PARENTS AND COMMUNITY

Parents and Community Framing Statement

Eva Sanchez

ED 698 Master’s Portfolio Spring 2022

University of Alaska Southeast

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PARENTS AND COMMUNITY

Parents and Community

A teacher works with parents, families and the community.
The Candidate demonstrates their participation in appropriate leadership roles and
opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners,
families, colleagues, other professionals, and community members to ensure learner
growth, and to advance the profession
This paper will focus on the very important dynamic that exists between teachers,

students, and parents. The key is to keep the lines of communication open between parents and

teachers so that teachers feel supported by parents and parents do not feel alienated from the

activities that their children engage in at school. The artifact that I used was a reflection on

Parent/Teacher Conferences that I participated in, in the Fall of 2019 while completing a

Classroom Management and Discipline practicum in a 5th-grade class. It can be found at

http://sanchezmp.weebly.com/parents-and-community-artifact.html.

“Parent involvement is now recognized as one of the most critical factors influencing

student achievement. Recent research shows a positive relationship between parent involvement

and a host of outcomes for students: higher grades, long term academic achievement, increases in

student attendance and retention, and enhanced motivation and self-esteem” (Lazar et al., 1999,

p.5). There are many ways that we as teachers can keep those vital lines of communication open

with the parents of our students: phone calls, newsletters, emails, social media, and of course

parent/teacher conferences.

Parent/teacher conferences are one of the few times during the school year where both

parents and teachers have set aside time to discuss and reflect on their student’s progress. It is not

based on crisis or behavior issues, there are no problems to solve (for the most part); both parties

are simply there to talk about how their student is doing academically, socially, and emotionally

in the classroom. Dreas-Shaikha (2018) notes that at conferences, parents and teachers discuss
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“learning success as the effort, qualities, and attitudes students display on their individual

journey towards discovery and enrichment” (p.8).

The focus of my artifact was a parent/teacher conference that was held during the first

quarter of school. At our school, we typically have a conference every quarter. This conference

was held the last week of October. For this particular conference, student participation was

optional, meaning it was at the parent's discretion whether or not to bring their child. Other

conferences can be student-led, where students, not the teacher, take the leading role in running

the conference.

In preparation for this particular conference, I observed my host teacher put in quite a bit

of time and effort for the big day. She complied a binder that was color-coded and organized by

content area including standards taught and assignments completed. The first page was a Table

of Contents that directed parents to the different content areas including math, language arts,

reading, and spelling (See Figure 1).

Figure 1
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PARENTS AND COMMUNITY

Each subsequent section was then color-coded, math (yellow), spelling (green), reading (blue),

writing (purple), and assessments (orange) (See Figures 2, 3, 4).

Figure 2

Figure 2 breaks the math block into individual lessons, the grade for each homework page, and the
standard score for that chapter.

Figure 3
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PARENTS AND COMMUNITY

Figure 3 shows the standards scores that the student received for composing sentences for their
individual spelling lists broken down by week.

Figure 4

Figure 4 shows the results of the student’s spelling tests, again broken down by week.

The last section on assessments included test scores from both the AIMSWEB and MAPS

standardized tests (See Figure 5).

Figure 5
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PARENTS AND COMMUNITY

Figure 5 will eventually show how students progress in their standardized test scores from Fall,

Winter, and finally to Spring. This provides a concise way for parents to compare student

performance from test to test and quarter to quarter.

Taylor & Nolan (2008) note that “parents and guardians need to have a clear sense of

their children’s progress so that they can be effective partners in their children’s education” (p.

427). In the case of my host teacher, she, in very great detail, showed parents exactly what their

children were doing in her classroom from day to day. She not only detailed the assignments that

were graded but also the standards that were taught. In this way, parents feel like they are a part

of their children’s education and not just bystanders watching from the sidelines (Dreas-Shaikha,

2018).

When parents ask how their children are doing, not only are they concerned with how

effectively their children are learning the content material but also how their children

progressing (Enoch, 1996). Parents are concerned about how their children are advancing in

relation to grade-level material – above grade level, at grade level, or below grade level. It is the

teacher’s responsibility to make parents aware whether their students are progressing at a

satisfactory pace (at or above grade level) or if their student is not progressing or progressing

more slowly than is expected to be successful at that grade level (Enoch, 1996). In fact, Enoch

(1996) believes that the idea of progress should be emphasized as much if not more than the

grades that students are receiving on their report cards. As part of my host teacher’s

parent/teacher conference, she provided parents with a Progress Monitoring Sheet that compares

their students to the National Norm/Goal in math concepts and applications. This particular test

checks students’ ability to not only use memorization skills when learning new concepts but also

evaluates their ability to think about math concepts concerning real-life situations (See Figure 6).
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PARENTS AND COMMUNITY

In this way, parents can understand how their student is progressing with other students of the

same grade level.

Figure 6

Nolen & Taylor (2008) make an important distinction in that progress means different

things for different age groups. For primary grades, parents are not only concerned about how

their students are performing academically, but also socially and emotionally. How are their

children getting along with others? Are they liked by their classmates? For older students

(middle to high school) parents' focus is primarily on academics with less concern for social or

emotional growth.

During our parent-teacher conferences, my host teacher was sure to add tidbits about their

student’s emotional well-being. In this conference, she touched on this particular student’s lack

of confidence and propensity for negative self-talk. She was quick to add though, that this

student was still very much liked and had many friends in the classroom. Taylor & Nolen (2008)
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PARENTS AND COMMUNITY

note that when problems concerning social and emotional expectations exist, it is important to

come prepared with specific instances where their child was struggling, how the incident was

dealt with (consequences), and how those consequences were received and acted upon by the

student. In this way, parents can help teachers apply strategies that the parents might have used at

home and found success in employing. In this instance, the host teacher discussed how she and I

had implemented an intervention to help the student change her mindset to one more positive and

conducive to learning.

Another particularly important aspect of a parent/teacher conference is to not only show

parents where their students are today, but also show where we are going throughout the school

year (Taylor & Nolan, 2008). The host teacher did an excellent job of showing parents where

their child was at the point of the conference but did not indicate what future goals were, except

for briefly describing what was coming up in the next math chapter.

There is no question that communication between parents and teachers is key to creating

an encouraging and positive classroom culture from which students can thrive. “The parent-

teacher conference is a wonderful opportunity for both parent and teacher to gain important

information about the child and build a stronger bond between school and home. With these

elements as a framework for discussion and with teachers communicating from a position of

professional authority and respect, parent-teacher conferences will become an investment of

time that pays dividends for years to come” (Enoch, 1996, p.48).
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References

Lazar, A., Broderick, P., Mastrilli, T., & Slostad, F. (1999). Educating teachers for parent

involvement. Contemporary Education, 70(3), 5-6.

Lemmer, E. M. (2012). Who’s doing the talking? Teacher and parent experiences of parent-

teacher conferences. South African Journal of Education, 32(1), 83–96.

https://egan.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?di

rect=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1136337&site=eds-live&scope=site

Dreas-Shaikha, M. J. (2018). Student-led conferences: Empowering students through self-

assessment and reflection. Online Submission.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED591424.pdf

Enoch, S. W. (1996). Better parent-teacher conferences. Education Digest, 61(8), 48.

https://egan.ezproxy.uas.alaska.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?di

rect=true&db=f6h&AN=9604150862&site=eds-live&scope=site

Taylor, C.S., & Nolen, S.B. (2008). Classroom assessment: Supporting teaching and learning in

real classrooms. Pearson.