Frequency of Parent Teacher Communications

Before the age of the Internet, parent-teacher communications were mainly limited to report cards and parent teacher conferences. If the student was doing well then about 5-6 communications was the normal. If there were issues another 3-4 interactions might occur.

With the advent of the Internet, and email in particular the economies of communications have changed. It would be feasible to send an email at frequencies as often as every day or every week.

The question becomes what frequency would make sense. We could envision the benefits of knowing exactly what a child was learning every day and how is performance was on a daily basis. On the other hand, such frequent communications could upset the equilibrium of the student-teacher relationship by encouraging more active participation by the parent.

As systems get more sophisticated and schools experiment with different models, it will be interesting to see how the different scenarios play out and what communication frequencies will make sense in different situations