Kids' grades go online for parents' perusal
By Anick Jesdanun
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Debbie Karl's after-school chats with her two sons are typically brief: How was school today? Fine. Anything going on? Nothing.
Nellie Doneva • Associated Press
The Internet now lets the Texas college professor find out when her kids are hiding something — such as the fact her younger son, Derrick, is failing.
Debbie Karl, a computer-science instructor at Texas State Technical College, found the grades of her two sons, Zach, 13, left, and Derrick, 12, on the Internet. That's how she found out Derrick was failing math.
"My sixth-grader has not bothered to tell me he is failing math for the first time in his life," Karl said. "I was just perusing (the Web site), and he's got one, two, three, four, five zeros. I have immediately put a call in to that teacher."
Gone are the days when Karl would get such surprises only when the report card came home or when schools held parent-teacher conferences. A growing number of teachers and schools are making grades available nearly in real-time over the Internet.
Some teachers include pending assignments, class participation and disciplinary actions, too.
Many schools also let parents check whether their kids skipped first period, or whether they had chips or an apple for lunch. And as schools further integrate their computer systems, parents one day might also be able to see what library books their children have checked out.
Karl, chairwoman of computer information technology at Texas State Technical College in Abilene, Texas, wishes more teachers would participate.
"If everybody would use it and use it more, we could be more involved in our children's education," Karl said.
No figures were available on schools offering parental access online, but school officials say it is relatively low although such offerings have been around for years. One vendor of such systems, Pearson Education, estimates that only a quarter of its 16,000 school districts buy the optional parental-access package.
And even in districts with the capability, not all schools or teachers have signed on.
Among the chief complaints about tracking systems:
• Teachers, particularly those used to calculating grades by hand, aren't always comfortable using software or don't want to take the time to enter grades. Rosemarie Young, an elementary school principal in Kentucky, said she would rather see teachers spend their time with the kids.
• Some teachers worry that making individual grades open for inspection would let parents quibble or would reduce their discretion in adjusting grades for other factors.
• Parents can nag teachers who fall behind in grading.
"They know their kid studied all night and they know their kid took a test at 10:10 in the morning. At noon, they are online and asking, 'Where's my kid's test score?' " said Kenneth Bird, superintendent of Westside Community Schools in Omaha, Neb., which use Apple's PowerSchool system.
Furthermore, many parents lack Internet access or computer skills. And technology alone won't always make inattentive parents suddenly involved.
But Web access gets people more involved and "gives parents a good feeling they have a good understanding what's going on at school," said Bonnie Bracey, a former teacher who now trains teachers on technology.
Before, parents had few opportunities to follow their kids' performance. Report cards and progress reports go out every several weeks or months. Parent-teacher conferences take place once or twice a year. Notes that go home with students often get "lost" before reaching the parent.
So parents must wring information out of their children.
"Kids don't always bring the bad stuff home," said Lynn Brokus, a parent and webmaster for Tri-City Christian Academy in Somersworth, N.H.
With the school's Gradeworks and Easy Grade Pro packages, Brokus can see instantly what assignments haven't been turned in. Before, she might have found out from a progress report midway through a term, but by then, "you've missed half a semester, and they could still have more stuff missing for the second half."
For parents without Internet access, schools sometimes print weekly reports to send home. Vendors are also exploring alternatives such as voice-recognition technology.
