On Thursday, December 5th, at 7 pm, Malden High School hosted a caregiver-teacher conference, in which caregivers could connect with their child’s teachers and learn more about their progress.
The conference was interactive, offering a chance to walk around, talk to different teachers, check out bake and candle sales, and even read our very own school newspaper! And, the will get valuable feedback on how things are going with students.
Parents could conference with teachers in both cafeterias. Additionally, history teacher Paul Doucette noted that if “parents knew they needed to talk to a social studies teacher or an English teacher, they knew which cafe to go to.” The setup made everything easy, acting as a well-organized map guiding parents exactly where they needed to be.
Teachers such as math teacher Joshua Kolodny added to this point, emphasizing that students are more than faces in the crowd, but rather, “students are humans.” He highlighted the importance of academic support and “working towards helping every student succeed regardless of who they are.”
Regarding grades, Kolodny does not consider them to be flexible in response to parent concerns, but rather a simple indication of how a student is performing. “Everything I’m giving them is just facts, their grade is not really up for debate,” he reinstated.
While grades and feedback are important, personal connections between teachers and parents are what often make the caregiver-teacher nights meaningful. Teachers have the chance to share positive moments with a student that parents may be unaware of: moments that show just how much students are growing and achieving. As Doucette put it: “I think the most fulfilling part is when I tell a parent or a guardian about something good or something that should make them proud of their child, you can see their shoulders relax, and you can see their face light up.”
These moments remind us why these connections matter so much. Grades or test scores are not the sole indicators of success; a large part of what brings parents returning year after year is the joy of celebrating a student’s growth. Hearing about a small, positive moment can brighten a parent’s day and allow a student’s hard work to be recognized and appreciated.
However, over time, parent attendance is not quite what it once was. Science teacher Shauna Campbell has noticed a change. “Parent engagement has definitely been lower after COVID-19, There used to be a line of parents waiting to get a meeting outside my door,” she said. “However, as students get older, I think parents want their students to have more responsibility and check in with teachers less when they are in 11th and 12th grade.”
Along with that, science teacher Debra Kumar explained, “When we had parents do the virtual conferences during COVID, I think that there were parents and caregivers that might have been able to schedule it in a time slot a little easier than coming to the high school and waiting to speak with teachers. It is difficult to say, without numbers or statistics; some years I am meeting with parents for almost the entire time, and other years some fewer parents and caregivers are in attendance.”
Even with these changes, one thing has not changed: parents and teachers need to work together to support students. Whether it is through meetings at school or online conferences, staying connected helps everyone stay on the same page. Schools might need to keep finding new ways to make it easier for parents to stay involved, but the goal of helping students succeed remains the same.
