A New Approach to Parent-Teacher Conferences at the Secondary Level

Cassie Smith and Emily Lane

Plan
Initial Conditions:
In our current reality, our homerooms are used as a study hall time, a time for students to meet
with teachers to make up work or get help on work, or a time to complete career-focused
surveys and information required by the state. In the late winter months, homeroom teachers
are expected to meet with each student to look at their 4-year plans, double-checking the
courses they are supposed to be taking during high school, which is supposed to be based on
the information provided by the career surveys. A problem with this current situation is 1)
students don’t always take the career surveys seriously and rush through them, producing
inaccurate results of careers most students are not really interested in, and 2) teachers don’t
know all of the pre-requisites or courses that students should be taking in high school to help
them prepare for their future career.
Define the Probletunity:
1. How do we get kids into the right classes for their future careers?
2. How do we better involve the community?
Study the Current Situation/Causes:
Currently, we have no community involvement when working with our students to help plan for
their future careers. Attendance at parent-teacher conferences where parents are supposed to
look at and approve 4-year plans has declined with the use of Infinite Campus and having the
information readily available to them at all times.

Do
Theory for Improvement:
Through the use of homeroom time, we can bring in businesses from the community to work
with students. As students learn more about the business and job opportunities in our
community, they are more likely to become invested in our community and return to the area to
work after completing post-secondary opportunities. Students will be exposed to a variety of
career options based on their interests and they will be able to meet with businesses to develop
relationships that could potentially lead to future career opportunities. This will hopefully
enhance our student’s work ethic in the classroom, as well as build better respect for our
community.
Proposed Strategy:
Summer:
1. Contact proposed businesses for each career strand.
a. Looking for 9 careers per career strand to rotate on a 9-week schedule.
 b. Businesses will come to the HS for ~30 minutes to discuss their job, job-related
skills, educational backgrounds needed, and answer questions posed by
students.

Fall:
1. Match teachers with career strands and eventually with business partners (grades 9-11).
a. Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources - Tessa, Emily W
b. Architecture & Construction - Ind tech
c. Manufacturing - Bowman
d. Arts, Audio/Video Technology & Communications - Justine, Bryce, Drew
e. Business, Management & Administration -Mooney
f. Education & Training - Cassie, Emily
g. Finance - K Beach, Patty
h. Government & Public Administration -Shelley
i. Health Science -Kayla
j. Hospitality & Tourism - Katie W, Tyler B
k. Human Services - DeDe, Heather
l. Information Technology - Lauger
m. Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security - Feddersen, DVP
n. Marketing, Sales & Service - Beth, Shelby
o. Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics - Dave, Rose, Dean
p. Transportation, Distribution & Logistics - Chandra, Jeff
2. Match teachers with senior homerooms to cluster based on post-secondary
plans/options.
a. 2 year College(s)-Wickett
b. 4 year College(s)-Ras
c. Military- T Beach
d. Workforce- Megan
e. Apprenticeships- Jim
3. 9-11 students complete career surveys, knowing the plan is to meet with businesses and
potential employers.
4. 9-11 students are assigned to homerooms based on their top career strand, (with no more
than 20 students per homeroom, if possible).
a. Students will rotate homerooms every quarter based on the results of their career
survey to the next career strand (allowing students to gather information from
multiple businesses and career strands over time).
 b. This will allow students to build relationships with multiple staff members as they
rotate homerooms/teachers each quarter.
5. Bring in 1 speaker per week per career strand to talk with the homeroom students.
a. Student expectations (to potentially earn 1 credit toward graduation):
i. Each student will receive a binder to collect their information
ii. Each student will be required to complete a note sheet of the information
received by the speaker.
1. They will be required to turn in 15 per semester or 30 total for the
year.
6. 12th-grade homerooms:
a. October: FAFSA forms
b. Keep updated with scholarships or pertinent career information
c. Verify that seniors have all credits to graduate in spring
7. Parent-Teacher Conferences:
a. 1 night - to discuss current grades or classroom situations
b. 4:00pm - 7:30pm

Spring:

1. 9-11 Career Fair: businesses/career strands will feature possible course schedules of each
of the corresponding career strands for students to collect and reference as they put together
their own 4-year plans
a. Student Expectations:
i. Each student will be required to attend the career fair and collect 5 different
career strand 4-year plans to bring back to their binder, to help build their
own 4-year plans.
b. Student Senate:
i. Provide a meal
ii. Provide daycare
c. Time:
i. Career Fair / Signing Day: 8:00am - 5:00pm
ii. Parent/Teacher Conferences: 3:00pm - 7:30pm
1. (on conf. comp day rather than 3 evenings?)
iii. Course Registration: 10:00am - 5:00pm
2. 12th Grade: Signing Day
a. Students will sign “letters of intent” based on their future plans
 b. Take pictures with businesses, colleges, military, etc. based on their plans
c. Invite parents to join
d. Put on social media, newspaper, and radio station

Study
How do we know it is successful?
We can create a survey that all students, teacher, parents, and community members take based
on:
-businesses ‘adopting’ a homeroom throughout the year,
-signing day in the spring,
-a new format for conferences (and accessibility of conferences)
-career fair
-potential employees (did the businesses feel they found employees they could hire?)
-attendance
-student binder expectations completed (possible credits earned?)
Review the results of the survey and disaggregate data based on our sub-groups for maximum
effectiveness.

Act
How will the improvements be institutionalized?
As a building, we need to commit to at least 4 years of trying the ‘new’ approach to conferences
and use of homeroom time. During the 4 years, we will get one full rotation of classes through
the system and can have data to support engagement and College & Career Readiness.

Pecha Kucha (VoiceThread)

https://voicethread.com/share/13641921/