Parents wants to know how their child is progressing academically. Many parents appreciate flexible options to monitor and track their child’s growth. We’ve compiled tips for schools to communicate academic progress effectively.. Use these tips to effectively hit the core competancies of building trusting relationships and working alongside parents.
7 Tips to Communicate Academic Progress
1. Virtual Parent Teacher Conferences
Virtual Parent-Teacher conferences help families with transportation or scheduling issues connect easily. While some parents (and teachers!) may prefer an in-person conversation, giving families a choice makes it easier for parents to attend.
Planning virtual conferences differs significantly from in-person meetings. Check out Possip’s Tips for Successful Virtual Parent-Teacher Conferences. The article includes free resources for agendas and additional tips on how to plan logistics and execute strong virtual parent-teacher conferences.
2. Support Parent Access to Online Gradebooks or Parent Portals
In this new world of high-tech schooling, not all parents are equally caught up to speed. Learning new skills online isn’t always an easy task, and some parents may not even know how to log-in to a virtual gradebook or parent portal. We recommend first making sure all parents know how to log-in to the gradebook website your campus uses, have their login name and password, and understand where to find their child’s grades.
A few ways to do this include:
- Send out a parent mailer with information on how to successfully check student’s grades. In that mailer, there could be a phone number to call if parents need their log-in information.
- Publish a monthly parent newsletter all about the topic of understanding your child’s academic progress and giving tips on what parents could be doing to stay in touch with their child’s academic growth.
- If mailers aren’t a great option for your school due to time and resources, you could also send out a text message, like a Possip Bonus Question, to ask parents if they know how to log-in to the gradebook or if they want a staff member to reach out to assist.
Online gradebooks are vital for parents but only useful if they can access them.
This article consolidates the tips originally posted September 2019 and March 2022. We’ve updated the content and provided a few additional ideas!
