Reporting Progress

There are many ways beyond the regular quarterly report cards to communicate with parents about their child's achievements or concerns you may have.  

Phone calls from school typically strike fear in the hearts of parents.  Almost always there is a message of something negative, such as unacceptable behavior on the child's part.  But, why don't parents get called when their child does something positive?!  It may be different (almost awkward) for parents (and teachers!) at first to have a conversation about a positive incident at school, but it will assist in creating a positive and safe relationship with students' families if teachers would either call home with positive news once in awhile or snap a quick picture of the student doing something great at school and email the parents with a quick note and the picture.  Here is a great article about communicating with parents through pictures: Communicating with Parents Through Pictures.  It only takes minutes to make these type of phone calls, but the effects are often long lasting.  Be positive and encouraging!  Also, if you receive a phone call from a parent, always return a parents phone call within 24 hours and be prepared to answer their questions (you may want to have the physical copies of the materials you need in front of you to reference during the phone conversation).  You can record your phone calls in a form like this: Phone Record, to ensure you are contacting every family and to recall when you last contacted them.

Snap pictures of students engaging in their work or doing other great things at school and email the pictures to parents with a quick note of praise.

In addition many schools now have reward programs (merit achievement award system) in place where students earn school 'dollars' by being caught doing something positive (usually in regards to the schools specific pillars of behavior).  A small certificate with what the student was caught doing (i.e. 'Your student' was caught being kind) is sent home to the family.
Teachers could also ask students to create notes to their parents on their academic/social achievements.  The teacher can save the notes for conferences, give the notes to the parents, and ask the parents in return to write back to their child to reinforce the child's growth.  Teachers can also mail notes home to parents about their child's progress at school.  Here is a template for mailing parents: Good News Template, and another: Tip of the Hat Good News Template.
Some teachers video tape messages for parents.  This way parents can see the teacher present information and discuss student progress.  This also provides a permanent record for both the teacher and the parents on the child's growth.  *Be aware of families abilities/access to the technology to view videos!

Basically, try to show examples of what children can DO rather than pointing out their deficits.  All too often their weaknesses have been highlighted.  And remember, there are ways around language barriers!  If you cannot speak the same language as the parents, either find someone who can and have them translate your emails or make phone calls with you.  You could also create a system or telephone tree where bilingual parents contact other parents who are not fluent in English to tell them about events occurring in the school and inviting them.