Parent–Teacher Communication

Types of Parent–Teacher Communication

Parent–teacher communication happens in many ways. First, whole-group communications target all students' families. For example, school or classroom newsletters might be sent or websites made available to all families in order to explain policies and procedures, highlight recent activities and events, and/or detail opportunities for parent involvement. These techniques have the advantage of allowing schools to communicate a lot of information at once while permitting families to review it at their leisure. However, these group-focused and often distance-mediated techniques are limited in that all families receive essentially the same information selected by the school, and families do not necessarily have opportunities to share their own perspectives on this information. In contrast, one-on-one communications between parents and educators such as conferences in school or through home visits, phone calls, e-mails/notes, or casual conversations between parents and teachers at drop-off or pickup from school require more time by teachers and families but allow for more in-depth, give-and-take exchanges. In addition, it is far easier to discuss the individual skills, needs, and interests of a particular child via these one-on-one conversations, and discussions can be initiated and/or structured by either families or educators.

Variable Frequency of Parent–Teacher Communication

Parent–teacher communication first received serious attention in the work of Joyce Epstein and colleagues. Since then, a number of studies have shown that many varieties of parent–teacher communication are employed throughout preschool and in the elementary, middle, and secondary grades. Some preschool and kindergarten teachers communicate with each family a few times per month, and the frequency of this communication may decline as children progress through school. Research has also found substantial variation in the frequency of parent–teacher communication. In every grade, some teachers and families communicate with one another far more often than other teacher–parent pairs.

Contributions of Parent–Teacher Communication to Child and Family Outcomes

Even though parent–teacher communications focus on a variety of different topics and occur with varying frequency, these interactions can be very important in encouraging family involvement in children's learning at home and school, as well as for building a sense of trust between parents and teachers. Moreover, communication can support children's motivation in school as well as their learning in reading, mathematics, and other content areas. It is sometimes the case that parents and teachers communicate most often about students who are struggling to be successful in the classroom. This communication alone may not be enough to improve children's learning unless it is linked to careful and perhaps coordinated efforts at home and school to support the student's learning.

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