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ERIC Number: ED662110
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Six Resources for Making the Most of Family-Educator Conferences
Tricia Zucker; Michael Mesa; April Crawford; Shauna Spear; Sonia Cabell
Grantee Submission
In early childhood, family engagement includes home- and school-based participation of families in their children's learning, with the goal of building genuine and collaborative partnerships between educators and families (NASEM 2016). While the expectation is that family-school collaborations are ongoing and on multiple levels, family-educator conferences hold a particular and important place in this collaboration. During a typical school year, there are at least two opportunities for family-teacher conferences, and 60 to 75 percent of families participate in conferences (Hanson & Pugliese 2020; Merlin 2021). Family-educator conferences serve a variety of purposes. To maximize the benefits of conferences, educators need opportunities to intentionally prepare and use responsive resources. Such resources position families and teachers to understand each other's perspectives and develop shared goals for learners across home and school contexts. Early childhood educators are key to orchestrating effective family-educator conferences. In this article, we (the authors) present six research-informed resources for making the most of these conferences, with examples of how pre-K teachers received and made use of them. Acknowledging there are diverse family structures and caregivers who may attend conferences, we use the term family throughout. [This paper was published in "YC Young Children" v77 n4 p52-58 2022.]
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Preschool Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) (ED/IES)
Authoring Institution: N/A
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R324B200018; R305A150319; R305A210157