In this article we report case study research which focused on the nature of parent-teacher conversations at one English high school. Our research aims were to discover what parents and teachers said to each other during these events and examine how they constructed their talk. Audio recordings of parent-teacher meetings/conferences were analyzed…

Little research has examined the experiences of lesbian/gay (LG) parent families or adoptive parent families in early childhood education settings. This study uses interview data to examine the perceptions and experiences of 45 lesbian, gay, and heterosexual couples (90 individuals) with 10 adopted children with respect to their (1) openness with…

The Title I, Part A program is designed to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and achieve, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and assessments. The program's goal is accomplished by providing supplemental funding for educational…

Parent-teacher conferences are an important component of ongoing home-school communication and family involvement in your classroom. Did you also know that home-school communication predicts positive outcomes for students and for schools? Although you may already be working hard to engage parents in their children's education, this tip sheet is…

Parents experiencing homelessness may be struggling to enroll and keep their children in school. If they have a child with special needs, they may have even more challenges to make sure their child receives the help she needs. This brief helps parents with the following concerns and offers resources for additional assistance: (1) not knowing who…

Achieving broad-scale parent engagement with school initiatives has proven elusive. This article reports survey data from 287 Maltese parents about their perceptions of the quality of their child's school's initiatives for promoting students' wellbeing and mental health. Findings indicate that, on average, parents rated school initiatives highly.…

We explored the challenges that five newly qualified teachers (NQTs) faced in the teaching and learning situation and how they addressed their challenges. The teachers taught integrated science at the Junior High School (JHS; ages 12-15 years). Data were collected through observation, interview, and content analysis. We used the inductive and…

This study examined Head Start's impact on fathers' school-based involvement and associations with Black children's cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional skills. With a sample of 1,354 Black children, fathers' involvement was measured as attendance at school meetings, teacher conferences, school events, and/or volunteering at school events.…

The authors explored different factors that were associated with mothers' and fathers' choice between two forms of parent-school communication: school briefing sessions and parent-teacher conferences. A total of 585 parents--295 mothers and 290 fathers from different households--who had at least one child enrolled in middle school in Korea were…

Through educational connoisseurship and criticism, this study explores how labels based on standardized student growth affect a rural school in Colorado. While the educators express intentions to help their students to demonstrate academic growth and achievement, they also have concerns that focusing on growth might compromise the well being of…

It is no question that preparing teachers to work with the many facets involved in special education is a daunting task. Upon entering the classroom on the first day, special education teachers are expected to be prepared (Sayeski, 2015) when presented with numerous responsibilities (Collins, Sweigart, Landrum, & Cook, (2017), including parent…

Stephanie Smith understands why parents in the urban area where she teaches balk when she calls to ask if she can visit them at home to talk about their child and meet the family. Her family would've balked too when Smith was in elementary school. "The abyss between the school's bright lights and the government housing I grew up in…

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the delegation of financial authority to public primary schools through Parent-Teacher Councils (PTCs) on learning outcomes of primary school children in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Pakistan. The learning outcomes were measured in three subject areas (Urdu, English, and Mathematics).…

This article questions the dominant understanding that immigrant and refugee parents in parent-teacher conferences are silent because they come from a culture where one does not question the authority of the teacher. Instead, it is argued that they "become" silent through certain interactional processes. Building on material from an…

In June the author completed her first full year of high school teaching. In this article, she shares her top 10 mistakes for several reasons: (1) so that other beginners will know what to expect; (2) so that teacher educators will share with candidates for licensure; (3) so that she won't make the same mistakes again; (4) so that veteran teachers…