Interacting with parents at conferences is challenging, especially in a language you’re learning – Spanish!
Talking about student performance in Spanish at parent teacher conferences is easy with 3 key verbs and 5 levels of performance. For instance, to start a conversation about student performance in Spanish, a parent might ask a teacher at a conference:
| ¿Cómo le va a mi hijo/a en la escuela? |
| How is my son/daughter doing in school? |
Here are a few possible ways the teacher can talk about student performance at parent teacher conferences in Spanish:
| Se acercó a las expectativas | He/she approached the expectations |
| No cumple con las expectativas | He/she met is not meeting the expectations |
| Superó las expectativas. | He/she exceeded the expectations |
Watch the video to learn how to talk about the five levels of student performance, using three critical verbs, in Spanish.
Download the free PDF to practice the 5 levels of student performance and the 3 key verbs.
Talking about student performance (el rendimiento / desempeño académico) in Spanish using 3 key verbs
There are three key verbs to use to talk about student performance: cumplir, acercarse, and superar. If you can learn how to use these three verbs you’ll be talking about student performance in no time at all in Spanish. Remember, there are two ways to say performance in Spanish: el rendimiento / desempeño. They are synonyms!
Let’s see the three key verbs and their conjugations for he/she in the preterit past and present tenses.
| English | Present tense | Preterit past tense | |
| Cumplir | To fulfill / meet | cumple | cumplió |
| Acercarse | To approach | se acerca | se acercó |
| Superar | To exceed | supera | superó |
When using these three critical verbs, use them in the past tense to say what the student did, ie: met or didn’t meet expectations, approached expectations, or exceeded expectations. You can also use these three verbs in the present tense to say, they are meeting or not meeting expectations, approaching or exceeding the expectations.
Next up, order these verbs with the performance levels to express to parents how their child is doing at school.
Talking about student performance in Spanish using 5 levels (5 niveles de rendimiento)
| Rendimiento Académico | |
| No cumple con las expectativas He / She doesn’t meet expectations | Está bajo el nivel Below level |
| Cumplió parcialmente con las expectativas He / She partially met expectations | Está (un poco) atrasado/a Behind |
| Se acercó a las expectativas He / She approached expectations | Está en camino On their way |
| Cumplió con las expectativas He / She met expectations | Está a nivel At grade level |
| Superó las expectativas He / She exceeded expectations | Está a un nivel más avanzado/a Above grade level |
During the parent teacher conference conversation about student performance, you can add additional information to describe in Spanish to the parent what the student can or can’t do. Take a look at the following examples and create your own based on your specific context.
| Rendimiento Académico | |
| No cumple con las expectativas | *Necesita apoyo adicional. *Tiene una comprensión limitada del texto. |
| Cumplió parcialmente con las expectativas | *Puede necesitar ayuda adicional. *Demuestra la capacidad de ser parcialmente preciso al hacer y/o contestar preguntas. |
| Se acercó a las expectativas | *Demuestra la capacidad de ser preciso en términos generales al hacer y/o contestar preguntas. *Muestra una comprensión mínima del texto cuando se refiere a detalles explícitos. |
| Cumplió con las expectativas | *Está en camino para el próximo nivel del grado. *Muestra una comprensión general del texto cuando se refiere a los detalles explícitos. |
| Superó las expectativas | *Está bien preparado/a para el próximo nivel del grado. |
Looking for more vocabulary to help explain student performance levels on standardized testing?Check out this blog. Do you need to help parents support or apoyar their children at home? See this blog! At CGI, our talented team of teachers are always putting together new content for educators.
Learn how to go through a conversation from start to finish with a parent at a conference, when you register for our parent teacher conference workshop series! Learn more about this 5 week workshop series here.
Don’t forget to download the free PDF to practice the 5 levels of student performance and the 3 key verbs to talk about it.
Comment Below…
Are there any other phrases you commonly use to describe student performance? Let us know in the comments below. We always review the comments and we’ll include these important talking points in the next parent teacher conference workshop series!
