Wondering why? (private school, economy, grades, classroom)

[HighlandsGal]

Last night was our first round of parent teacher conferences. They went from 4-8 pm. Out of the 187 students I teach this semester, I had a grand total of 1 parent show up!! Of course, this is a good student and she is currently receiving a B in my class. I spent the rest of the evening calling and emailing parents of the students failing my classes. (about 30)

I arrive at school this morning and I received no voice mails or emails responding to my concerns.

I am sitting here today on this Friday morning before work begins, dead tired, and wondering why parents are so disinterested..............

[scarmig]

Why should they expend the energy to raise their child when you are required to do it for them?

[TakeAhike]

Originally Posted by HighlandsGal

Last night was our first round of parent teacher conferences. They went from 4-8 pm. Out of the 187 students I teach this semester, I had a grand total of 1 parent show up!! Of course, this is a good student and she is currently receiving a B in my class. I spent the rest of the evening calling and emailing parents of the students failing my classes. (about 30)

I arrive at school this morning and I received no voice mails or emails responding to my concerns.

I am sitting here today on this Friday morning before work begins, dead tired, and wondering why parents are so disinterested..............

Been there and didn't need a T-shirt.

The economy is headed south--families are struggling and so on and so forth.

Do what you can do and take care of yourself and your family--manage the stress.

```
Highlands Gal--
After hearing about the Balloon Boy family I wondered how it was possible for the 3 boys to function at school w/o any apparent notice taken of what might be going on at home.

I am in GA--and wrote plenty of referrals for students that needed some sort of assistance--it is inconceivable to me that children living in this type of home wouldn't have some 'issues'.
Do you have any thoughts on what may have occurred in this school district--Fort Collins sounds like a nice area--and I can't think that Colorado turns a blind eye to potential problems--Columbine etc.

I'd appreciate any thoughts/opinions you might provide.

[akck]

For the conferences I've attended, I'd guess that parent attendance was no more than 20%. This is simply a guess since conferences were over a two day period and you usually went on only one of the days. Over the 4 years of high school, you saw the same parents at eh conferences. Our conferences were usually short, since there is not much to be said for a student who is doing really well. You could always tell who were the "problem" teachers because they always had the longest lines.

I'd like to add that we parents also wondered why many kids with problems parents never showed up at the conferences. Maybe one of the reasons for high dropout rates.

[TakeAhike]

Originally Posted by akck

For the conferences I've attended, I'd guess that parent attendance was no more than 20%. This is simply a guess since conferences were over a two day period and you usually went on only one of the days. Over the 4 years of high school, you saw the same parents at eh conferences. Our conferences were usually short, since there is not much to be said for a student who is doing really well. You could always tell who were the "problem" teachers because they always had the longest lines.

I'd like to add that we parents also wondered why many kids with problems parents never showed up at the conferences. Maybe one of the reasons for high dropout rates.

There is substantial documentation of this.

[Eresh]

It doesn't surprise me that it was the parent of a good student who showed up. The students who do poorly or have behavior issues usually don't have involved parents.

[Momma_bear]

Originally Posted by HighlandsGal

Last night was our first round of parent teacher conferences. They went from 4-8 pm. Out of the 187 students I teach this semester, I had a grand total of 1 parent show up!! Of course, this is a good student and she is currently receiving a B in my class. I spent the rest of the evening calling and emailing parents of the students failing my classes. (about 30)

I arrive at school this morning and I received no voice mails or emails responding to my concerns.

I am sitting here today on this Friday morning before work begins, dead tired, and wondering why parents are so disinterested..............

At the high school level is it really necessary for a parent to have a conference with the teacher if the student is doing well? My kids are in a private school and they do not have mandatory conferences. Either parent or teacher can request a conference. It works the same for the school where I teach.

I don't request to see the parents if the students are doing well.

[Sudcaro]

I understand how you are feeling very well. I remember spending a lot of time waiting for a parent, any parent to show up.
Last year was a complete disaster: most of my colleagues and i spent a lot of time in the corridor, at our classroom's door, waiting for parents, and chatting to kill time. The luckiest of us saw 10 parents. I only saw 3 or 4...

[HighlandsGal]

Originally Posted by Momma_bear

At the high school level is it really necessary for a parent to have a conference with the teacher if the student is doing well? My kids are in a private school and they do not have mandatory conferences. Either parent or teacher can request a conference. It works the same for the school where I teach.

I don't request to see the parents if the students are doing well.

That would be fine if the parents of my "good students" didn't come to conferences. However, after our first marking period, here was the breakdown of my students' grades:

78 As
37 Bs
26 Cs
22 Ds
29 Fs

...............surely I should have at least some of the Cs, Ds, and Fs parents here. This is an IB high school too by the way. In the city. With major attendance problems. My daily average is around 80-85%

[Momma_bear]

Originally Posted by HighlandsGal

That would be fine if the parents of my "good students" didn't come to conferences. However, after our first marking period, here was the breakdown of my students' grades:

78 As
37 Bs
26 Cs
22 Ds
29 Fs

...............surely I should have at least some of the Cs, Ds, and Fs parents here. This is an IB high school too by the way. In the city. With major attendance problems. My daily average is around 80-85%

I think parents of struggling students should come to conferences. In my classes most of my struggling students struggle because of attendance issues. I can rarely get those parents on the phone because they provide bogus phone numbers and the kids "don't know" their parents email addresses.

I am sure much of the problem with struggling students IS attendance based. We average 85% attendance as well and I am teaching in a suburban HS in an average/above average income area.