Pre- and Post-Conference Forms – A Practical Way to Show that Home-School Partnerships Matter

Pre- and post-conference forms designed into the conference flow indicate to parents that the school cares about their experience, and works in partnership with home. This post highlights the importance of ongoing school-home communications, and gives practical ideas on how to maintain communication before and after the parent-teacher conference.

The Parent-Teacher Conference Format: It’s Limits and Possibilities

The parent-teacher conferences are like quick briefings, usually starting with a positive, followed by the academic overview, and a few minutes for parent dialogue. Many parents recognize the format and adjust their expectations given the time constraint -the conference is often condensed to a mere 15 – 20 minutes. Still, some feel the conference is utterly negative, citing the power structure and the lack of opportunity to contribute their point of view. On the other hand, teachers may feel stressed about the experience in general, and regard that they need to follow the formula – academic progress review – considering the tight timeline. (Read more about the parent-teacher conference experience.)

When I reached out to parents in my small focus group study, the parents with the most positive parent-teacher conference experiences had an ongoing dialogue with their child’s teacher before the conference. These parents were actively communicating – emailing, messaging, and calling – with the teacher to stay on the same page, share their knowledge, and take on their child’s academic and social standing and dynamics. Additionally, most parents expressed that they were less interested in academic reviews, often citing that they already have the info, and were more interested in learning about how their child is doing socially. 

For parents and teachers to meet eye-to-eye at the conference, it’s important to align the expectations for the conference so that parents and teachers can sync and have a dialogue.

Kathleen Minke points out that the building block of trust is mutual respect. When families are perceived as experts, it becomes evident that schools wants to hear from them. She states, “One important component of respect is that all participants are both experts and learners. Families have important information to contribute (and receive); teachers have important information to learn (and to share).” (Source)

The Importance of Pre-Conference and Post-Conference Forms

Pre- and post-conference forms designed into the conference flow indicate to parents that the school cares about their experience, and works in partnership with home. As Epstein emphasizes with her school-home-community model, in true partnerships, the spheres overlap. Parent-teacher conferences are narrow in scope, but they have a place in keeping conversations and collaborations ongoing. Online forms are one tool to keep the channels open and communication flowing.

Families can share questions, concerns, and background information in advance by filling out a pre-conference form. The answers can help teachers ensure that parent concerns and input will be addressed during the meeting.

With post-conference forms, on the other hand, schools may collect feedback anonymously about the conference experience, recognizing and communicating that the formula is not solidified but can be improved per parent feedback. The input may lead to positive changes, such as increasing the conference meeting time or including students by introducing a student-led conference model.

The School Signals platform has built-in pre- and post-conference forms that teachers can utilize and customize. Teachers can include pre-conference forms as part of the online sign-up, in which case the system prompts parents to fill out the form in the sign-up flow. Post-conference forms can be set for anonymous form filling and set as school-wide to reduce tracking.

Crafting Effective Pre-Conference Forms

In general, pre-conference forms collect the family’s input on

1) the student’s primary strengths;
2) areas in which they would like the student to improve; and
3) questions families wish to ask during the conference.
(Source)

Consider the following form guidelines.

• Indicate the purpose of the form clearly, and keep it precise.
• Maintain a positive tone to build partnerships. Frame questions to emphasize strengths and abilities. Ask, “What helps your child learn best?” rather than “What problems does your child have?”
• Use the Likert scale (“1–5” questions) to measure and get quick answers.
• Include n/a (not applicable) options.
• Keep the form short to make sure parents will complete it.
• Keep language direct and straightforward to avoid confusion.
• Include a few open “qualitative” questions to allow parents to provide input in their own words.
• Mark only the most essential and easy-to-answer questions as mandatory.
• Allow parents to go back and edit their answers, especially if the form contains qualitative questions.

Recommended Resource:

• Best practices for survey design – Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
• For related strategies on collecting meaningful parent input, see Unlocking Parent Feedback: Best Practices for School Feedback Forms.

Example Questions

Consider the following quantitative and qualitative questions for your pre-conference form:

Questions That Highlight Parents as Experts

• How does your child usually feel about school? (multiple choice)
• When your child talks about school, what do you hear most often? (multiple choice)
• How supported do you feel your child is in their learning this year? (multiple choice)
• Are there subjects or skills where your child feels less confident? (multiple choice)
• What’s one thing you hope your child learns this year? (open-ended)

Questions about Conference Expectations

• Which topics would you most like to discuss? (multiple choice)
• What would make this conference feel productive for you? (open-ended)

Questions about Parent’s Communication Preferences

• What’s the best way to reach you? (multiple choice)
• How often would you like general updates about your child’s learning and progress? (multiple choice)
• How can we communicate better with your family?

Building Trust with a Post-Conference Form

Consider the following questions and statement evaluations for your anonymous post-conference form:

• “I felt heard during the meeting.” (one choice)
• “I left with a clear understanding of your child’s progress.” (one choice)
• “The teacher shared ideas or resources I can use at home.” (one choice)
• “I had enough time to discuss what mattered most to me.” (Likert scale “1–5”)
• “It was easy to schedule and attend the conference.” (Likert scale “1–5”)
• How satisfied were you with the conference overall?  (Likert scale “1–5”)
• Any other suggestions you’d like to share? (open-ended)

The Takeaway: Every Effort Matters

When a teacher reaches out to parents before and after the conference, they send a clear message that they want to break out of a one-way, ritualistic conference format and establish a dialogue with the home. Conference forms signal that the school values listening as much as informing, and that the parent perspective matters.

The mission of School Signals is to improve the communication flow between school and home by unifying communication and making it trackable. School Signals provides ready-to-use pre-conference templates, and teachers or administrators can easily customize their own. The conference scheduler guides parents in completing the form as part of their sign-up. The post-conference form can be posted to School Signals after the conference for reflection and feedback.