Issue #11 – “How To” Series

In This Issue:

How To Report Student Progress to Parents

&

How To Develop Educational Treatment Plans for your Students

One of the responsibilities that you will face throughout the school year is reporting each child’s progress to his/her parents. Most districts will do this approximately 3-4 times a year using the child’s progress in attaining his/her IEP goals as required by law. However, there may be other times when this type of progress will need to be reported to parents. Parents place a higher priority on receiving information about their children’s progress than any other type of information they receive from schools.

According to Cuttance & Stokes (2000), a number of concerns and improvements are required in the reporting process:

• Parents consider there is a tendency, more common in primary schools, to avoid facing or telling hard truths. Parents understand how difficult it may be for teachers to convey ‘bad’ news, but nevertheless they indicate that they want a ‘fair and honest’ assessment, in plain language, of the progress of their children.
• There is a lack of objective standards that parents can use to determine their children’s attainment and rate of progress. Many parents specifically asked for information that would enable them to compare their children’s progress with other students or with agreed state/ territory-wide or national standards.
• Parents indicated they would like more interpretative and constructive reporting. Parents want something more substantial from reports than simple statements of achievement levels. They also want advice on what the report means in terms of the future learning goals for their child, and how parents can support their children’s learning.
• Most systems that report test results to parents do not require schools to incorporate these results in their reports to parents. Parents expressed a degree of confusion when they receive test reports in one style and metric and school reports in another unrelated style using a different metric.
• Parents want more comprehensible reports when they are based on outcomes reporting. Some education systems have adopted criterion-based outcomes reporting approaches, but many parents are finding it difficult to understand the reports because of changes in assessment practices.
• Parents require more appropriate timing of reports. They indicated a clear preference for reports earlier each year when they are in a better position to support their children with any learning improvement. Parents appreciated reports during Term 1, where these were provided, and find that an end-of-year report is too late for any constructive use.
• There is a mistrust of computer-generated reports in the parent community. Parents indicate that they find computer reports to be impersonal and limited. Parents want reports that are tailored to their individual children.
• Parent-teacher meetings need to be more useful to parents. Parents are dissatisfied with meetings that are poorly organized and lack focus and purpose. They consider meetings of 5-10 minutes to be too limited to be useful and believe they are organized mainly for ceremonial purposes. The timing of most meetings does not encourage an interactive discussion.
• The detection and prompt reporting of learning and behavioral problems is of major concern to parents. Many parents are concerned that they had not been advised as early as they could have been of their children’s learning problems.
• Parents would like an enhanced role for their children in the reporting process. Parents believe that their children are an integral part of the reporting process and seek to involve them in parent-teacher meetings as well as in other aspects of assessment and reporting.

In light of the above information you may want provide a variety of opportunities to convey information home to parents. Keep in mind that informed parents usually mean supportive parents. Non-informed parents may have a tendency to assume, write negative scripts, interrogate his/her child, and be defensive. We suggest you try the following:

1. As previously mentioned in other parts of this series, you should hold individual interviews with the parent (s) at the beginning of the year. This allows parents to give teachers first hand information which will assist them in planning to meet the specific individual needs of each child.
2. Use a variety of progress reports that focus on the specific needs or concerns of the child instead of a general one which focuses on too many areas. For instance if the parents are not aware if homework has been given and need to know that it was turned in the next day use the following form:

Elementary Grades

Name ____________________

Date _______________

 

__Monday Homework tonight       yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___

 

__Tuesday Homework tonight      yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___

 

__Wednesday Homework tonight  yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___

 

__Thursday Homework tonight    yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___

 

__Friday Homework tonight          yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___

 

 

 

Secondary Level

 

Name __________________________

Monday Date: ___________

Subject

Math  Homework tonight               yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
Social Studies Homework tonight yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
English  Homework tonight            yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
Science  Homework tonight           yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___

Tuesday Date: ___________

Subject

Math  Homework tonight                yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
Social Studies Homework tonight  yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
English  Homework tonight             yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
Science  Homework tonight            yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___

 

Wednesday Date: ___________

Subject

Math  Homework tonight                yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
Social Studies Homework tonight  yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
English  Homework tonight             yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
Science  Homework tonight             yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___

 

Thursday Date: ___________

Subject

Math  Homework tonight                 yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
Social Studies Homework tonight   yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
English  Homework tonight             yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
Science  Homework tonight              yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___

 

Friday Date: ___________

Subject

Math  Homework tonight                yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
Social Studies Homework tonight  yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
English  Homework tonight             yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___
Science  Homework tonight            yes____no___ Homework handed in yes___no___

 

 

This type of daily record will reinforce the child’s accountability and assist the parents in working with the child at home. When you meet with the parents at the beginning of the year explain that they should expect this home every night.

Such Progress Reports are important sources of information on the child’s learning at school.  Do not be afraid to tailor such reports to specific behaviors if they are required and necessary to facilitate positive outcomes.

More detailed reports focusing on academic achievement, social abilities, cooperation, etc. should be done monthly with children with learning disabilities.

However, have a policy that allows parents to request an interview with you at any time throughout the school year.

In summary, provide a system of communication home on regular basis that offers positive information, suggestions, solutions to issues you have noticed, or just to see if the parents have any concerns. Using this type of approach will facilitate the closeness with the school and facilitate your relationships with parents.

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One of the most important approaches to the education of students with special needs is to develop a practical, worthwhile and sound educational treatment plan. Treatment plans are used in many other professions and represent a total plan for an individual which heightens the success rate of the goals in the plan. For instance, in the medical field this treatment plan usually involves several different personnel; social worker, psychologist, and psychiatrist. In the educational field this usually only involves the teacher and the student and leaves out a very crucial part of the child’s chances for success in school, namely the parent. An educational treatment plan that involves the school, the child, and the parent will have the greatest chance of helping the student succeed in school.

The educational treatment plan for your students with special needs will need to be a triangular plan. Coordination of services and techniques between the school, the child and home will increase the chances of success for a child with special needs in school. Many times it is only the school that is involved with the child, while the child is a passive recipient, and the parent’s onlookers. To increase the chances of success for the child you will need to coordinate the three sides of the educational plan. The three sides of this educational plan include the responsibilities of the school, the parents, and the child.

One side of the triangle should be the responsibilities on the part of the school to help the child reach his/her potential. The schools responsibilities should include the following:

1. Academic goals and objectives
2. Determining and monitoring modifications
3. Determining and modifying accommodations
4. IEP development
5. Adaptations to the curriculum
6. Determination of the child’s learning style
7. Maintaining communication with the home
8. Writing year end reports
9. Teaching the required curriculum
10. Providing and monitoring related services
11. Collaborating with the child’s other teachers

You will need to communicate and instruct the parents so that they are very clear as to their role in this process. The side of the educational plan that contains the responsibilities of the parents could include items such as the following:

1. Making sure that homework is checked every night so that the child comes to school every date feeling a sense of accomplishment and avoiding a sense of embarrassment or failure.
2. Contacting you through mail, email, or phone if the child has had difficulty with an assignment and needs to go over it again.
3. Reading to the child every night before bed if in elementary school and having the child read for 15 minutes every night if in secondary school. The reading should be of their choice. Reading is reading and stress free reading before bedtime is advisable. You do not want the child to go to sleep frustrated.
4. Attending all conferences
5. Working with their child on homework in ways described further in this section.
6. Helping their child study for tests by following learning and studying guidelines set forth by you. Here you will have to carefully instruct the parents through specific directions the appropriate study support procedures that will not frustrate the child.
7. To ensure that the child begins studying for tests on the study start date indicated to them by you. This should take into account the child’s learning style.
8. Returning all progress reports on time with signatures indicating their awareness of the progress or concerns. Keep these in your files for accountability if there should ever be a concern.

The child makes up the third side of the triangle and his/her involvement in this process is equally important. His/her responsibilities can be outlined in the form of a contract or letter to the child they should include:

1. Finishing homework every night or trying as much as he/she understands.
2. Allowing his/her parent to check homework and suggest corrections. Note that you will have to work with parents on constructive suggestions verses criticism.
3. Follow class rules
4. Begin studying for tests when you inform the parents of the study start date for an upcoming test.
5. Be able to approach the teacher when he/she is unable to do an assignment or does not understand a topic.

This plan should be written and given to all the parties involved if the age and developmental ability of the child allows for some understanding of responsibilities. This type of plan should work very nicely with what we call high incidence disabilities, namely those disabilities with the greatest number of students; learning disabilities, emotional disturbance, speech and language impairment and mental retardation (higher functioning). There are also other types of disabilities that could benefit from such a plan i.e. AD/HD under Other Health Impaired.

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NASET’s “How To” Report Student Progress to Parents CLICK HERE

NASET’s “How To” Develop Educational Treatment Plans for your Students CLICK HERE

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