clear that kids have plenty of opportunities to reflect on their work."

Jenny Wellington, an English teacher at Pittsfield, agrees. The schoolwide shift to student-centered learning is one key reason that the conferences work, according to Wellington. In class, students get a say in choosing their academic projects, which not only makes them more excited about working on their assignments but also about presenting them at the conferences once they're completed. She added that parents can also still getting in touch with teachers at other times to ask questions or to request meetings.

Pittsfield's teachers said the conferences are also an opportunity to observe students' interactions with their families, and those moments can be an important window into understanding their attitudes and classroom behavior. Conferences don't always go smoothly. Wellington said she's observed meetings in which a student's stated post-high-school career plans vastly differed from what their families had in mind. For example, one student was hoping to attend an out-of-state college, while her parent expected her to stay local or perhaps prepare to work in the family business.

"That can be heartbreaking," Wellington said. "You see the parent maybe trying to push the kid in a direction that the kid doesn't want to go in, and as their teacher you didn't know that dynamic was happening at all."

In such instances, Wellington tries to encourage the families to use the conference as an opportunity to talk through their differences. Ideally, the result will be a plan of action that incorporates the student's goals while fostering parental support.

To be sure, those kinds of negotiations work best when teachers know their students well. And Pittsfield's small size certainly helps. But Wellington, who taught middle school for six years in New York City, said she could also see it working in a larger school setting provided there is a reasonable student-teacher ratio.
"I get to shape my own life starting here at this school."
Pittsfield tries to accommodate parents' requests to schedule the student-led conferences early in the morning before class or in the evenings after they finish work, Wellington said. That's a better use of her time, she said, than the standard procedure at her old school in the Bronx, where classes would be canceled for a day and parents had to show up during that time - or not.

"Usually the parents who did make it to the conferences weren't the ones you needed to see. It would be a quick conversation with me saying, 'Your kid is doing great, keep it up,' and that was it," Wellington said. "Now the parents are hearing directly from the students - it's a completely different kind of conversation, and it's so much better."

While the successes and benefits of the student-led conferences are widely acknowledged, there is still room for improvement. Parents of older students have been through the process enough times that it's becoming familiar and even rote, said Derek Hamilton, Pittsfield's dean of operations. More families seem to be having regular conversations at home with their kids about their day-to-day academic progress -a very positive development, he added - but that means there isn't as much new information to share in the conferences.

To combat that fatigue factor, Pittsfield is looking for ways to make the conferences more explicitly about the student's post-graduation plans and goals and to "raise the stakes" for their presentations as they advance by grade-maybe by asking juniors and seniors to present in front of a larger audience, including community members from outside the school, rather than just sitting at a table with parents and teachers.

In the meantime, it's clear that the basic logistics of the existing conferences are teaching the students important lessons, contends Hamilton.

"You'd be surprised how many kids struggle to fill out an envelope to invite their guests to a student-led conference," Hamilton said. "People laugh sometimes about the cliché of '21st-century skills' but these are things every one of these kids is going to need to know how to do in their adult lives."

Colby Wolfe, a freshman, has taken advanced math classes since the seventh grade and said he hopes to follow his mother -an investment banker - into a career in finance. During his most recent student-led conference, his adviser told the family that the reports she's gathered from his other teachers are highly positive. Because Pittsfield allows students to take advanced classes once they've mastered their required grade-level content, Colby will have accumulated enough credits by the end of freshman year to be ranked as a mid-year sophomore.

Part of the reason Colby's doing so well academically, he said, is that he gets to choose projects that most interest him and relate to his post-high-school goals, for example one project where he looked at the financial aspects of professional sports, incorporating academic work from several different classes.

"I get to shape my own life starting here at this school," Colby said. "I have to say I think that's pretty cool."

While it was largely an upbeat conversation punctuated by moments of genuine humor -his father joked that "this is the most I've ever heard you talk at one time" - Colby didn't gloss over the facts. He said he's finding some aspects of his English class challenging (his grade is the equivalent of a solid B while he's getting an A in math), including a recent assignment that required him to connect a fiction reading to real-life experiences. He was also disappointed not to have stronger marks in Spanish.

When his adviser mentioned that Colby could speak to the Spanish teacher about his concerns, the high-school freshman respectfully rejected the suggestion - at least for now.

"I think I can bring my grade up by doing better on the assignments," Colby said, looking around the table at his parents and adviser. "I want to try that first."
This post appears courtesy of The Hechinger Report.

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old format of parent-teacher conferences

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fronting students’ tuition student voice

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Should Kids Lead Parent-Teacher Conferences?

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How a New Hampshire school gives its students more responsibility-and freedom-to shape their academic lives PITTSFIELD, N.H.-Pushing up the cuffs of his plaid shirt and adjusting his glasses, the ninth-grader Colton Gaudette looks across the small classroom conference table. "Welcome to my student-led conference," he says.

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Student Portfolios: Preparing for Student-Led Conferences

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A step-by-step guide to preparing student portfolios for student-led conferences. The post includes free printable resources for conferences. By Proud to be Primary The school district that I taught at used student-led conferences as a way of showcasing student work and achievement with families.

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Kindergartner, Trinity, shares her academic progress, supported by evidence from her portfolio, with her parents and teacher, Jennifer Rocker, at Delaware Ridge Elementary School in Kansas City, KS.

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

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Wells Elementary Student Led Conferences

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Our Primary students sharing their learning

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Learn more about Bangkok Patana School's 3-Way Conferences, where students share their learning with their parents. These take place within the Primary School twice per year.

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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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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.

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This page shares a simple format for improving the quality of parent-teacher conferences: hold student-led conferences! Learn how to involve your students in reflecting on their work and sharing their progress with their families.

What are student-led conferences?

They are parent-teacher conferences in which the child is not only present, but in charge of explaining his or her progress, reflecting on accomplishments, and setting short and long-term goals.

Why should I do student-led conferences?

show parents and students that their opinions and experiences are valued by the teacher

empower the child to take responsibility for her learning

give the parent and teacher a chance to hear the student reflect on his progress in his own words

reassure students that parents and teacher are there to support them

hold students accountable for their academic and behavioral choices

give the parent the opportunity to see the teacher and child interact

provide the teacher with insight about parent-child relationships/home structure

take unnecessary pressure off of the teacher by focusing on the student and his/her work samples

Most importantly: because parents and students love doing them! Parent turn out at student-led conferences is often higher than traditional conferences because students are so vested in the process.

When should I do student-led conferences?

You should do what is best for you and your families. As a general suggestion for the first parent conference of the year, the student should be nearby in the room but out of earshot (reading in the library area of the classroom, etc.) so that the parents and teacher can speak privately but the child can still be involved as needed. I like to draw the child in toward the end as we wrap up.

In the first conference of the year, the parent primarily provides background information on the child and the teacher clarifies expectations and progress thus far. Later conferences can then be student-led, as often as once a quarter, with parent-teacher only conferences as needed.

What preparation do I need to do before the conferences?

Because students take responsibility for these conferences, they require very little work for the teacher. You only need to set up a class routine in which students are regularly selecting work for their portfolios.

There are lots of ways to do this. One easy way is to have the children select their best work each week from their Friday Folders (or whichever procedure you use for sending home graded papers) and write on a sticky note why they chose that paper. Have students keep their papers in date order in their portfolio (a hanging file, file folder, or even a clean pizza box-ask a pizzeria to donate a class set- if you have a lot of 3D or large work samples).

The day of the conference, the student pulls her portfolio and, ideally, practices presenting the papers to a buddy, to you, or to herself.

How do the conferences work?

I like to use this free printable student-led conference form to help me make sure I've hit all the important topics. Having a set of questions I want to ask makes the conference feel more collaborative than having a list of facts I want to tell the family.

At some point during the conference, the child shows his parent(s) his best work from the child-created portfolio and uses the sticky notes he attached to each work sample to help explain why he chose that assignment.

The child may also demonstrate how to solve a math problem that was challenging, read a passage to demonstrate a reading strategy, share a story she wrote and explain the writing process used, etc.

I use the student work as a springboard for discussion during the portfolio sharing and afterwards (however the conversation flows best.) As a general rule, I like to direct questions to the child first, and follow up with questions for the parent as appropriate.

The ideal interaction is fluid, casual, and focused on all 3 parties sharing their insights in a positive way. The child typically enjoys being the center of attention and parents appreciate being asked for their opinions. The teacher is able step down from the responsibility of imparting negative information and judgement about a child's abilities and progress, and move into the role of guiding the family towards mutually-drawn conclusions through carefully selected questioning techniques, conversation, and the sharing of observations. Conferences generally last 20-60 minutes, depending on the level of interaction between the parent and child.

What questions should I ask?

You can download this free printable student-led conference form and use it as a checklist to guide your questioning. If the child and parent are talkative, you can let them direct the conversation. However, this may be the first time families have ever experienced a student-lef conference and they may want you to guide things. You can go right down the list of questions, starting with the question for the child and then asking the parent the corresponding question for each topic. After a few conferences, this flow will happen naturally and you won't even need the form!

The child can share his or her best work when you ask about strengths. The conversation about weaknesses and areas of concern often comes up on it's own after that.

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Truth For Teachers - Tips for Holding Student-Led Conferences

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This page shares a simple format for improving the quality of parent-teacher conferences: hold student-led conferences! Learn how to involve your students in reflecting on their work and sharing their progress with their families. What are student-led conferences? They are parent-teacher conferences in which the child is not only present, but in charge of explaining ...

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Principal Brett Kimmel of Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (WHEELS) in New York City describes the integrated approach used at his school to ensure that all students and families participate in meaningful student-led conferences.

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

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Rae Pica with Jack Berckemeyer, Bob Lenz, Nancy Flanagan, John Spencer What happens when you introduce students into the standard parent-teacher conference? Our guests report many benefits and a few challenges that need to be

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Student-Led Meetings: Empowering Student Voice

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Teachers must embrace their students' capacity to learn through leading when given the chance -- as the previous posts in this series have suggested. Letting students take charge of how they learn leads to high engagement, in-depth inquiry, and quality work.

Student-Developed Products Based on Learning Targets

We invest the most in tasks that we get to choose. What if the learning outcome is evaluating counterarguments and creating one for a community purpose? Students could develop a 10- to 20-minute documentary, podcast commentary, or staged debate on a social media platform. Each task requires research analysis of different viewpoints by authors and social media commentators. Students develop a well-reasoned script that goes through several revisions before the final production.

There are many apps and tools that students can use to demonstrate understanding of concepts in any subject. How?

Ask the students. Give them the outcome result and charge them with the challenge to use any available tools via high and low tech.

Start small. Give students three choices. The first two choices are teacher-structured with the requirements and methods laid out. Include one or two wildcard elements that students have a voice in shaping. As the third choice, offer a blank check, challenging students to design the task. Give them the learning targets that they must demonstrate. They propose a plan, and you determine if it's acceptable.

Student-Developed Rubrics

Rubrics are a valuable tool for formative assessment. First and foremost, rubrics provide information to students and teachers about how learning is progressing. It's an ongoing coaching tool for self-assessment, peer coaching, and teacher support of the quality of work and the areas for growth.

Students need to understand the rubric for its formative assessment power to be realized, and there lies the challenge. At best, understanding a teacher-created rubric requires repeated review over time before "most" students understand it at a proficient level. It's the same as when a teacher teaches a unit for the first time using lesson plans written by another teacher -- it's possible, and the person will improve over time. Yet with rubrics, how much time do teachers and students have?

Teachers can save time by including students in designing the rubric. When students craft the descriptors, they develop a common understanding of what quality learning looks like. The best part is that, typically, students establish rigorous expectations that they would not buy into if the teacher gave them the same document. It may take a class 20-40 minutes to co-develop high-quality expectations that the students design, understand, and agree to complete. That's time well spent.

Student-Led Conferences

Over several years, when my children conducted student-led conferences, I learned more about their academic growth than at any parent-teacher conference. It helped that the teacher didn't sit in on the conversation so that the students could lead.

Parent-teacher conferences are about the adults discussing the student's progress without her being part of the conversation. The student might be present, but she only gets to respond to topics set by the adults. The result is that the adults are doing the heavy lifting while the student daydreams about what she'll be doing when the meeting is over.

Student-led conferences are excellent opportunities for students to explore and reflect on their learning journey. When they facilitate the conversation with parents or guardians, the rich benefits are in the students' preparations prior to the meeting. They review products that show their growth during the marking period. They analyze how the work connects with their grades or standards-based competencies and evaluate next steps for continued growth.

Here are some resources to explore this amazing approach:

Set Students Free to Learn With You

As a parent of two children, I've experienced different instructional approaches, from progressive public K-8 programs such as Montessori to a project-based learning high school. My teens had experiences where they were encouraged to construct their learning and establish academic criteria -- for example, Innovation Days at their high school.

The students spent two days designing and developing ideas that fueled their passions. One group of students played percussion instruments for hours, experimenting with beats and sounds. Only one of them used a standard drum kit. The rest played with drumsticks on a variety of surfaces. In a science room, students built motorized vehicles, while a student in another room attempted to explain the abstract science concepts behind the chapter that she was writing. Teachers coached or provided the muscle that students requested to attain their vision.

On the second day, after some revision time, students presented their works to the school community. My daughter spent hours on her presentation, forgoing her usual free-time passions. Based on interviewing the students, I recognized significant practice of ELA standards, including the writing process ( Wri. 5), organization of ideas ( Wri. 4), and speaking and listening.

When teachers trust students to lead their learning by giving more open-ended opportunities that challenge them to find their way, students will delve deeper into content and set their expectations higher than is required.

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Giving Students Charge of How They Learn

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Teachers must embrace their students' capacity to learn through leading when given the chance -- as the previous posts in this series have suggested. Letting students take charge of how they learn leads to high engagement, in-depth inquiry, and quality work. We invest the most in tasks that we get to choose.

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For most students in the United States, parent conferences are a mysterious event. Parents typically visit the school to make sure their child is "doing OK" and to meet the teacher, if they haven't done so already. There are few expectations about what will happen during the meeting, and most parents feel satisfied with a brief update on grades and behavior that they can report back to their child. The student is a passive recipient of information from the teacher, passed through the parent.

By the same token, the major passages that students make in schools-for instance, into middle school, high school, or college-typically depend on students accumulating seat time and credits. Students pass from one stage to another without much intellectual fanfare, often without being challenged on their growth.

But what if students led their own conferences? What if they had to provide evidence of their readiness to move on?

Assessment-With Students at the Helm

In schools everywhere, students assess their effort, understanding, and quality of work and decide whether it's good enough: Do I understand this concept adequately? Should I study more? Do I need help? Is the quality good enough? Is my behavior OK? Can I be more focused? Can I try harder?

But how can we educators transform assessment at this level? How can we turn up the dial of what students expect of themselves?

In Expeditionary Learning schools, student-led conferences and passage presentations are part of a system of student-engaged assessment that involves students in analyzing and investing in their own growth, changing the primary role of assessment from evaluating and ranking students to motivating and equipping them to learn.

Students are also called on to defend whether they're ready to move on, asking themselves, What have I accomplished? How far have I come? and Where do I think I'm going from here?

Can we build assessment structures to unleash this capacity for student engagement and improvement in every classroom? Yes, I believe we can.

Two Transformational Practices

Eight well-known assessment practices make up the student-engaged assessment system in Expeditionary Learning schools. The key to our success is that we've woven them together into a coherent framework. The eight practices include

The two practices highlighted here-student-led conferences and passage presentations-are important because almost all aspects of student-engaged assessment are nested within them. Both practices feature students analyzing and presenting their own learning, a process that becomes transformational for students.

Student-Led Conferences

"To do a student-led conference, you can be in 1st grade or 2nd grade or 3rd grade or 4th grade or 5th grade. Or you can be in kindergarten." Trinity, the kindergartner who astutely pointed this out, hails from Delaware Ridge Elementary School in Kansas City, Kansas. She started her student-led family conference by singing her class welcome song to her parents. The three of them, along with Trinity's teacher, sat on tiny blue plastic chairs around a small table. Trinity led her parents through the story of her learning. She used a portfolio of her work in reading, writing, math, science, and art to explain her progress toward reaching clear learning targets in each area.

Trinity held up her reading work and shared her first target: "I can demonstrate how to use picture clues when reading"; she used a dragonfly illustration and text to show her proficiency. "I can stretch out words to hear all the sounds," and she demonstrated this as well. When she shared her first math target-"I can find the sum of two numbers"-she explained her strategies for adding. She then turned to her mother: "Now that I taught you, maybe you can do one," and her mother attempted a problem.

Trinity shared multiple drafts of her work, demonstrating her perseverance and improvement, and explained where she needed to make more progress. She shared the writing and illustrations from her insect expert group and critiqued her own work: "What I like about this is the colors because they look beautiful. But I need to fix the symmetry, because this wing is smaller than that wing."

Trinity's presentation is, in many ways, the dream of all educators: a student with good skills and a love of learning who can explain where she's doing well and where she needs and wants to grow and improve.

For those who may feel that student-led conferences are too difficult for kindergartners, Trinity has advice: "You have to practice and learn how to do your conference before you do it. And your teacher can help you. You will practice and practice and really get better." (Watch highlights from Trinity leading her student-led conference. http://vimeo.com/channels/studentledconferences/49170218)

And students do get better. Take Gabrielle, a 7th grader from Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School in New York City, who's already led a student conference three times. In her most recent conference, she confidently explained to her father what content clues are and how she can now support her claims with evidence from the text. She discussed how she can evaluate algebraic expressions using substitution and the order of operations. She revealed that her favorite subject is math and that science is her greatest challenge. Referring to a science quiz about the events in earth's history, she showed her father an error she made-she mixed up two events in terms of which happened first-and reflected on what she needed to learn. At the end of the conference, she shared two of her goals: to boost her learning in science and to be more prepared in all her classes. (Watch highlights from Gabrielle's conference. http://vimeo.com/channels/studentledconferences/45140230)

What may seem like a small change-parent conferences run by students instead of teachers-can change the entire culture of a school in powerful ways. When students must report to their families what they're learning-what skills and understandings they have, what areas still challenge them, and where they hope to get to-they must understand their own learning and progress. They take pride in what they can do and take responsibility for what they need to work on. Education stops being something done to them and begins being something that they are leading.

For teachers, student-led conferences are a catalyst for better instruction. They must ensure that every student can explain his or her learning in each area. This compels teachers to monitor the growth of each student much more carefully. It's not enough to say, "Jamal is doing fine in school this term"; Jamal himself must have samples of high-quality work and assessments that show evidence that he's mastered the skills and concepts. And he must have the understanding and presentation skills to explain his growth and goals.

With effective structure and support, student-led conferences build motivation, clarity, self-direction, and critical thinking in students; and they also connect families deeply to the growth of their child and the work of the school. Schools in the Expeditionary Learning network use student-led conferences from kindergarten through the senior year of high school, and most schools report 100 percent family attendance.

What are the features of effective student-led conferences?

When schools first choose to implement student-led conferences, models can provide a vision for students, teachers, and families. We encourage schools to watch video clips of conferences and read handbooks about student-led conferences from other schools and, when possible, to visit schools and observe conferences.

The first year, things are not always easy; both students and teachers must adjust to a culture that requires evidence of growth. In our years of supporting schools to implement and improve this practice, we've identified some key challenges:

Lack of time for teachers and students to prepare.

Poor logistical planning (not all families attend; conferences don_t always run as smoothly as they should).

Lack of student engagement and pride (built from personally meaningful work, reflection, and rehearsal).

Failure to ground the conference in high-priority standards and targets.

An absence of quality student work from challenging tasks.

A poor balance of overview evidence (assessments, broad reflections) with in-depth evidence (specific pieces of work).

Students describing the work instead of describing their learning.

Adults taking over the conference.

Some of these challenges are less about the structure of the conference than about the quality of the tasks students are asked to do in the classroom and the quality of student work. If the task isn't high quality, the work won't be high quality.

When a school adopts this structure, problems with rigor and quality often come to the surface. We see this is as only positive: Student-led conferences can become an engine for improving instructional practice throughout the school.

Passage Presentations

Passage presentations, also called presentations of learning, exhibitions, or portfolio presentations, come from the heritage of educators Ted Sizer and Deborah Meier, who piloted the practice 30 years ago. Under this system, to graduate from high school, students need to do more than just accumulate seat time and credits. Before a panel of experts, they need to present and defend evidence that they had the required disciplinary knowledge and skills as well as the habits of mind needed to graduate. The passage presentation requires that students provide evidence of their readiness to make the passage from one phase of schooling to the next.

Matthew, a shy 6th grader at Shutesbury Elementary School in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, addressed a panel that included the superintendent, school board members, community members, and visiting educators:

The first thing I'd like to share with you is that this was my first year in this school ... it's been a challenge for me fitting in and making friends. But I did. I came to this school with some strengths and also some weaknesses. I wasn't that strong in writing, and in math I was about two years behind grade level. But in the first few months of school, I worked really hard, and I caught up to grade level. And by now, I have actually passed it-as you can see here in my work.

Matthew went on to share a variety of evidence of his skill level, growth, and understanding in mathematics. He shared assessments-tests he'd taken over the course of the year, with the last two tests on integers and pre-algebra with scores of 100 percent. He explained an in-depth, multiweek problem that he worked on with a team of three peers-a problem provided to the class by a professional mathematician-and each of his personal contributions to the 100 parts of the solution set. He showed with pride his winning entry in the class challenge to create a division problem with a quotient containing the longest repeating decimal.

Matthew demonstrated his reading, writing, and research skills through a series of projects connected to a study of architecture: evidence-based essays pertaining to the architecture of ancient civilizations, based on the written work of David McCauley; a profile of a fictional architect, based on an interview with a practicing architect; and colored blueprints of an originally designed and furnished home, which he drafted to scale and executed to code. He also shared two service projects connected to architecture: a playhouse that he designed and built with his peers on the playground for younger students at the school, and a six-foot-tall skyscraper dollhouse he designed and built with peers that was donated to a homeless shelter for mothers with young children.

Although similar to student-led conferences, these high-stakes passage presentations instill an elevated level of public speaking and interview skills that are vital to success in college and career. Family is there; teachers are there; the community is there. When students successfully complete a student-led conference, they're often proud and relieved. But when they complete a passage presentation, there are often tears or shouts or family celebrations. The passage process elevates student learning to a new level.

At Springfield Renaissance School in Springfield, Massachusetts, passages occur in the 8th, 10th, and 12th grades. The 8th grade focus is on readiness for high school; students must, among other things, write a letter to a high school teacher defending their readiness for school. The 10th grade focus is on readiness for the intensive college-focused process of the student's final two years; in addition to writing a résumé and discussing the qualities of a successful graduate, students must complete 40 hours of service learning, with a reflection on character growth. Finally, in 12th grade, the focus is on the "Senior Talk," a retrospective speech on one's path as a scholar and person.

In some schools, the panels that students speak before are small and the setting is intimate; in other schools, the panel is large, with a broad audience of family members, teachers, and friends. These differences don't matter much. What does matter is having a solid portfolio system across grades; high-quality work; students who are deeply invested and well prepared; strong organizational logistics (it's helpful to have a school handbook that explains these programs); and clear roles for panelists.

Winning for the Future

A few years ago, a middle school in rural New York State decided to institute passage presentations as a graduation requirement for 8th graders. The teachers found that their whole year was different as a result: They planned more carefully to ensure that every student was successful in the key parts of every subject and that each student could explain his or her learning process. The community was coming to watch, and they'd better be ready!

When the end of the year arrived, every 8th grader presented. Simultaneous presentations took place across the building. The panels were simple-one teacher, one community member, and one high school student. At the end of the day, 8th graders hugged one another and cheered. Seeing this, one town leader, remarked, "This is like a winning a big football game-only more important!" More important, indeed.

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When Students Lead Their Learning - ASCD

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For most students in the United States, parent conferences are a mysterious event. Parents typically visit the school to make sure their child is "doing OK" and to meet the teacher, if they haven't done so already.

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A couple of years ago, Cathy Whitehead walked away from a two-day marathon of parent-teacher conferences feeling burned out and dissatisfied. "It was just conference after conference," says the Henderson, Tennessee, third-grade teacher. "I felt like I was on the hot seat, and the kids were nowhere in sight. I really felt they needed to be active partners in the conversation."

Whitehead began searching for a better way and came upon the concept of student-led conferences. In this model, students present their own artifacts and goals to their parents while teachers linger on the periphery, piping up periodically to keep the conversation on track.

When she started doing student-led conferences, Whitehead says, parent participation doubled (from 40 percent to 80 percent), and she saw "huge student ownership over their own learning," because kids knew they would be the ones explaining their progress.

Interest in SLCs is growing nationwide. More schools and districts are trying them out, and in a June survey of its members, ASCD found that more than 60 percent had tried them. Once they do, many of these teachers, like Whitehead, are hooked. In the ASCD survey, 85 percent of the teachers who'd implemented SLCs said they were effective.

"It's changed my classroom, and it's changed my kids so much," Whitehead says. "I would never go back to traditional conferences."

What Do SLCs Look Like?

Some of Whitehead's third graders show up for their conferences dressed in suits and ties or nice dresses. When it's time to start, they sit in the "teacher's chair," across from their parents.

"I sit to the side and watch," she says. "Sometimes I have a student who is struggling, or a parent is asking a really specific question about a piece of data, and then I will answer that."

Usually, teachers provide some sort of script to keep students on track and ease their nerves. And kids come to conferences armed with data binders or portfolios to show off their work.

Aimee McKenney, a first-grade teacher at Startzville Elementary School in Canyon Lake, Texas, helps students create agendas with visual cues so that they can confidently guide their parents through their progress on letter sounds, sight words, and math facts. "It's very kid-friendly," she says.

As children get older, the data can get slightly more complex. They may refer to bar graphs illustrating their averages on unit assessments and benchmark exams, for example. The act of presenting this data to parents helps to deepen students' understanding of it and can also boost motivation, says Callie Ward, a fourth-grade teacher at Startzville. "You can tell students, 'You made an 80 on this test,' and they'll forget by the next day," she says. "But if they constantly have their data notebooks, their goals stay fresh in their minds." (Depending on grade level and time of year, SLCs can focus more on data or on school projects.)

How Do I Prepare Students?

Teachers often find the conferences relaxing (or, at least, a break for their vocal chords), but there is prep work involved to help students understand their progress, organize work, and prepare presentations. This isn't wasted class time, though. There is much value in helping kids better understand which skills they have and which they need to work on, and the prep process can build real-world skills as well.

"We do a lot of preparation on speaking clearly and presenting well," says Liza Rickey, a fifth-grade teacher in Issaquah, Washington. "We're working on our communication skills, and we're working on our writing skills. It's very cross-curricular."

Depending on their age and what the conference will cover, kids can prepare by doing the following:

Some teachers select a thoughtful and outgoing student to participate in a model, or "fishbowl," conference with them in front of the class, and then pair students with one another to practice before the main event.

The prep work often helps kids be more reflective about their academic progress and their roles in the school, says Kryssie Pratt, a third-grade teacher at the New Albany 2-8 Learning Facility in Ohio. "It really led to some good conversations about how, if we have something we need to work on, that's not a bad thing. One of my students said the thing she was most proud of was that she is excited to come to school every day. Even if they struggled academically, they were able to think about what they did that was amazing this year."

What Are the Pros and Cons?

In addition to the prep work required to pull off student-led conferences, there are other challenges teachers may face. Some students have a tough time being articulate in front of an audience, even if the audience is just their parents. Rickey says some kids have teared up out of nervousness. "I'm there to help them and prompt them if they get stuck," she says.

Also, parents often look forward to the chance to speak with teachers one-on-one, and those families who are unfamiliar with student-led conferences may not understand the point of coming in to school for the chance to speak to their own children.

"The only negative feedback we get from parents is that they would like some time to discuss concerns that they don't want the students to hear," says Whitehead.

It's important, then, for teachers to give parents opportunities to speak with them privately. Some offer individual meetings by appointment, and others simply give parents time to talk privately for a few minutes after the conference. Be sure to send a note home as well, explaining to parents just what student-led conferences are, why they're valuable, and what parents can expect from them.

"[SLCs are] very different from kids just going home and having a conversation over dinner. Parents get to see their children's goals and the progress they've made," explains Texas teacher Aimee McKenney. "It's a lot more than just, 'How was your day at school?'"

In fact, proponents of SLCs say that the revelatory conversations sometimes spurred by these meetings are one of the major benefits. Samantha Mosher, a middle-grade learning specialist at the United Nations International School in New York City, says the conferences can help parents stop comparing their child to peers and instead allow them to focus on his or her unique abilities.

Mosher recalls one student who spoke to his parents about how he'd progressed in his writing, and what he wanted to work on next. "When I talked with the parents at the beginning of the year, they weren't necessarily focusing on the big things that their child needed to focus on," she says. "I think it was really important for them to see how proud he was and to hear him talk about his process."

Janelle Luther, a seventh-grade English teacher in Creston, Iowa, says she likes the way student-led conferences-and the prep work leading up to them-make students more accountable for their own learning. "But maybe more than that, it's a chance for the parent and child to sit down and look at work and ask some questions. With this age group, a lot of parents don't see schoolwork. I just think it's a great opportunity for a parent and a child to sit down and have a conversation about their education."

A Few Last Tips for Success

Whitehead's top tip for teachers thinking about giving student-led conferences a try: "Make sure you're super organized before the first day of school." This means knowing early on which types of data and artifacts students will show off during their conferences and how they will organize everything, so that they can collect those things throughout the semester with your help.

Another tried-and-true tip, shared by several teachers, is to have other teachers or administrators waiting in the wings to serve as an audience, in case some parents aren't able to come. Ask one of your close colleagues to pitch in, and offer to do the same for her. This way, students will still have an adult they can share their progress with.

Above all, says Rickey, teachers shouldn't let uncertainty-or the additional prep work-steer them away from student-led conferences. "Don't let fear hold you back, because [this model] is so incredibly valuable. Just go for it, try it out. I've only ever received overwhelmingly positive feedback."
Click Here to Subscribe to Scholastic Teacher Magazine Illustration: Linda Helton

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A couple of years ago, Cathy Whitehead walked away from a two-day marathon of parent-teacher conferences feeling burned out and dissatisfied. "It was just conference after conference," says the Henderson, Tennessee, third-grade teacher. "I felt like I was on the hot seat, and the kids were nowhere in sight.