How long are your public school parent-teacher conferences?

[belovedgandp]

Public preschool-5 elementary - 20 minutes per student. 5th grade is split between two teachers; otherwise with one main teacher. Specialist are available for blocks of time for parents to stop in and visit with.

Teachers send home sheet about a week before conferences asking about any questions parents have. At October conference teacher presents progress for first half and addresses any issues/questions for second half.

We conference twice a year. In February the conferences are "student led" so kids are with us in the room presenting their material to us and then second half is one on one with teacher in the same 20 minute window. I didn't really like it in the really early elementary years, but by 3rd grade it's interesting to hear the self assessment portion from my kids.

[jenmcadams]

My DS is in a public elementary school and the standard is 15 min - a mix of test scores, concerns, chatting.

My DD is in a private independent middle school and we have 15 for each teacher x 6 - the conference sign-up system is an elaborate computer system and you try to get all 6 close together if you can. The conferences are amazing and include info on curriculum, how she's done on assignments and what they perceive in class/school as a whole socially. Totally love them

Edited to Add: For both kids, there are two sets of onferences per year

[alexsmommy]

Elementary public, 20 minutes. You can always ask for one outside of official conference time.
Elementary middle, 20, but student led. They have their advisory teacher there and he/she helps facilitate, but the kids had to have filled out self-assessments for each class, the teachers each check "agree or disagree" and add comments to the self assessment sheets. They have examples of their work and the assessments in a portfolio and they have to talk about their strengths and "opportunities for growth." The grades area always available online and we can request individual meetings with their teachers in each subject as well. I thought it was a good compromise when they are old enough to move from class to class all day.

[calebsmama03]

Elementary is 15m. In the fall it is just with primary teacher. They ability group for math and reading/writing so you child can have theoretically up to 3 different teachers, but might just have 1 if they happen to fall into the R/W or math group that teacher has. In spring it's a shorter conference with all the child's teachers.

Middle school does a team teach approach, with 2 or 3 teams for core courses -so all kids on team A have the same teachers for their 4 core classes, etc. we signed up for a time block and went into one classroom where all 4 teachers were stationed. Parents chose a set of desks to wait at and teachers came to us as they rotated the room. I think we had about 5-6 mins per teacher, but were there for 45 mins due to having to wait in between teachers, if that makes sense? For electives the teachers are just there in their classrooms and you can pop in and say hi. If there's a specific issue you can arrange to meet that teacher separately.

[calebsmama03]

My DS is in a public elementary school and the standard is 15 min - a mix of test scores, concerns, chatting.

My DD is in a private independent middle school and we have 15 for each teacher x 6 - the conference sign-up system is an elaborate computer system and you try to get all 6 close together if you can. The conferences are amazing and include info on curriculum, how she's done on assignments and what they perceive in class/school as a whole socially. Totally love them

Edited to Add: For both kids, there are two sets of onferences per year

That middle school setup is amazing. 6th grade is such a transition year, I feel like those need to be longer than elementary because some kids struggle so immensely with the switch!

[Tondi G]

Our Elementary school has 15 or 20 minutes for P-T conferences. It was typically sufficient to get through any concerns that needed to be addressed.

DS1 now attends a Charter Middle School and I am not fond of their "conferences". They have "Student led" conferences. Where our own child leads the conference but their "advisor" is there. They had gone through their work and selected their best and worst to present to their parents. We discussed the grades and how the student could do better. I supposed if we want to have a specific conference with a particular teacher we could attempt to schedule one outside of these student led conferences. All it really seems to do is make our DS uncomfortable and stressed out and doesn't give us too much specific information. We do have the ability to contact the teachers over the phone or via e-mail so if we need to communicate with them we can.