APS- what is a reasonable teacher communication?

[Anonymous]

I have a K student in APS. We get a weekly, grade-level email, but nothing else from the teacher. I just found my child's beginning of year assessments in ParentVue; no communication about the fact that they were there (we got a whole-school email saying that they should be available at one point, but they weren't on ParentVue then when I checked), or what they mean. Or like-- no information about what they're doing to support kids below benchmark.

I don't want to share too much for fear of outing my student, but there have been multiple times where it felt like information should have come to me about my child/behavior/even a potential health issue (not covid related), and I got nothing.

I KNOW that teachers are overwhelmed right now, and I don't want to be a jerk. But like-- I feel like I'm missing out on things I'm supposed to be doing to support my child's education. My kid isn't thriving. I never, ever thought I'd be a parent to put kids in private school, but maybe that's just what we need to do, if I'm expecting a level of communication that APS just isn't set up to offer? And based on other posts, it only gets worse in middle school!

Is this just a covid thing? Is it just my child's teacher/school? Or is it the reality of APS in general?

[Anonymous]

That doesn't match my experience. Have you had a parent teacher conference? I'd reach out to ask to meet to discuss your concerns?

[Anonymous]

Didn’t you have a fall conference?

[Anonymous]

APS teacher here (elementary but not K). Teachers weren’t told when the assessments were up in ParentVUE. However APS did communicate it as a district because I’m also an APS parent and found out that way. APS also sent out a guidance document explaining how to interpret the scores. Do you get APS emails? These went out around the end of Q1.

Also there are fall and spring conferences. And you can email your child’s teacher with questions at any time for a meeting or with questions for a response.

[Anonymous]

https://www.apsva.us/english-language-arts/programs-services/ela-assessments/

[Anonymous]

I thought our K teacher in APS was pretty great about communication. I think if you’re not getting what you need from the teacher, you need to start reaching out more

[Anonymous]

We can’t tell you if something should have been communicated by the teacher without knowing what the issues are. I don’t even know what you mean about supporting kids who are below benchmark - there is no benchmark for beginning of year assessments for K.

[Anonymous]

That level of communication seems typical. A weekly email, and more frequent communication if there is an issue behavior wise. As they get older it goes down to a monthly email.

That being said— why do you think your kid isn’t thriving? If there was an issue they would be reaching out. In k, the year is focused on learning to write, learning to read, and learning to count (essentially). They also focus on making friends and learning how to be in a classroom. It’s not meant to be rigorous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That level of communication seems typical. A weekly email, and more frequent communication if there is an issue behavior wise. As they get older it goes down to a monthly email.

That being said— why do you think your kid isn’t thriving? If there was an issue they would be reaching out. In k, the year is focused on learning to write, learning to read, and learning to count (essentially). They also focus on making friends and learning how to be in a classroom. It’s not meant to be rigorous.

Oh and don’t sweat it if your kid is below the benchmark. The point of the assessments is to identify potential issues that might not be apparent in day to day school. In k, they aren’t expected to already know things so there is no benchmark. If your child really is below grade level, they will let you know at spring conferences (if not sooner), and they will say your kid needs to go to summer school.

[Anonymous]

Huh.

Did you have a fall conference?

I always found my kids’ elementary teachers communicative very responsive. Pre-covid they would ask for lots of volunteers in the classroom and you could get to know the teacher that way. That isn’t a thing right now so that’s a disadvantage.

Have you tried emailing the teacher to ask your questions? It sounds like you have concerns your child needs to be pulled out for reading services? So ask the question.

[Anonymous]

I know you don’t want to out your student but without specifics about issues you think you should have been told about, hard to say.

I’ve had 2 kids in APS (now older) and their elementary teachers were all great.

[Anonymous]

For my 3rd grader we get a weekly email with details like: Tuesday is the fractions test. Have your student review their study guide. Friday is the spelling test. Work lists are going home today. In social studies we're starting a unit on Egypt. I consider the communication to be excellent.

For my kindergartener we get nothing. I see work that comes home in the Friday folder, but no other communications. We had a parent teacher conference last fall but the focus was on the teacher hearing about our student, not hearing what our student would be doing. The silence is really frustrating and I don't want to be the parent who hassles the teacher for info by email. I really wish we got periodic updates.

[Anonymous]

For equity reasons, a copy of the beginning of the year assessments should have come home in a folder. I received copies for both my kids.

Kindergarten report cards are coming up soon and that should give you a better idea how things are going. They should be doing assessments for report cards this month. In older grades you do get more regular report cards--kindergarten is an anomaly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For my 3rd grader we get a weekly email with details like: Tuesday is the fractions test. Have your student review their study guide. Friday is the spelling test. Work lists are going home today. In social studies we're starting a unit on Egypt. I consider the communication to be excellent.

For my kindergartener we get nothing. I see work that comes home in the Friday folder, but no other communications. We had a parent teacher conference last fall but the focus was on the teacher hearing about our student, not hearing what our student would be doing. The silence is really frustrating and I don't want to be the parent who hassles the teacher for info by email. I really wish we got periodic updates.

This is a lot of angst about kindergarten. You have a long road to go.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses. It sounds like, for whatever reason, this is an anomaly-- which is great, in some ways, because it means it will likely be better in the future!

The link that someone else shared about assessments said that parents should receive a parent report that explains what assessment scores mean- that's the kind of thing that I would love, but didn't get (and the link doesn't work on the website to the sample letter).

I've reached out to our teacher via email a couple times (but literally just a couple), and she has not responded to my emails. Once she answered my question in the weekly letter to all parents, which kind of felt passive aggressive. We had a fall conference, but not with the current teacher.