Manassas Park High School lets students lead parent-teacher conferences

School hopes change will motive students to perform better  

We all know how parent-teacher conferences usually go. A long, exasperated groan from students and a stressful sigh from their parents. Most parents don’t even end up showing up, and the ones that do get a lecture about the things their child is doing wrong, not how they are progressing. This can add unnecessary pressure on students, making them feel like they’re not doing well enough.

Manassas Park High School Principal Dr. Deborah Bergeron and the have strived to change that this year by initiating student-led conferences run by students, not teachers. The hope is that this new method of conferences will increase parent participation and help them see how their child is progressing in a positive way.

The idea came from other new changes at MPHS this year. There is a focus on new, positive ways to get students more involved in their learning and excited about school. There is more focus on students self-managing themselves and being able to use student choice such as in choosing how to present projects and working more independently. An example of this is the new social contracts that were implemented in all classes as part of the “Capturing Kids’ Hearts” program. Contracts were created with student collaboration about how students want to be treated in their class environments. This new style of conferences has been made to tie in with some of the new changes. 

 “I believe these new conferences will be very helpful as the old style of conferences didn’t mesh with all of the new changes made this year,”said Manassas Park High School English and Theatre teacher Ms. Ignatius.

During conferences, students showed their parents how they were making progress in a class and how they were growing. This related to the self-managing style being focused on this year, as students decided how the conference with their parents should be led.

“The conferences worked well because they provided a positive and different atmosphere that was less serious than traditional parent-teacher conferences, and parents were able to know what was going on,” said sophomore Nafeesa Lodi.

Students were able to show their strengths and what they are excel in, as well as where they need to improve, and what they could do to improve in that area. Students also chose work that they wanted to show to their parents and give them their point of view on their work. Prior to conferences, students filled out a survey every week self-evaluating themselves on how they thought they were performing in their classes. Parents were able to view the results of the survey and see how their child evaluated themselves. Elective classes also had booths set up in the main hallways displaying student work.

Sophomore Caitlin Lawrence liked the new conference style.“The school should continue to do these conferences again next year,” she said.

Jessie Smith writes for the MPHS Script student newspaper and contributed this piece to Manassas Local.