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This is the scoring recap for Week 9 of Vulture’s Movies Fantasy League. If you want to compete for pride and outlet against more than 19,000 other film buffs, there’s still time to join: Visit the league hub for information on how to play, and/or click the button below to submit an entry.

I’ve heard it said that movies come into our lives for a reason, and for the 3,945 people who selected Wicked: For Goodthis was the weekend they were waiting for. The follow-up to last year’s Wicked improved upon its predecessor’s numbers with a $150 million weekend, making it the biggest opening of the MFL season so far. The first film opened to $120, although that movie also had to contend with Gladiator II‘s arrival on screens. This year, the field cleared the deck for For Goodlest they be walloped. Wicked picked up 150 base points, plus it cleared six bonus thresholds (totalling 90 points) and got the 20-point bump for winning the weekend. That’s a 260-point windfall for those Wicked drafters who committed $45 to pick the film.

Elsewhere in the box-office realm, there isn’t much to talk about. Now You See Me, Now You Don’t and The Running Man cleared the $25 million threshold to each pick up ten bonus points, while Black Phone 2 crossed the $75 mark for an extra 15 points. Nuremberg climbed up to $11 million, which is good news for Sony Pictures Classics and also dads. Sisu: Road to Revenge debuted with $2 million, good news for the 158 of you who selected it.

Last week’s nominations for the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards dropped a heap of awards points onto the league, breaking the seal for myriad movies that got their first points of the season. One Battle After Another led the field with eight nominations (good for 45 points), but the second-most nominations went to Nuremberg (what did I just say about dads?), whose four nominations added up to 20 points. Sinners and House of Dynamite also each picked up 20 points, and Train Dreams, Jay Kellyand Sentimental Value each got 15.

Among the many movies that picked up their first points of the season included Marty Supreme, Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cover-Up, Weapons, Wake Up Dead Man, and Goodbye June.

Full list of AARP Movies for Grownups nominations points:

• 45 points: One Battle After Another

• 20 points: A House of Dynamite; Nuremberg; Sinners

• 15 points: Jay Kelly; Sentimental Value; Train Dreams

• 10 points: Eleanor the Great; Hamnet; Is This Thing On?; Marty Supreme; Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

• 5 points: After the Hunt; Avatar: Fire and Ash; Blue Moon; Cover-Up; Dead Man’s Wire; Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale; Frankenstein; Goodbye June; Highest 2 Lowest; It Was Just an Accident; The Lost Bus; No Other Choice; Nouvelle Vague; A Private Life; Rental Family; The Secret Agent; The Smashing Machine; Wake Up Dead Man; Weapons

You can visit the MFL landing page to see the full leaderboard — and join our Discord server for additional data about each movie in the MFL, plus much more.

Zootopia 2: November 26
Eternity: November 26
The Secret Agent: November 26
Hamnet: November 28
Left-Handed Girl: November 28
The Thing With Feathers: November 28
Oh. What. Fun: December 3
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2: December 5
Jay Kelly: December 5
A Private Life: December 5

Gotham Awards: December 1
New York Film Critics Circle announcement: December 2
Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations: December 3
Critics Choice Awards nominations: December 5
Golden Globe nominations: December 8
Oscar shortlists: December 16

Questions? Feedback? Can’t find your team or mini-league on the leaderboard? Drop us a line at [email protected].

NEW YORK – Pharmaceutical companies have agreed to slash the Medicare prices for 15 prescription drugs after months of negotiations, reductions that are expected to produce billions in savings for taxpayers and older adults, the Trump administration said.

But the net prices it unveiled for a 30-day supply of each drug are not what Medicare recipients will pay at their pharmacy counters, since those final amounts will depend on each individual’s plan and how much they spend on prescriptions in a given year.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted the deals as part of the administration’s efforts to address affordability concerns among Americans. The Medicare drug negotiation program that made them possible is mandated by law and began under President Joe Biden’s administration.

“President Trump directed us to stop at nothing to lower health care costs for the American people,” Kennedy said in a statement Tuesday evening. “As we work to Make America Healthy Again, we will use every tool at our disposal to deliver affordable health care to seniors.”

The announcement marks the completion of a second round of negotiations under a 2022 law that allows Medicare to haggle over the price it pays on the most popular and expensive prescription drugs used by older Americans, bringing the total number of negotiated drug prices to 25. The new round of negotiated prices will go into effect in 2027. Reduced prices for the inaugural round of 10 drugs negotiated by the Biden administration last year will go into effect in January.

Price negotiations apply to drugs treating diabetes, asthma, cancers and more

The latest negotiated prices apply to some of the prescription medications on which Medicare spends the most money, including the massively popular GLP-1 weight-loss and diabetes drugs Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy. Some of the other drugs involved in the negotiations include Trelegy Ellipta, which treats asthma; Otezla, a psoriatic arthritis drug; and various drugs that treat diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome and different forms of cancer.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, said the administration delivered “substantially better outcomes for taxpayers and seniors in the Medicare Part D program” than the previous year’s deals.

During the first round of Medicare price negotiations, the Biden administration said the program would have saved about $6 billion on net covered prescription drug costs, or about 22%, if it had been in effect the previous year. The Trump administration said its latest round would have saved the government about $8.5 billion in net spending, or 36%, if it had been in effect last year.

It’s unclear exactly how much money the newly announced deals could save Medicare beneficiaries when they are buying prescription drugs at the pharmacy because those costs are determined by various individual factors.

A new rule that kicked off this year also caps out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries at $2,000, giving some relief to older adults affected by high-cost prescriptions. The administration said estimated out-of-pocket savings for Medicare beneficiaries with drug plans is about $685 million.

Spencer Perlman, director of health care research at Veda Partners, said the Trump administration’s improved outcomes probably resulted from the mix of drugs being negotiated and lessons learned from the first year of negotiations.

Net drug prices are proprietary, he said, but “if we take the administration at their word, I think it demonstrates that they have secured meaningful price concessions for seniors, meaning the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program is working as intended.”

Medicare recipients can’t get GLP-1 drugs for obesity, but the administration is making changes

The GLP-1 weight-loss drugs that were part of the negotiations have been especially scrutinized for their high out-of-pocket costs. Yet it’s still unclear to what extent Medicare beneficiaries who want to use the drugs to treat obesity will be able to do so.

Medicare has long been prohibited from paying for weight-loss treatments, but a separate deal recently announced between the Trump administration and two pharmaceutical companies included plans for a pilot program that will expand coverage for the drugs to additional high-risk obese and overweight people.

The Trump administration this year has also negotiated several unrelated deals with drug companies to lower the cost of their products for the wider population.

Pharmaceutical companies, meanwhile, have sued over the Medicare drug negotiations enabled by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act and remain opposed to them.

“Whether it is the IRA or MFN, government price setting for medicines is the wrong policy for America,” Alex Schriver, senior vice president of public affairs at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, said in a statement. “These flawed policies also threaten future medical innovation by siphoning $300 billion from biopharmaceutical research, undermining the American economy and our ability to compete globally.”

Next year, Medicare will negotiate prices for another round of 15 drugs, including physician-administered drugs for the first time.

President Donald Trump has a new fix to the affordability crisis — giving some of the tariffs you paid back to you.

“People who are against Tariffs are FOOLS!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday. “A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone.”

Trump’s social media posts are not actual orders for the government to take any action, but the idea is already drawing attention.

According to a November 10 analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, there would not be enough tariff revenue to end Trump’s idea.

“With our national debt quickly approaching an all-time high and annual budget deficits approaching $2 trillion per year, it is imperative that policymakers focus on actually reducing deficits and putting debt on a downward path,” the CRFB wrote.

Scott Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury, also said that the rebate may not come in the form of direct checks.

Here is a breakdown of what Trump could be proposing, if it’s legally feasible, and whether you might actually receive a $2,000 check.

What did Trump propose?

In simple terms, Trump appears to be proposing a dividend, which typically refers to a payment made by a corporation to its shareholders on a quarterly or semi-annual basis, usually representing a distribution of the company’s profits based on the number of shares held.

In this case, Trump is saying that each American could receive a portion of the tariff revenue collected through import duties, which he said would amount to $2,000 per person.

“We’re taking in so much money that we may very well make a dividend to the people of America,” Trump said in August, when he mentioned the proposal for the first time.

However, there is a catch: It is very possible that you would not come out ahead with $2,000 more, because, as a consumer, you are probably paying for some of the tariff revenue the government has collected, as many companies have passed tariff costs to consumers.

According to the Yale Budget Lab’s October report, the total 2025 tariffs are equivalent to an average loss of $1,800 per household. So that $2,000 personal surplus is likely closer to $200.

Who could qualify?

Unclear.

Based on the language of Trump’s social media posts, it appears that only middle- and low-income US citizens will receive the rebate, but he did not specify the cutoff point. He also did not mention whether the income level would be measured according to regional standards or the national average.

Can the government afford it?

We did the math.

So far, the Trump administration has collected more than $220 billion in tariff revenue, including new tariffs and those left behind by the Biden administration.

According to the IRS, more than 163 million Americans filed tax returns in 2024. If we consider everyone making $100,000 a year or above to be too wealthy to be eligible, that still leaves around 150 million adults who would each receive $2,000, according to a post on X by Erica York, Vice President of the Tax Foundation.

In the case above, the total payout would be about $300 billion, which exceeds the total tariff revenue collected to date.

Based on Trump’s social media post on Monday morning, he seems to think that there will still be leftover tariff revenue after the dividend to “substantially pay down the national debt.”

The current US government debt is over $38 trillion, according to the Treasury.

Can Trump do this unilaterally?

Most likely not.

Congress is responsible for the government budget — hence the recent government shutdown. Stimulus checks in the past, such as the pandemic-era rescue funds proposed by both the Trump and the Biden administrations, had received congressional approval.

What did the Treasury say?

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent doesn’t sound enthusiastic.

During an interview with ABC that aired on Sunday, Bessent said that no plan has been made to spend tariff revenue, and the $2,000 payment could come in the form of not taxing tips and Social Security payments.

What about the tariff lawsuit?

That is a thorny question.

The IEEPA tariff case brought by small businesses just had its first hearing at the Supreme Court earlier in November. Whether Trump has the power to unilaterally impose tariffs without congressional approval is at the heart of the matter.

The government may have to return all tariff revenue made under the IEEPA if the Supreme Court decides to rule Trump’s tariffs as unconstitutional. Economic damage to the federal government is not taken into consideration in cases concerning the Constitution, so whether Trump decides to spend all the tariff revenue does not affect the legality of his tariffs.

When could you expect checks?

Don’t hold your breath.

No formal proposal has been made yet by the White House, and it could take weeks to pass it in Congress, if the two parties could agree to support this spending.

During the pandemic, it took about 20 weeks for the first stimulus check to reach people’s deposit accounts after the proposal was passed. It is highly unlikely that any tariff rebates will arrive in time for you to splurge on Christmas gifts.

Warren Buffett published his final letter to shareholders as Berkshire Hathaway CEO on Monday, as he prepares to step down before the new year. His followers reacted with a mixture of sadness, gratitude, and admiration.

The legendary business leader and investor, 95, has transformed Berkshire from a failing textile mill into a $1 trillion conglomerate over the past 60 years by acquiring scores of businesses such as Geico and Dairy Queen, and amassing huge stakes in corporate giants including Coca-Cola and American Express.

Buffett wrote this week that he would continue writing a Thanksgiving letter as Berkshire’s chairman, reflected on his life, and thanked the people and pieces of luck that enabled his extraordinary success.

He acknowledged his advantages and trumpeted kindness over wealth, power, and fame. He also reassured Berkshire shareholders that Greg Abel is a worthy successor, and he’s as positive about the company’s future as ever — even as he plans to accelerate the transfer of his $150 billion fortune to his family’s foundations.

Nine of Buffett’s closest followers shared with Business Insider their thoughts and reactions. Their comments have been edited for length and clarity:

1. David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland and longtime Buffett blogger:

“It’s his valedictory address, in which he attributes his lifetime accomplishments, with considerable humility, to being very lucky to be born in America, live a long, healthy life, and benefit professionally and personally from the friendships he made in Omaha and elsewhere.”

2. Lawrence Cunningham, the author of several books about Berkshire and the director of the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center:

“It’s Buffett’s farewell to the microphone, not to the mission — he’s passing the pen, not the philosophy. At 95, he’s turned the shareholder letter into a love letter to Omaha, to America, and to the values ​​that built Berkshire.

“This Thanksgiving note stresses that the good life isn’t about wealth; it’s about wisdom — that luck is uneven, humility essential, and kindness compounding.”

3. Chris Bloomstran, the president of Semper Augustus Investments and a Berkshire shareholder for 25 years

“I thought Warren’s letter was phenomenal, and I hope it is the first of many Thanksgiving letters that he pens to the shareholders. The letter was a wonderfully reflective message on gratitude, philanthropy, and kindness.

“I think he wanted to again affirm his certainty that Greg is his ideal successor, and in doing so, assure the shareholders that Berkshire is in great hands — not only in Greg but likely for the decades to come given Berkshire’s culture.”

4. John Longo, a finance professor, investment chief, and author of ‘Buffett’s Tips: A Guide to Financial Literacy and Life’:

“By ‘going quiet,’ Buffett is giving Abel and the rest of the Berkshire management team the opportunity to paint their own picture without anyone second-guessing them.

“He will remain an important sounding board for the Berkshire executives, and if they are wise, they will continue to seek his invaluable counsel.”

5. Paul Lountzis, the president of Lountzis Asset Management:

“I greatly enjoyed his look back on his life in Omaha. It is interesting how despite being an investing genius, so much of his life and happiness was totally about the people around him.

“Not having Warren at the helm is a terrible loss. He has been such a pleasure to watch and learn from over the past 52 years for me, since my journey with him began when I was 13.”

6. Adam Schwartz, the chief investor of Black Bear Value Partners:

“I am going to miss the more frequent letters and public speaking. He’s been a national treasure.”

7. Brian Gongol, a Buffett superfan and longtime shareholder

“It’s a promise to go on giving without getting in Abel’s way. There’s a tremendous degree of custodial care implied throughout the letter. Warren Buffett is confident in Abel and wants to shield him. He is confident in his children and won’t try ‘ruling from the grave.’ And he is insistent that Berkshire always remains ‘an asset to the United States.’

“I really revere this idea that a person can be unapologetically capitalistic, and still have an almost fanatical sense about doing things in a ‘right’ way that isn’t rewarded in dollars and cents.”

8. Alex Morris, the author of ‘Buffett and Munger Unscripted’ and founder of TSOH Investment Research:

“Warren is accelerating the pace of his giving; he wants his children to use a large percentage or all of the funds in a timely fashion, while they’re still alive — so it’s time to move.

“At the same time, Berkshire’s ability to ‘protect’ Greg from near-term incursions by activists, or other attempts to influence its direction, is the supervoting Class A shares. So, Warren is trying to balance these two factors.”

9. Adam Mead, an investment chief and the author of ‘The Complete Financial History of Berkshire Hathaway’:

“According to the Social Security website, Buffett has another 2.8 years of expected life left. I’d venture there’s a 50/50 shot he writes us again next year — although he himself noted the swiftness by which old age overtakes everyone eventually.

“Whether he actually does write to us again in November 2026, this letter is sufficient to be a farewell letter.”

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brian Chukwuisiocha, a 22-year-old computer science student based in the Washington metropolitan area. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Apple taught me how to own my work and care more about who’s using the products I work on.

I worked there in my sophomore year from May 2024 to August 2024 as an intern. It was a great experience, and it really aligned with my original motivation for getting into software engineering: to make things that people can use and help them in everyday life.

They liked the amount of knowledge I had in coding for iOS apps, and I was interviewed for four different positions. After two to three rounds of interviews, I ended up on the Apple Fitness+ team. I was earning $42 an hour while there.

But when it came time to start thinking about post-graduation employment, I didn’t end up applying for an entry-level role at Apple. Instead, I accepted a full-time job offer from my most recent internship.

Apple is a dream company for many software engineering students, and working in Cupertino was a one-of-a-kind experience. Ultimately, there were a couple of factors that led me to seek out a different job for after college.

Apple Park is in a world of its own

In my three months on the job, I learned that Apple is very intentional about the environment it’s created on the main campus. It’s fostered an atmosphere of creativity that’s led to their most iconic products.

However, Apple Park is sort of siloed off from the rest of the world. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just took me a minute to learn what’s what with all of the secrecy and privacy that Apple is known for. There were a lot of parts of the campus that I didn’t have access to as an intern.

It’s a whole Apple village. For example, they have trails for walks or jogs, and the gym is the coolest gym I’ve ever seen in my life. The only thing it’s missing is a place to sleep.

I appreciated the seclusion, since it promoted collaboration with my teammates, and I made friends that I’ll probably have for a lifetime in my fellow interns. It’s so closed off that you don’t hear the outside world, like an ambulance passing by.

I’m not sure the West Coast is for me

I’ve lived in several different countries, and I’m used to being surrounded by people of diverse backgrounds. For me, as a Nigerian man, it was hard to find my community there. It was hard to find food I loved and places to get my hair done compared to the East Coast where I’m from.

Apple Park probably couldn’t exist in New York, though, so I understand why the West Coast is appealing for tech companies. There’s more space, and you can create your own tech community and economy.

It makes sense for Big Tech, but I’m a multifaceted person. I have interests outside of tech, and it felt like I couldn’t grow my other passions in the Bay Area.

I want to stand out among my peers

In my years of programming, I’ve learned that new grads can have a tougher time standing out at Big Tech companies. You’re coming in at the bottom of the food chain. Many undergrads just don’t have enough experience to differentiate themselves from the rest of the applicants hoping to land a full-time position.

They can end up being just a number at some tech firms, and I didn’t want that to happen to me.

After I graduate, I’ll be working in financial tech in New York City. But that doesn’t mean I’m out on Big Tech.

I have a long career ahead of me, and Apple isn’t off my radar.

Are you a current or former Apple employee with a story to share? Contact this reporter, Jordan Hart, from a non-work device and email at [email protected].

Donald Trump has a new idea to boost the US housing market: a 50-year fixed-rate mortgage.

The president floated a new, longer-term mortgage in a post on Social Truth over the weekend. Bill Pulte, the Federal Housing Finance Agency director, confirmed that the FHFA was working on the new borrowing plan in a separate social post.

“Thanks to President Trump, we are indeed working on The 50 year Mortgage – a complete game changer,” Pulte wrote on X.

The rationale behind offering longer-term mortgages is simple: By spreading out the payment period, monthly installments will be smaller, making the mortgages more accessible and leaving homeowners with more cash on hand. The end goal is to address lingering affordability issues in the housing market.

Daryl Fairweather, the chief economist at Redfin, acknowledges the short-term relief 50-year mortgages could offer, but is skeptical that they’ll be an easy overall fix for America’s housing affordability crisis. In fact, she argues they could backfire in the long run.

“I think what the government is trying to achieve is increasing access to the housing market, especially for younger home buyers who have been priced out by high interest rates and high home prices. But it does come with some drawbacks,” Fairweather told Business Insider in an interview.

It’s unclear how the administration would allow borrowers to get a 50-year mortgage. If the FHFA steps in to expand the credit criteria of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it would open the door for the government-sponsored enterprises to buy the mortgages from lenders and package them into mortgage bonds, providing liquidity for lenders.

There’s also apparently a bit of White House infighting over Pulte’s decision to float the possibility of 50-year mortgages. Politico reported that some were “blindsided” by the idea amid considerable backlash from conservatives and business leaders.

Here are some of the problems housing experts see with Trump’s idea.

1. It’s unclear if a 50-year mortgage is even possible

For starters, it’s unclear whether creating such a mortgage product is realistic, Fairweather said.

That’s because longer mortgages tend to be riskier, as borrowers could be more likely to encounter trouble over a longer time horizon, Fairweather said.

Trump’s idea may be to have the government-sponsored mortgage buyers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, back 50-year mortgages, she speculated. Yet, that means taxpayers are exposed to any problems that arise with the new mortgages.

“I’m not even sure if it makes sense for this to be something that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are insuring, or if it’s something that they’re floating as a non-qualified mortgage product,” Fairweather said.

It would also require approval beyond the presidential level, she said, given that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau limits qualified mortgages to loan terms that are 30 years or under.

2. Savings would be meager, interest would be higher

A 50-year mortgage could lower mortgage payments slightly, as homebuyers are spreading out the principal of their home for a longer period of time. But savings would likely be meager at best, Fairweather said, depending on the spread between the 50-year and 30-year mortgage.

According to Fannie Mae’s mortgage calculator, a 6% interest loan on the median-priced home with a down payment of 20% would come out to a monthly payment of $2,903 for a 30-year mortgage, compared to $2,648 on a 50-year loan.

Also, since longer mortgages are considered to be riskier, Fairweather said she would expect the 50-year fixed rate to be significantly higher than the 30-year fixed rate.

“I think the spread would be significant, and it would mean that borrowers might be saving, say, $40 a month on a monthly mortgage payment, but signing up for much higher interest over the life of the loan,” she said.

3. Home prices could rise

There’s good reason to believe that a 50-year mortgage could ultimately backfire by making home prices rise, Fairweather said.

If such a mortgage product were to be offered, Fairweather thinks it could temporarily expand access to the housing market, particularly for younger homebuyers who are eager to own property and figure they can refinance later to get a better rate.

However, greater demand for mortgages without an increase in supply will likely cause home prices to increase, she said, as competition for available inventory on the market will rise.

“I think if the goal is to get people access to home ownership because we believe home ownership is this great vehicle for accumulating wealth, the 50-year mortgage could actually defeat that purpose because people would have a harder time accumulating wealth,” Fairweather said, although she noted that the actual impact would depend on where the 50-year rate ends up.

Most economists would agree that increasing the supply is the only way to meaningfully improve affordability, Fairweather added.

Housing supply is starting to come into better balance as mortgage rates tick lower, but the housing market is still short on inventory. The US is on track to be short 1.1 million units by the end of the year, down from a 1.6 million unit shortage at the end of last year, according to Ned Davis Research.

Meanwhile, real estate economists don’t expect borrowing costs to ease significantly anytime soon. Redfin predicts that the 30-year fixed mortgage rate would hover between 6% and 7% for the rest of 2025.

In October, Zillow economists said they believed the 30-year mortgage rate would likely remain above 6% through 2026.

It’s the diagnosis no one wants to hear: You have cancer.

The disease has become an unfortunate reality in so many of our lives. But an even more troubling trend is cancer’s prevalence among young people.

While there’s no “good” time to get a cancer diagnosis, it can be particularly devastating to receive it as a younger person.

That’s partially due to the financial burden that comes with it. One 2021 report found that a young cancer diagnosis will cost a person roughly $250,000 over their lifetime.

Business Insider spent a year trying to understand the true cost of cancer for young people. You can read the first story in the package here. BI’s Hilary Brueck spoke to cancer survivors about how they navigated their cancer diagnoses.

In the days to come, we’ll have more coverage on the financial, emotional, and systemic costs that come with these young cancer patients.

That includes stories on twins whose lives diverged when one got colon cancer at age 21, how work can often be a lifeline for young cancer patients, and navigating starting a family while dealing with a deadly disease. We’ll also have some exclusive data analysis with the help of GoodRx on the out-of-pocket costs for a young cancer patient in their first year.

As dark a topic as this is, there could be a silver lining.

The tidal wave of AI is approaching the shores of the healthcare industry.

OpenAI is exploring building its own consumer health applications, according to sources close to the company, BI’s Rebecca Torrence reports.

To be clear, OpenAI’s plans aren’t specifically focused on cancer. Instead, it’s weighing several opportunities in the space, such as creating a personal health assistant or a health data aggregator, according to Rebecca’s reporting.

A big piece of that could be consolidating consumers’ health data in one place. (The scattered and siloed nature of health records is what has tripped up tech companies before.)

But if OpenAI (or another Big Tech player) is successful in leveraging AI in healthcare, it could go a long way towards helping people recognize and address problems sooner.

Parent-teacher conferences can be stressful for everyone, even teachers.

After 10 years in the classroom, I’ve experienced conferences that changed a child’s entire school year, and others that burned 15 minutes on test scores rather than on how a student learns. The most productive conferences focus on the journey, not just the results.

Families and educators are two sides of the same team. We are both working towards the same goal: the best possible year for your child. To help you get the most out of your next parent-teacher conference, consider asking these conversation-starting questions.

Start with the basics

I always try to open up the conversation by acknowledging what’s working. Every parent wants to hear something positive about their child, and they should. Focusing on a child’s strengths first frames the rest of the conversation as problem-solving, not blaming.

During this part of the conversation, I appreciate it when parents ask questions like, “What does my child do well academically or socially that we can build upon?” or “Where do they seem most engaged, and why?”

Through these answers, you’ll learn about what motivates your child and get specific moments you can praise at home when you see your child later that day.

Remember that grades only tell part of the story

To parents, grades are simply a snapshot. Not even a teacher, I can understand the nuance behind the scores your student has earned and share that even though a student may have struggled on an exam, they may still grasp the concepts I’m teaching.

When the conference turns to talking about grades, I love it when parents get granular. You can ask questions like, “What are two to three skills that matter most right now, and where is my child on each?” and “Can you show me an example of what ‘on track’ looks like?”

Learning what your child may need to spend more time on can allow you to practice the right skills at home.

Discuss factors that may be affecting learning

A child’s school experience is shaped by more than lessons. Behavior, attendance, and access to support can significantly impact progress.

Parents should come ready to talk about the whole child. Be honest if there is something significant happening at home, such as a divorce or a death in the family, so we can check in with your child.

Parents can also ask educators if they’ve noticed any barriers to their child’s learning. Likewise, it’s important to ask if there are any social-emotional challenges that you should know about since students may act differently in the classroom than they do at home.

The answers to these types of questions can help provide a more comprehensive picture of your child and enable you to advocate for targeted help that actually makes a difference, if needed.

Leave with a plan

I like to offer families realistic next steps that fit their busy lives. Parents need 10- to 15-minute routines that are realistic, not filled with generic advice. Sharing an example text or problem set at the right level is also helpful. If your child’s teacher doesn’t offer this, ask for it.

I would love for a parent to ask, “What is one quick routine that we can do at home that would have the biggest impact?” or “Can you show me an example, so we’re practicing right?”

Building small, consistent habits will do wonders, and getting that input from someone who spends five days a week with your child is invaluable.

Set the stage for future communication

I welcome parents to stay in communication with me throughout the year, not just during parent-teacher conferences.

If you’d like to establish a plan for updates, now is the time to discuss this. I suggest asking for something specific, like a mid-quarter check-in. A clear schedule for communication helps keep everyone on the same page.

Remember, behind every data point is a student who is trying, a parent who cares, and a teacher juggling 25 things at once. Use that conference to align on what matters most, and you’ll turn 15 minutes into real momentum.