Living the Mission · Grades 5–8
Scholar-Led Conferences
Three times a year · Every scholar · Every family
She’s Leading.
Three times a year, every Lillie May scholar sits at the head of the table. She walks her family through her work, names her strengths, owns her growth areas, and sets her goals. Her Crew Leader is in the room. Her family is in the room. But she is the one talking.
Families
Pick a time that works for your household, learn what to expect, and find out how to get the most out of the 20 minutes you spend at the table with your scholar.
Scholars
This is your conference. Gather your portfolio, know your data, practice your talking points with your Crew, and get ready to tell the story of your learning.
Educators & Practitioners
Scholar-Led Conferences are where our Passage Portfolio Presentations begin. Explore the model, the research behind it, and how we build it from 5th grade up.
What Happens in a Scholar-Led Conference
The scholar runs the meeting. We listen.
A Scholar-Led Conference is a 20-minute meeting where your daughter presents her own progress to you and her Crew Leader. She brings her portfolio, her grades and habits-of-work data from JumpRope, and the goals she set for herself. She walks you through what she is proud of, where she is stuck, and what she plans to do about it.
Her Crew Leader is there to support her and to answer your questions, not to run the show. Not sure what a Crew Leader is, or how that differs from her classroom teachers? Learn about Crew at LMCJ →
The point is ownership. When a girl can explain her own learning to the adults who love her, she is practicing the exact skill she will use in an 8th grade Passage Portfolio Presentation, in a high school interview, and everywhere after.
Every scholar in grades 5–8 leads one. It builds each year.
- 5thFinding her voice. Learns to read her own data and speak to it with her Crew Leader’s help.
- 6thOwning the story. Chooses her own work samples and explains why they matter.
- 7thSetting the goals. Names her growth areas herself and builds the plan to close them.
- 8thReady for passage. Rehearses for her Passage Portfolio Presentation in front of a community panel.
76.9% of our graduates credit Scholar-Led Conferences with teaching them to take ownership of their own learning.
LILLIE MAY CARROLL JACKSON RESEARCH REPORT 2022 · ADVANCING GIRLS, LLC
2026–27 Conference Dates
Pick your time. Bring your questions.
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Wednesday, September 30, 2026Fall conference · Grades 5–81:30 – 3:30 PM ET
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Friday, October 2, 2026Fall conference · Grades 5–88:00 AM – 3:30 PM ET
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Winter and Spring conferencesGrades 5–8 · dates will be posted here2027
Choose her grade and her Crew Leader on the sign-up page and you will see the times still open. Conferences are 20 minutes; you will get a confirmation by email. If none of the times work, call the office at (443) 320-9499 and we will find another way.
By the Numbers
Get Ready
Resources for families and scholars
Everything you need to walk in prepared and walk out with a plan.
What to Expect
A one-page family guide to the flow of the conference and what your scholar will present.
Questions to Ask
Conversation starters that help your scholar go deeper than “it’s going fine.”
Reading Her JumpRope Report
How to read the JumpRope report card: mastery grades, habits of work, and what the levels mean.
Scholar Prep Checklist
For scholars: what to gather, what to practice, and how to open and close your conference.
Show up. She’s been getting ready for this.
A scholar who presents to a full table learns that her voice carries weight. Twenty minutes with you is the most important part of the day.
What the Research Says
Ownership in 5th grade becomes leadership by 8th.
Scholar-Led Conferences are the foundation of the Passage Portfolio Presentation. Our alumnae tell us what that foundation built.
credit Scholar-Led Conferences with learning to take ownership of their own learning
feel confident in their communication skills
of graduates felt prepared for high school
Source: Lillie May Carroll Jackson Research Report 2022, Advancing Girls, LLC.
I AM. I CAN. I WILL. END OF STORY.
