![]() ![]() Extended family members can participate in the conference, which is especially relevant in Hawai‘i where there are many students who live in multigenerational households. Additionally, it is a friendlier environment for families and allows teachers and families to come together as equal partners in supporting students’ school success. Students can practice self-reflection skills and have a voice in their educational experience. They can also strengthen two-way communication between home and school, which is important in establishing and maintaining trusting relationships with families. SLCs deliver higher-impact family engagement because they (a) are more student/family focused, (b) create space and time to listen to family perspectives, (c) allow for higher accountability from teachers, families, and students, and (d) offer more opportunities for goal setting by all stakeholders. ![]() Younger students may need more assistance than older students in preparing for SLCs, but students of all ages have the capacity to lead these conferences with support. SLCs conclude with the teacher, student, and family sharing how they will support the student in meeting those goals (Cronin, 2016). SLCs are pre-planned meetings where students lead teacher-supported discussions with their families about their learning and progress by reviewing examples of their work and identifying academic goals. One model is student-led conferences (SLC). However, there has been a growing shift away from these models to more fully include students and families (Mapp et al., 2017). Teacher-led conferences have been utilized in schools for many decades in the US. These types of conferences are primarily school/teacher driven and allow families little opportunity to participate in the conversation. The purpose of the conferences was for the teachers to report to parents about their children’s progress in the classroom and current course grade, and their vision for what the student outcomes should be at the end of the semester/year. My parents did not ask many questions, probably because, like many parents, they were unsure of what to ask, and we usually ran out of time after the teachers were finished sharing. It was overwhelming because there were many conferences happening simultaneously, and the conversations felt rushed because we had to keep up with the rotation schedule. My (Victoria) junior high school used the “arena style” approach, and I remember rotating with my parents among all six of my teachers in 15-minute intervals. We might picture meeting one-on-one with a teacher in a classroom, or maybe an “arena style” set up with teachers seated at multiple tables in a gym as parents and students rotate among them. Most folks are familiar with the term “parent-teacher conference” and likely remember their own experiences at these conferences, either as a student or a parent.
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