to go beyond (something)

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 582: A Parent- Teacher Conference.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast number 582. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Go to our website at eslpod.com. Download a Learning Guide for this episode that contains more information to help you improve your English even faster.

This episode is called “A Parent-Teacher Conference.” It’s a dialogue between Ms. Vasquez and Mr. Polo. One is a teacher, one is a parent; they’re talking about the parent’s son and are going to be using a lot of vocabulary that you would hear if a parent were talking to a teacher about how his or her daughter or son was doing in school. Let’s get started.

Ms. Vasquez: Hello, Mr. Polo. I’m Ms. Vasquez. Please have a seat.

Mr. Polo: Thank you.

Ms. Vasquez: In this parent-teacher conference, I want to go beyond Marco’s report cards and his standardized test scores to talk about his general performance in the classroom.

Mr. Polo: That’s great. I want to know how he’s doing.

Ms. Vasquez: