Secrets of Better Parent-Teacher Communication

Written by Mary Beth Gaertner Tuesday, August 23 2011

Teachers won’t likely “WOW” parents by sharing the classroom rules and procedures. They can, however, WOW them by sharing valuable information about their child. Way To Go is a research-based strategy for establishing a positive relationship between parents and teachers.

The success of the Way to Go strategy hinges on two points. The first is that collaborative communication between parents and teachers produces positive outcomes such as accurate information, rapport, and confidence in mutual support.

Conversely, one-sided communication yields to accusation, assumptions, gossip, and lack of mutual support, R. Schumacher wrote in an article in the Lutheran Educational Journal.

The second point is the depth of implementation by the school and individual teachers. Success of the Way to Go strategy depends on the school taking responsibility for initiating communication and ensuring that it is positive.

There are four distinct parts to the Way To Go strategy. Because I am an educator by profession it helps me to remember them with the use of the acronym, in this case it’s “TELL:”

Tell the teacher more day is the single most effective piece of the strategy that leads to positive communication throughout the remainder of the school year. The day needs to take place before school starts via individual 15-minute appointments with teachers. To help teachers stay on time and to collect consistent data on each student, parents complete a form, use it as a springboard for conversation, then surrender it to teachers.

Engaging in the best avenue of communication for each family can be overwhelming. But if teachers clearly know the expectations of how and what the parents want communicated, then information regarding anything besides forward progress and good behavior becomes less of a stressor.

“After all,” wrote educator R. DeBruyn, “the children in our classrooms are more than just our students; they are their parents’ children. Their education needs to be a shared responsibility. We don’t have the right to exclude parents – when things are going well or when they’re going badly.”

Listening to the parent without defense may be the most difficult to learn. “Lumps in the throat” still occur for many teachers who receive a message that parent want to speak immediately. There is no reason to fear a conference with parents, but there might be a reason to feel guilty – if the student’s academic performance or behavior was something teachers should have told parents about before the parental request for a meeting.

Teachers’ attitudes toward parents should be one of warmth. When it is, parents believe that teachers are easy to talk with and thus communicate more easily and freely. “…a cold, hasty, or matter-of-fact attitude will not secure the trust and confidence of any human being. Sometimes we think these attitudes prove our objectivity and professionalism. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The image you project as a teacher and as a human being reflects upon you, your teaching, and your entire school,” DeBruyn wrote.

Leading as the professional involves teachers taking ownership for positive communication. If schools were hospitals, then teachers would be the doctors – diagnosing, treating, adjusting treatment, monitoring progress.

Research indicates that parents are more satisfied with the school as a whole if the lines of communication are open and effective. The benefit for teachers is simple: Happy parents are far easier to work with. By providing regular updates to parents, the teachers continue the rapport-building process well into the school year, having begun it on a positive note on tell the teacher more day.

Parents will always be their child’s most impactful influence, and as long as students are still learning in classrooms, teachers are the second most important. Way to Go is a method for successful partnering between parents and teachers where teachers discover parental expectations and WOW them by talking with them about their children.

Mary Beth Gaertner, author of Way to Go, has been an educator and administrator in Texas for more than 30 years. She holds a bachelor’s in speech pathology and audiology, a master’s in elementary education, and a doctorate in educational administration. Gaertner lives in Magnolia, Texas, with her husband, Dean, and enjoys spending time with two married daughters and four grandchildren.