Student Led Conferences at the Secondary Level

Student Led Conferences at the Secondary Level

by Karen Dickinson

Recently, my husband told me I was not allowed to read the paper on Sundays anymore. I spend too much time getting worked up and talking to myself in sarcastic tones. It is not a good way to start a Sunday. What has me so worked up is the demands put on teachers while funding and support dwindle. That being said, it does not look like this predicament is going to change. Therefore, my job as an administrator is to try to help teachers find ways to engage students and parents in the high accountability system set up for them before it is too late. I think the student led conference is an answer to this concern.

Teachers often struggle with reconciling our charge as educators to support students in meeting standards and hold true to a student centered approach to learning at the same time. As a staff developer for Federal Way Public Schools, I hope teachers continue to support student centered learning because it is what provides efficacy for students. One of the ways to include parents in this high stakes environment and maintain the balance is student led conferences. This form of conferencing allows all three people to form a partnership that is equal among stakeholders.

That being said, a school or district embarking on student led conferences must be ready to put in time and money for staff development and allow teachers, students, and parents time to grow into their new roles as real partners. In 2002 – 2003, the Superintendent of the Federal Way School District, Tom Murphy, made student led conferences mandatory in grades k – 7 and grade 10. Three of six junior high schools had student led conferences in all three grades and one of three comprehensive high schools had conferences in all three grades. This year student led conferences are at all grade levels k – 12. The reason for the odd configuration the first year was we were going through a transition and wanted some exposure at secondary without impacting the entire system. This also gave us room to "pilot" a process for administrators at secondary without completely overwhelming them.

However, we have extraordinary administrators in Federal Way and some of them facilitated the conferences along with their teachers, so they could be empathetic and create staff development opportunities to meet the needs of staff. This year, nearly all secondary administrators are participating in student led conferences and their participation has brought real credibility to the process. This has not been easy and we are still in the early stages. However, our results so far have made the incredible learning curve for all involved, from superintendent to kindergartner, worth the journey.

What brought us to this place is the Washington State Certificate of Mastery. It stands to reason, if students are going to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning they need to have explicit instructional exposure to the standards on the test. The students need to be able to assess their work according to the standards and know where they lie on the continuum toward achievement. For the three years prior to this development teachers received 5 days of training yearly on standards based best practices. From this training toward our goal of student led conferences our first task was to give teachers time to create yearlong rubrics for their disciplines.

The district provided the following support. Teachers were provided staff development on how to create yearlong rubrics and student portfolios using the standards. They were then given time to create the rubric and revisit it in staff development sessions throughout the year. All secondary schools trained a cadre of teachers to become Critical Friends Coaches and provided monthly and in some instances bi-monthly time for teachers to meet and discuss their work.

Each school developed its own rubrics using the theory that if you build it yourself you are more likely to use it. Teachers spent the year learning how to create standards based portfolios and had two sessions of student led conferences through their advisory. Considering it was their first year, the teachers and administrators did an amazing job. Here are some of the results from the first year according to our surveys - 2, 813 parent surveys were returned at secondary for grades.

· This type of conference was beneficial to me. - 38 % strongly agree and 41% agree
· This type of conference was beneficial to my child. - 46% strongly agree and 39% agree
· I have a better understanding of my students learning goals. - 36% strongly agree and 44% agree
· I support the learning goals that my child set at the conference. - 50% strongly agree and 40% agree

Another wonderful result from the first year was the level of participation by parents. One of the important lessons we learned from Ruby Payne is that parents of poverty have a certain anxiety around attending school functions. Since many of them were unsuccessful in school it is not an institution to which they feel comfortable returning. However, since their children are their guides our participation went up as much as 40% in our schools among students of poverty. We also saw a greatly increased participation among parents of ELL students. Due to the Herculean effort of our ELL Coordinator, Jean Vaughn, there were over 600 interpreted conferences k-12.

Now we are in our second year. At the end of the first year we brought all the teachers of specific disciplines together and created district wide rubrics, so this year's work has continuity across the whole district. Accompanying this we are walking through classrooms looking for evidence of a standards based learning environment. In both years the expectation has been that teachers would send the rubric home within the first few days of school and have it signed by the parent/guardian. The homework assignment was for the student to explain it to the adult in the home who would be attending the conference a few months later.

Each student would then have a folder for each classroom that had the rubric stapled inside and would hold the work for that class. Teachers were provided with a timeline for this work.

Timeline for Standards Based Instruction

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5

Distribute Standards. Use a reading strategy to give students access to the new material like KWL. Teachers begin formative assessment and students begin to place themselves on the rubric through workshop practices. Students perform fun and informative content area activities to gain facility with the system, learning more about themselves and the rubric as they go. ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES:
Assessment

Students participate in formative, standardized, and classroom assessments. Introduce "on demand" assessment and use the rubric to define what standards will be assessed for the first quarter marking period.

Introduce Portfolios and Differentiated Instructional Model.

Staggered Deadlines

Teachers use a developmental continuum to create deadlines.
Create Table of Contents for portfolio with students.

Use a reading strategy to help students approach the work. Select one that aligns to the task. Students use habits of mind to create norms for self –assessment, peer-assessment, group work, and independent work.
Benchmark

Students align their scores to the descriptors on the rubric. Use content area activities that align to the assessment. Explicitly instruct the students to determine where the reading and content are assessed.

Teacher modeling

Teachers continue to model the role of facilitator.
Students begin to sort through their work and generate questions they think are appropriate to ask about their work.

Students write a letter home explaining this assessment process. This piece begins the Working Folder. Students continue to add reading strategies to their repertoire.
Goal

Students create an achievement goal.

Cooperative Groups

Students are beginning to facilitate their learning using the teacher as a model.
Organize portfolios. Continue to discuss proficiency and developmental continuum.

Students create and post rubrics on butcher paper and post. Teachers continue to model the role of facilitator using explicit instruction regarding content skills and reading skills.
Implementation

Students align their goal to the strategies they will use to achieve it using habits of the mind.

Imbedded Assessment

Students understand that assessment can take the shape of anecdotal notes and other feedback that occurs during the learning process.

Teachers model facilitation, begin to address norms for cooperative work w/ habits of the mind. Students continue to collect work for their Working Folder.

As students move through the activities above, teachers began to realize how important it is to provide standards based feedback and create standards based visuals for students to use as learning centers. This year we have seen teachers change the posters in their rooms from kittens and sports heroes to rubrics, student work, and exemplars. The key for motivation is the student led conference where not only student work is on display, but the opportunities for student learning to be made manifest through student work. This is why creating a table of contents with students is critical to the process. Students get a reminder of how the assignments they have been given help them meet the standard and without those assignments there is little evidence for them to discuss with their parents/guardians.

The tension created by the conference should be what Ted Sizer calls "unanxious expectation." This means that although the student may be nervous about the conference due to high accountability, they should also feel confident due to the explicit standards based practices and opportunities they have had to learn. In order to ready the parents, we did a communications blitz. Sending a tri-fold in to homes in the district in several languages, we have 87 in Federal Way, using newsletters and homework assignments, and our televised school board meetings gave us several venues from which to extend our message.

Attendance has been an indicator of success. Traditionally secondary arena style conferencing brought about 50% parent participation. Student led conferences generated over 85% participation. One of our elementary schools reported 100% attendance. Principal, Dr. Brenda McBrayer-Knight of Totem Middle School said, "It's probably the most phenomenal event that has ever happened district wide."

Now in our second year, we are still seeing high numbers of participants and teachers continue to improve their standards based practice in order to insure the work students are sharing with their parents/guardians provides information about their achievement as they move toward the Certificate of Mastery.

About the author

Karen Dickinson is the Director of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction in Federal Way Public Schools in Federal Way, WA. Her responsibilities include all areas of secondary education from Career and Technical Education to staff development in Socratic Seminar, Inquiry, Guided Reading, Literacy in the Content Area, Getting Ready for the WASL, Gifted and Talented Education for Elementary Schools, Planning Backward, Formative Assessment, and Equity and Achievement.

As a classroom teacher for over 15 years in grades 7 – 13 (community college and university), Ms. Dickinson has participated in team teaching and peer coaching for nearly all of her professional life. In her previous job as an Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Instruction, she taught a 9th grade lab classroom that was open for teachers to visit and explore new methods of instruction and assessment including student led conferences. In her current role, she models lessons in classrooms in Federal Way from grades k – 12 in order to support teacher efficacy around new instructional strategies. When time allows, Ms. Dickinson works with schools in western Washington as a consultant and presenter. Email: kdickins@fwps.org

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Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5
Distribute Standards. Use a reading strategy to give students access to the new material like KWL. Teachers begin formative assessment and students begin to place themselves on the rubric through workshop practices.	Students perform fun and informative content area activities to gain facility with the system, learning more about themselves and the rubric as they go.	ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES: Assessment Students participate in formative, standardized, and classroom assessments. Introduce "on demand" assessment and use the rubric to define what standards will be assessed for the first quarter marking period.	Introduce Portfolios and Differentiated Instructional Model. Staggered Deadlines Teachers use a developmental continuum to create deadlines.	Create Table of Contents for portfolio with students.
Use a reading strategy to help students approach the work. Select one that aligns to the task.	Students use habits of mind to create norms for self –assessment, peer-assessment, group work, and independent work.	Benchmark Students align their scores to the descriptors on the rubric. Use content area activities that align to the assessment. Explicitly instruct the students to determine where the reading and content are assessed.	Teacher modeling Teachers continue to model the role of facilitator.	Students begin to sort through their work and generate questions they think are appropriate to ask about their work.
Students write a letter home explaining this assessment process. This piece begins the Working Folder.	Students continue to add reading strategies to their repertoire.	Goal Students create an achievement goal.	Cooperative Groups Students are beginning to facilitate their learning using the teacher as a model.	Organize portfolios. Continue to discuss proficiency and developmental continuum.
Students create and post rubrics on butcher paper and post.	Teachers continue to model the role of facilitator using explicit instruction regarding content skills and reading skills.	Implementation Students align their goal to the strategies they will use to achieve it using habits of the mind.	Imbedded Assessment Students understand that assessment can take the shape of anecdotal notes and other feedback that occurs during the learning process.
Teachers model facilitation, begin to address norms for cooperative work w/ habits of the mind.	Students continue to collect work for their Working Folder.