Middle school huddles

During parent-teacher conferences at Shaw Middle School this week Teresa Nicholson learned one of her teenaged twin boys didn’t turn in a few English assignments, dropping his grade below passing.

The other son, a peer leader and typically an A student, is not working to his full potential.

While it wasn’t all good news, Nicholson was comforted by reports that Robert and Brandon Robison, both eighth-graders, are mostly doing well, easing through that turbulent time in “the middle.”

“This helps me learn some things that I can help them with at home,” Nicholson said, after meeting with teacher Aaron Allen. “He spends more time with my sons than I do, so it’s very important to stay informed.”

Most regularly scheduled parent conferences end when a student leaves elementary school and heads off to the secondary grades. But as adolescence takes hold and children begin the battle for independence, it’s even more important for parents to stay connected, educators said.

“There’s this unwritten rule that when they start middle school, we need to back away,” Shaw Principal Christine Lynch said.

Following a growing number of schools across the region, three Spokane public schools are in the second year of offering schoolwide conferences for parents of seventh- and eighth-graders.

The teachers at Shaw, Garry and Glover middle schools are divided into teams – where a student has the same four teachers for core subject areas including math, science, language arts and social studies – which eases the number of conferences. Parents can meet with teacher teams, instead of trying to seek out each teacher individually.

Lynch said the method is popular among families. Last spring more than 80 percent of parents attended their children’s conferences – which is unusually large participation for a school with such a high level of families in poverty. More than 67 percent of Shaw’s students qualify for free- and reduced-price lunch.

“We’ve never offered schoolwide middle school conferences before, only when parents asked for them,” Lynch said. “And typically, those were the parents that teachers really didn’t need to confer with.”

According to research from the National Center for Education Statistics, children whose parents are involved in their child’s school are more likely to see improved academic performance, better school attendance, higher aspirations, and reduced dropout rates.

“In the past it was typical, if a student was getting a D or an F, we would call in the parents,” said Jeff Bengston, the principal at Canfield Middle School in Coeur d’Alene, which serves students in grades six through eight. “But if you were an A or B student, you didn’t get the opportunity to talk with teachers.”

Canfield has been offering middle school conferences for the past six years. Like those at Shaw in Spokane, the conferences in North Idaho are student-led. The teacher involves the student in preparing for the parent meetings, and the student is often the one to report progress, or failures, to parents.

“They seem to experience pride in their work, and it can be motivational,” Bengston said.

Educators say the student-led conference allows students to report progress beyond a letter grade.

“There’s more goal-setting; it’s not just progress-monitoring,” said Jean Marczynski, executive director of teaching and learning for the Central Valley School District.

CV’s five middle schools began offering parent-teacher conferences in 2002, when ninth-graders moved up to the high schools, and district sixth-graders were sent to the middle schools.

“As kids are becoming more independent and making more decisions on their own and getting ready for high school, having them be responsible for monitoring their own progress and articulating it to their parents … is huge,” Marcyznski said.