For as long as schools have been around, parent teacher conferences have been in effect. For our high school, conferences usually take place after each quarter and usually run 4-8 Thursday night and 8-12 Friday morning. For this reason, students are given the day off. This years parent teacher conferences will be the 25 and the 26. October 25 will be a 2 o’clock dismissal, and students will have the 26th off.

The students were asked to answer a few questions on a poll concerning parent teacher conferences, and whether they think they are essential or not. The question asking if parent teacher conferences are important to attend or not, was basically divided, 49% of students answered no and 51% answered yes. This is all opinion based of course. Most say that when parents get involved in their students education and academics, then they are more likely to have a greater impact on their personal persistence and grades, but students all learn differently, and it all depends on their learning process.

Parents who are involved usually are very hard on their children, and want what is best for them. When asking the high schools principal, Mr. Clear, why he thought parent teacher conferences are important, he explained, “It gives us a chance to communicate with parents or guardians about students learning, and their progress.”

We later discussed if he thought that if parents got involved, it would improve the students overall GPA. He said, “Every student’s dynamic is different.” He later explained that he does see the correlation between parents being involved and students doing better because of it. He says, “When we have information (from teachers), then we can help support them (students) do well, or do better.” He later explained that he is more worried about the education rather than the overall GPA, and what the students future careers will look like after graduation, and parent teacher conferences help a lot with this.