Grade checks? There’s now an app for that
Parents can keep tabs on their kids’ progress with smartphone software in the Hemet school district
BY KEVIN PEARSON
STAFF WRITER [email protected]
Far too often, school administrators hear that parents are unaware how their children are doing academically until report cards come out, when it’s too late to help raise a grade.
The Hemet Unified School District is hoping to change that, one iPhone app at a time.
The district this year is one of five nationally taking part in a pilot program in conjunction with ParentLink, which will give parents the ability to monitor grades, attendance and assignments and communicate with teachers in the palm of their hands.
The district is using the service at Cawston Elementary and Tahquitz High School with the hopes of expanding it districtwide next school year.
A district in Florida, two in Arkansas and one in Nevada also are piloting the iPhone application.
“We always hear, ‘If only you had told me sooner, I could have made a difference,’ ” Hemet Superintendent Steve Lowder said. “The more we can improve that communication, the better opportunity we will have to keep our kids successful.
“If (parents) can keep a closer track of what’s going on at school, they can head off problems before they become big problems.”
NEW TECHNOLOGY
The Hemet district, like many others, has had a contract with ParentLink for some time. The company is best known for its service that allows quick, mass communication with parents.
Typically, notifications are sent out for routine events such as to notify parents about a minimum day of school, as well as in emergencies like a school lockdown . Those are typically recorded by an administrator and then the system calls each parent to offer information.
But in rolling out the iPhone application, the two sides are linking parents to near-real-time information about their students’ progress.
Some of the information is available through various software programs the district already has online. But ParentLink’s app now harvests all of the academic information into one spot and has a messaging feature. Parents also can set up notifications to alert them if their child’s grade falls below a certain threshold or if there is an absence.
“It will benefit kids academically when both sides are in constant communication,” Cawston Principal Tracy Chambers said. “The convenience of being anywhere and quickly accessing anything — parents will really like it.”
Mark Child, marketing director with ParentLink, said some parents will always be heavily involved, while others will not be. The goal is for the app to help those who fall in between.
“If you can reach the middle demographic and get those parents involved, you can have a huge impact,” Child said. “Those parents are used to a certain level of interface because of their smartphones. We need to reach them there.”
INFANCY STAGES
Though the district is piloting at the two schools this year, it is in a somewhat limited form. Cawston has just six teachers working with the program.
At Tahquitz, the app is up and running, but one problem has been teachers getting assignments graded and entered into the computer system in a timely manner. And because the program is in its infancy stages, it is still not widely used among parents.
Alyssa King, a third-grade teacher at Cawston, uses it to communicate with her students’ parents. She also uses it to track her own three children.
As both a parent and teacher, King said she loves the app.
“It’s phenomenal,” King said. “I don’t think you will have the shock from parents as to why their kid is failing school or not doing well on a test. It will put the responsibility back on the student to do the work. Mom and Dad can check any time to find out if the work is done or not.”
The hope for the district is that within a year, it can notify parents of the app and how to use it during the registration process district-wide.
“For a lot of the kids, they are excited because their efforts are vindicated and Mom and Dad get off their backs because they handled their business Monday through Friday,” Tahquitz Principal Michael Roe said. “The only limits are the ones we put on it.”