<p>I have three kids/stepkids who have been through the same middle school with this system, so I guess that gives me 9 years' aggregate experience. I found something that echoed my experience or my friends' in every post. I think it depends on your own parental approach, as well as the family dynamic. For people who are predisposed to be a helicopter or browbeater parent, it is just another tool. If not, it is either neutral or can be used to your child's advantage.</p>
<p>I grew up with a mother who, without benefit of technology beyond her own personality and the single black Bell telephone on the kitchen wall, managed to be an extraordinarily pushy, nosy and difficult parent---browbeating about stuff that probably didn't matter, meanwhile not even knowing what the SATs were when I had to take them, let alone knowing how to help me (!!--not required for her college in the midwest, back in the Stone Age). </p>
<p>So, as a reaction to this, I haven't bugged or pushed my kids much; try to "support", rather than demand results; do not make them practice their instruments much, etc.. So, I did not follow the school program very closely (weekly, maybe). However, my very disorganized second child (S) checked it a lot---and greatly improved his own self discipline and study habits. We also looked at it together, when he wanted to brag about grades.</p>
<p>My parents would've never needed to use this for me. I never, ever showed them any of my AP Econ or chemistry quizzes. All they needed was a mental breakdown from me to know that I wasn't doing well! :)</p>
<p>But for kids who are more reserved about their work, this system could be fine as long it's not used excessively. My parents have become very involved with my brother because of his laziness and being irresponsible about keeping himself together. For them to be checking in with the teachers and the teachers back at them, it caused quite a bit of resentment from my brother towards our parents. Nevertheless, the system forces everyone to communicate with each other. After all, much of the trust between the parent and the child is largely based upon the schoolwork because going to school is the kid's job! His grades are his salary- imagine if it was for real money! </p>
<p>It's still a little rough around the edges nowadays... but makes it for more interesting for me to come home and see how everyone's getting along...</p>
<p>The only aspect I see a problem with is the ready access to grades, because I do feel these belong to the student, not the parent. Of course the parent should know about attendance matters, discipline files, and progress toward graduation, all of which should be easily available to parents in any school system, with or without the online service.</p>
<p>Our hs doesn't provide this; instead, it sends out mid-marking period progress reports. Teachers aren't required to send these unless the student isn't doing well.</p>
<p>If our hs adopted this system, I'd talk to my kids and tell them that I wouldn't sign up for it as long as they continued to behave responsibly (no cutting school, no disciplinary problems, and strong effort in the classroom). However, my kids have always basically liked school and didn't object to committing themselves to it. My sister-in-law could certainly have used this online reporting system - it would have saved her, and my nephew, a lot of grief.</p>
<p>I agree that schools use this in self defense so parents can't complain about no communication and so they spend less time dealing with helicopter parents. But I think it sends the message to the rest that the schools WANT us to be helicopter parents.</p>
<p>When my youngest was in about fourth grade, I received a sheet of paper detailing what would be on an upcoming test, the date of the test, and a request for my signature agreeing that I had been given this information. I returned it unsigned with a note that said I was not the one taking the test and that they should ask my son to sign it. The teacher explained to me that she was tired of parents calling up to complain that they couldn't help their child if they didn't know about tests.</p>
<p>103--I usually signed the silly form but I have known parents who told the teacher the same thing you did! We personally finished elementary school a long time ago and were happy to have our kids attend by themselves, thankyouverymuch.</p>
<p>Re the online info--it was extremely valuable with slacker son. He wouldn't tell me anything but I could get on and see if assignments were missing, when big projects were due, etc. You'd think he would have learned after a while that I was using this handy direct link. He only shaped up and became responsible for himself in college. Thank goodness. :eek:</p>
<p>With child #4--haven't used it at all. He is extremely conscientious, does his work, keeps me informed, and is going after that GPA. Such a pleasure!</p>
<p>This is fascinating. There is a system intended to use technology to the benefit of students and parents and people are looking for why it might be a bad thing. When is information about school performance and progress ever a bad thing? You can have a good thing, used badly. Perhaps that is what the reaction is about. But online systems such as this are valuable tools.</p>
<p>I confess to being an user! I check D's school's on-line gradebook way too often, though I at least have the restraint to (almost) never mention her grades or nag about them.</p>
<p>I'd second the cautions of others: sometimes there's a context that raw scores don't make clear and that you find out about long after the fact (everyone did badly on that quiz, so you get to drop a low grade; that 0 just means that the teacher is disorganized). Another classic case from just yesterday: D got a mailed progress report (with grades from all classes) that showed a grade in English that was about 15% points too low; the reason: the teacher had accidentally entered too many points for the max, so that 55 was actually out of 60 rather than 100 pts. The mistake was fixed within 24 hours, but that was the 24 hours during which the computer printouts were generated.</p>
<p>Philosophically, I find this worriesome and disgusting. I'm for maximum self-reliance, and feel as though this is just one more step on the ladder to no-privacy. Though a 16 year old has few rights per se, the right to privacy should be one of them.</p>
<p>I just don't like the idea of parents being told everything, everday about their kids.</p>
<p>Since I'm the OP I guess I'll post again here. I do like the idea of technology being put to good uses and one of them is undoubtedly the ability for students and parents to monitor the grades and discuss ahead of time issues with teachers. In that respect it is a good tool if used wisely. The cautions about raw scores are spot on. Our school sends home progress reports very early in the semester. Often kids get a C on the progress report because of one bad test where the only thing on the grade sheet at that time is the one test. </p>
<p>If my school was posting addresses and other personal information as one of the above posters mentioned I would definitely have a problem and would speak up. </p>
<p>The idea that a parent could or would check what their student bought for lunch is disturbing. Lynxie, yes a 16 year old has few rights per se but I agree with you...parents really don't need to be that intrusive and the school posting all that information bothers me. Again, if our school was doing that I would speak to my Superintendent and School Board.</p>
<p>It sounds like a great system! Our school is starting one this month and I cannot wait to use it. The guidance counselors went over the school's decision to implement the system. The reason: students with parents who are aware of grades, tardies, absences, etc. do better in school and have fewer tardies and absences.(i.e helicoptering works!!!)
I realise that many posters on CC are high-achieving students or parents of high-achievers and can succeed without such a system at their school. But as a parent of B/C students, I welcome the ability to look at their grades and assignments in all courses. For example, right now my son has an incomplete in genetics for third quarter. Despite multiple emails to his teacher, I still do not know the reason or the status of the grade. With this system, I can look at the grade worksheet and understand what is going on. So I am really excited and can't wait to try it out!</p>
<p>I personally think it's a great tool if used properly. My kids know that their extra curriculars are based largely on their performance in school for that week. Going to school, behaving and performing to the best of their ability is their responsibility. Making sure they do that is MY primary responsibility. Believing that most kids have that type of maturity to do those things expected by their parents on a consistent basis is folly. Now before you jump on me, I know that there are exceptions to the rule, but in many cases accountability reinforces responsibility. </p>
<p>The fact that my employer, can track my internet usage, track my whereabouts via GPS if need be, and other type of accountability measures make it much easier for me to resist any temptation of abusing my "freedoms and rights."
While there may be potential for my supervisors to abuse these acoountability provisions, good supervisors don't. I believe the same analogy could be said for parenting.</p>
<p>As much as I want to allow my children (3 boys) to be mature in their decision making process, each child does it at different stages in their adolescence and some may be later than that. The difference is while they are a minor, I have to draw on my life experiences, knowledge and wisdom to help them through that transition. When they are 18(a young adult) in most cases, the overwhelming responsibility falls to them. When they know that I know explicitly what their responsibilities are for a given project or school assignment is, It "helps" them to do what needs to be done with minimal prodding if at all.</p>
<p>I've found it valuable, to the extent that the school keeps it up. That varies teacher by teacher. Some teachers fail to post grades, and none post assignments in advance. One physics teacher, although a nice guy, was backed up in grading his tests and papers, and told a group of students that they owed work on the afternoon of the last day of the marking period...a Friday. The kids freaked out because they didn't have any warning about what work they owed (despite repeated requests---these kids had been out sick, etc)and could not possibly hand it in on time. He gave several of them F's on their report cards. My own D was given a B-, which is not good but certainly not as tragic as an F. Parent Connect gave these kids a false sense of security about where they stood, but the fault in this situation is entirely the teacher's. The system is only as good as the people who are pluggin in the values.</p>
<p>The label helicoptor parent has been given out to any parent who takes quick action to remedy significant underachievement by thier child. And with the stigma that is now put on "helicoptor parents" other parents now often feel obligated to give junior free reign over his own academic destiny. </p>
<p>We all know that all children are different and some need more looking after than others. However, this "helicopter parent" stigma that has come about (although such behavior is not new at all - just the term) recently is a big negative in my mind.</p>
<p>So now somebody comes out with a product that gives these helicopter parents more ammo and so it gets extra scrutiny.</p>
<p>Geez, it is nice to get timely information about one of the most important parts (education) of a child's development. Perhaps for those who don't think timely information is good, their kids final grades (and only grading information) should be delivered by the Pony Express.</p>
<p>Personally, I'd love to be able to click the grade and pull up a digitized scanned image of the assignment with teacher markup and maybe even his/her assessment of what went wrong (or hopefully right!). If I could see that junior had problems factoring something on last Tuesday's homework, perhaps I should ask him if he would like me to look over tonight's stuff to see if he has gotten it right.</p>
<p>Nothing like closing the barn door before ALL the horses get out.</p>
<p>I work at a high school and I think that in an ideal world, teachers would call parents when their child was getting off track. However, with all the work outside of class that teachers have to do, there really is not enough time to track down the parents of these students (many times the phone numbers on file are incorrect). Therefore, this is an effective way for parents and students to see for themselves how they are doing. </p>
<p>The real issue here is not the access to information. Like Nimby58 said, the real issue is how it is used, and parents should be expected to have the maturity to use it wisely. This in no way is encouraging parents to be helicopter parents; it's actually a way to get parents more involved. Many high school parents are disconnected when it comes to knowing what their children are actually doing. For those parents that tend to hover, it's just a matter of the student explaining to them how things work and to show them that they can be trusted without checking up on them as often. As for students who feel that it's an invasion of privacy, they just have to accept it because it's still a parent's job to supervise their high school children, albeit less and less as they get older. </p>
<p>I think it's a wonderful tool. Like others have said, it helps students catch errors quickly and have an idea of where they stand without having to ask each teacher every day. As parents of high schoolers, we just have to remember to keep a balance between supervising our teenagers and allowing them to become more and more independent. But then this is the case with everything, not just this online tool.</p>
<p>Oh wow, liglhting has struck. My S just gave me last night his brand new college username and password (I never, ever asked for it) that will also show me grades, charges, etc at his college and said "here mom, now you can keep on eye on me in college". Holy cow. I didn't expect that in a million years. I knew he'd miss me :-) I will guard this trust and not abuse it I promise. My H and I were wondering how to cross this bridge and whether we wanted to know his grades, whether we thought he'd share them, whether we felt we needed to know the college grades, all that kind of stuff and the darn kid just crossed the bridge and handed it to us unasked. Wow.</p>
<p>Our county has had this for as long as I can remember and we find it invaluable for middle school D, but rarely check on high school D.
We are able to see trends in grades way before report cards and discuss this with our D and request follow-up conferences with the teachers if needed.</p>
<p>What I like about D's school is that many of her teachers require her to check her grades once a week and turn in a written statement as to whether the recorded grades match the paper grades she got back. This may be unique to the IB teachers, but not only does it check the accuracy of the data (transpositions do occur), it teaches the students to be responsible for gettiing online and checking their assignments. Since our kids all have school issued laptops (remeber the $50 used i-book stampede a few years back?) many of their assignments are downloaded, completed online and then "dropped" into the teacher's folders. It is important for the kids to check that things were "turned in" and this encourages them to do that.</p>
<p>I don't like the idea of disciplinary records and transcripts being online - kids today are much too smart and could easily access others' permanent records. Our kids' info is wiped clean after each school year.</p>
<p>My Ds previous high school had a system like this. I found it really useful. There was one teacher who would lose papers (when I saw a zero with her I knew it was wrong - with my son I saw a zero and knew to get onto him!) Also my D had a coach who would get really peeved if she missed practice for Dr/ortho appts - I preferred to have her miss the ocassional practice than miss AP classes inthe day. Anyway I would find posted that she was 'truant' from his period even though he knew where she was and I had signed her out. The internet system enabled me to get all that cleared up quickly rather than trying to figure out weeks down the road why she had been absent.</p>
<p>About helicoptering: The courts have established a pretty clear legal distinction between the status of college and HS students. A college student - even a 17 year old - is expected to exercise the judgment and autonomy of an adult, while a HS student - even an 18 year old - is afforded the supervision that a parent typically exercises over a child. Accordingly, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act secures the privacy of college students' records, even when the student is the dependent of a tuition-paying parent. The expectation is that the student is accorded the privacy rights of an adult and is expected to exercise the self-supervision of an adult. That's not the case in HS, where students have no privacy rights regarding their parents' access to records. A problem occurs when the college is trying to treat the student as the evolving adult that the courts have defined him or her to be while the parent is continuing to speak for, advocate for, and make decisions for the college student. Parents have the legal right to exercise those forms of control as long as the student in in HS, but common sense dictates that the transition from closely-monitored child to autonomous young adult isn't going to happen overnight. I think it's wise to begin that transfer of authority during the latter stages of HS, but keeping an eye on grades shouldn't have to compromise it.</p>
Personally, I'd love to be able to click the grade and pull up a digitized scanned image of the assignment with teacher markup and maybe even his/her assessment of what went wrong (or hopefully right!).
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<p>This kid isn't 8 years old, but twice that, or something similar. Personally, if anyone were snooping on me to that degree I would be furious.</p>