In recent weeks, your newspaper carried several articles and news items on the various changes that are taking place in the field of education and how our children are going to be assessed in the future.
Many of these changes are tied to directives to school districts from Commissioner King and policies adopted by the state Department of Education.
The recent drop in Herricks math and ELA scores, though higher than most school districts on Long Island, is due to the implementation of the new Common Core Learning Standards, which, according to information found on the state affiliated website, engageny.org, are designed to make students “career and college ready.”
While teachers are grappling with these sweeping changes, not to mention a questionable new teacher evaluation system based on student learning objectives, parents continue to seek information that will help them better understand how these changes will impact the education of their children.
Clearly, more than ever, educators and administrators need parents as partners in this journey towards higher education.
Yet, amazingly, and for reasons that I simply cannot comprehend, Herricks Union Free School District remains one of few, if not the only, school district that does not have parent-teacher conferences in the middle and high schools.
Every surrounding school district sets aside time for parent-teacher conferences, as in the case with Malverne, Syosset, Hempstead, Garden City, Mineola, Jericho, Sewanhaka school districts, to name a few.
Parents get the opportunity to meet teachers and share valuable information that will work towards the benefit of students during parent-teacher conferences
This is a critical step in establishing an ongoing conversation about what parents can do to help promote the academic development of their children. In addition, parent-teacher conferences supplement the information conveyed by report cards by focusing on students’ specific strengths and weaknesses in individual subjects.
This is an ideal time during which both parties can identify and address academic concerns, as well as behavioral issues early in the school year (some districts have these conferences early in the school year) before they negatively impact student performance in the classroom.
During the recent “back to school night” at both the middle and high schools, a number of parents have expressed similar interests and shared concerns regarding the lack of parent-teacher conferences at the middle and high schools in this excellent school district.
As one parent noted, “my child recently graduated from high school and I could never remember the names of her teachers and I had very little contact with them. Thinking about it now, there were things I wish I could have shared with her teachers.”
It is unthinkable that this situation has gone on for so many years in the Herricks UFSD, when the evidence clearly points to a number of benefits in having parent teacher conferences.
In fact, some school districts are now exploring the possibility of having more than one parent-teacher conference during the school year.
As an educator, I can attest to the fact that the parent-teacher conference is an event to which I eagerly look forward every year.
There is so much that parents can learn about their child from their teachers and there is valuable information that teachers can access from a personal one on one formal meeting with a parent of a child who is sitting in that teacher’s class for a full school year or a half year, depending on the course. All of this information can work towards the education of the whole child.
The time has long past for the Herricks UFSD to recognize the value of having parent-teacher conferences at the middle and high schools.
Dr. Baytoram Ramharack
New Hyde Park
