Students take the lead in student-led conferences

By Hector S.

CATS held student-led conferences the first week of March.

Luis I., a 10th grader, said, “It was scary because you had to present to a parent and sometimes you don’t have good communication with the parent. It’s not that difficult if you have good communication with your parents and you explain to them what you do in class specifically, you are able to finish it in a few minutes and after that, you will be pretty well about it afterward.”

Luis shared his view of whether it was a good idea.

“Before I thought it wasn’t, but after I feel it might be a good opportunity for students to open up to their parents because they might not have good communication.”

In the past, CATS has as parent-teacher conferences, where parents meet with certain teachers.

Ms. Sanchez shared her perspective on whether that format is better or whether the student-led conferences are better.

“I don’t necessarily think one is better than the other. I think that they have different purposes right,” she said.

“Like I think for parent conferences I really enjoy them at the 10th week or the 15th-week mark because I get to talk to parents and kind of support students in like the extra, like additional help before the final grades.”

But she said that student-led conferences provide a different purpose.

“I know that there are a lot of our students who don’t necessarily have a good relationship with their parents or a good relationship with a family member and I believe that student-led conferences are a way for them to start improving their relationship with their parents or a good relationship with a family member,” she explained.

“This is the first year that we do it as a school since after Covid, you know, so students are not used to it.”

She also added, “we had very little planning time with students to advocate for them and to listen to what they wanted to say.”