Rather than the typical one-on-one conferences where parents meet with teachers for 15 minutes, schools may follow the model of the Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT).
APTT replaces standard parent-teacher conferences with three group meetings during the academic year, where teachers meet with parents all at once in the classroom. The meetings typically take place once during the fall, winter and spring.
During the sessions, parents are provided with information on their child’s performance. Teachers then explain how how to interpret the data based on overall classroom performance, state standards and school benchmarks. Parents and teachers work together to set goals for the students individually and as a class.
In the Madison School District, first grade classrooms at Thoreau Elementary school were first to pilot the new program. Kindergarten and second grade classrooms will also hold parent-teacher team meetings this academic school year.
Nichelle Nichols, family, youth and community engagement director, said the new model will be used at several more schools this year.
How might this change affect Madison’s long term, disastrous reading results?