Questions to Ask Your Child's Teacher About Reading
By Readigo editorial team · 2026-10-14 · 8 min read
Short answer
Go in with four groups of questions: where your child's reading is now and which test says so; what the school uses to measure reading; what extra help is in place and how progress is tracked; and what you can do at home. Bring the report card, any screening or test reports, your notes on how reading goes at home and, if you can, a one-minute reading score from home. Before you leave, write down who will do what, and set a date to talk again. The questions below follow that order, with what a useful answer includes. This checklist was written by Readigo, an iOS reading-practice app for children ages 6–12, and builds on the Harvard Family Research Project's conference tip sheet for parents.
The checklist on one page
Print this or copy it into your phone's notes. A short conference won't fit every question, so star the three that matter most for your child.
| Topic | Question to ask | A useful answer includes |
|---|---|---|
| Level now | Is my child reading at grade level right now? | A yes or no for this point in the year, and the evidence behind it |
| Level now | Which part of reading is the gap: sounding out words, reading smoothly, or understanding? | One or two named skills, not just "reading" |
| Level now | What does my child do well in reading? | A concrete strength you can build on at home |
| School tests | Which reading assessment do you use, and what were my child's scores? | The test name (such as DIBELS, Acadience, i-Ready or MAP Growth), the score and the benchmark for that time of year |
| School tests | Does anyone listen to my child read aloud one on one? | Who, how often, and what they noticed |
| School tests | When is the next screening? | A month you can write down |
| Extra help | Is my child getting extra reading help? | Group size, minutes a week, the skill it targets and who teaches it |
| Extra help | How will you track progress, and can I see it? | Frequent short checks, plotted on a graph against a goal |
| Extra help | What happens if the scores don't move? | A next step and a date to decide |
| Extra help | Should we consider an evaluation? | A yes or no with the reasons, and how to request one in writing |
| Home | What one skill should we practice this month? | One skill and the kind of text to use |
| Home | What should I say when my child gets stuck on a word? | The prompt the class already uses |
| Next step | When will we talk again, and how do I reach you? | A date, and an email or phone number |
Before the conference: what to bring
The Harvard Family Research Project's tip sheet for parents suggests reviewing your child's work, grades and progress reports, talking with your child about school, and making a list of questions before you go. For reading, bring: - The report card and its key, with the reading marks you want to ask about circled. - Any screening or test reports the school sent home (DIBELS, Acadience, i-Ready, MAP Growth). If you haven't received any, asking for them is your first question. - A home fluency score. Time your child reading an unpracticed grade-level passage aloud for one minute and count the words read correctly. Treat it as a rough guide, since home passages vary in difficulty. Reading speed by age has the fall, winter and spring norms and explains how to read the result; the WCPM chart by grade has the end-of-year chart. - A short phone recording of your child reading aloud. It shows the teacher how reading goes at home. - Notes on what you see at home: avoids reading, guesses words from the first letter, loses the place, tires after a page, or reads well but can't retell the story. - Your child's view. Ask them what feels easy and what feels hard in reading at school. No school data at all? The 5-question reading level test below suggests a reading stage and a next step, which gives you something concrete to bring to the conversation.
Where is my child now?
Start here, because every other question depends on the answer. The tip sheet suggests asking directly whether your child is performing at grade level, what their strengths are, and how they could improve. - Is my child reading at grade level right now? - Is the report card mark about where my child should be now, or by the end of the year? - Which part of reading is the gap: sounding out words (decoding), reading smoothly at a steady pace (fluency), or understanding what they read (comprehension)? - Can you show me a piece of work or a reading sample that shows it? - What does my child do well in reading? - Was this gap there last year, or is it new? If the answer is "approaching" or a 2, what a report card reading mark means walks through the scales three school districts use. On many report cards, a 2 means close to the standard but not there yet. What matters is which skill it's about and whether it moves.
What does the school use to measure reading?
Many schools screen every child's reading at the beginning, middle and end of the year. The tools measure different things, so knowing which one your school uses tells you what the scores mean. - Which reading screener or test does the school use, and when did my child last take it? - What was the score, and what was the benchmark for that time of year? - Which band or placement was my child in? DIBELS reports core, strategic or intensive support; i-Ready reports a placement such as Early On Grade Level or 1 Grade Level Below. - Does anyone listen to my child read aloud one on one? - If the school uses letter levels, how was my child's level measured, and what level is expected by now? - Can I have copies of the reports? The DIBELS 8th Edition measures are short timed tasks, most of them given one on one, and one of them is reading a passage aloud. i-Ready and MAP Growth are adaptive tests a child takes on a computer, so nobody hears them read aloud during the test. None of these is a diagnosis. A screener flags children who may need a closer look.
What help is in place?
If your child is behind, find out exactly what the school is doing about it. Many schools use a tiered system, called RTI or MTSS: every child gets core reading instruction, and children who need more get extra help that grows more intensive at each tier. - Is my child getting extra reading help? Who teaches it, how often, for how many minutes, and in what size group? - Which skill does it target, and which program or approach does it use? - How will you track progress, and how often? Can I see the graph? - What is the goal, and when will we look at whether it's working? - If progress stalls, what's the next step? - Should we consider an evaluation? Hasbrouck and Tindal, who compiled widely used US oral reading fluency norms, describe progress monitoring as frequent checks, weekly for example, with the results placed on a graph against a goal. Ask to see that graph. It shows whether the scores are moving toward the goal. A parent can ask for a special-education evaluation at any time; you don't have to wait for the extra help to run its course. In 2011 the U.S. Department of Education told states that an RTI process cannot be used to delay or deny one. If the school agrees to evaluate, it asks for your consent, and under IDEA the evaluation must be done within 60 days of that consent, or within your state's own timeline. If it refuses, it must explain why in writing, and you can challenge that decision. Put the request in writing.
What can we do at home?
End with home, and ask for something specific enough to start tomorrow. - What one skill should we practice at home this month? - What should my child read aloud to me: which books, at which level? - When my child gets stuck on a word, what should I say? Using the class's own prompt keeps home and school consistent. - Should we keep reading harder books aloud to them? - How can I tell you what I see at home between conferences? If the teacher names decoding or fluency, reading aloud to a listening adult is a well-supported way to practice it. The National Reading Panel found that guided repeated oral reading, with guidance from teachers, peers or parents, had a significant and positive impact on word recognition, fluency and comprehension across a range of grade levels. Those studies were about guidance from people. On evenings you can't listen, an app that listens to your child read aloud, such as Readigo, can take some of those sessions. It doesn't replace the school's help, so mention it to the teacher and keep practice at home in line with what is taught in class.
After the conference
The tip sheet's advice for afterwards is to write down what you and the teacher will each do, schedule another time to talk in the next few months, and tell your child what you learned. For reading, that means: - Write the plan down: what the school will do, what you will do at home, and how often. - Put the next check-in on your calendar, ideally after the next screening, so you compare scores rather than impressions. - Keep a dated note of home fluency scores, with a new passage each time. - Tell your child what the teacher said they do well, and what you'll practice together. If the scores haven't moved once help is in place, that's a clear reason to ask for an evaluation in writing, and you can ask sooner if you suspect a learning disability. When to ask the school for an evaluation explains the rules, and how to know if your child is reading below grade level covers the warning signs to watch for at home.
Sources
- Harvard Family Research Project (2010) - Parent-Teacher Conference Tip Sheets for Principals, Teachers, and Parents (copy hosted by the Nebraska Department of Education)
- Hasbrouck, J. & Tindal, G. (2017) - An Update to Compiled ORF Norms (Technical Report 1702, University of Oregon)
- University of Oregon - About DIBELS
- University of Oregon - DIBELS 8th Edition Benchmark Goals
- Acadience Learning - Acadience Reading K-6
- Curriculum Associates - Using i-Ready Diagnostic scores (guide for Washington OSPI)
- NWEA - MAP Growth
- 34 CFR 300.301 - Initial evaluations (IDEA regulations)
- U.S. Department of Education, OSEP Memo 11-07 (2011) - RTI cannot be used to delay or deny an evaluation
- National Reading Panel (2000) - Findings and determinations: fluency