Monday, December 29, 2008

A Chicago area school discovers secret to greater participation in parent-teacher conferences

The New York Times reports that a Chicago suburban school district serving working class families has discovered a way to dramatically boost attendance at teacher-parent conferences.

The secret to success is the inclusion of students, even in leading the conference between the adults in their school and home lives. Since there are many immigrants in the school district, the inclusion of students makes good sense. The children are more comfortable with English.

They already help momma and daddy with translation in the community. And if the parents are from Mexico, they are not used to associating with teachers. Mexico is a very class-oriented society. And children there may only go through the 6th grade to school.

To read more, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/education/28conferences.html?_r=1&em

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