Last week, every student in our district received their report cards. As for the teachers, depending on the grade/school in which they teach, the process in which they reported grades varied.
- Middle School teachers keep their gradebook online using PowerSchool. Parents are able to keep track of their child’s progress in each class by logging on to the program online. At the end of the marking period, the software allows the teachers to easily transfer the grades to a paper report card that is sent home with the student.
- In some of our elementary schools, grade 4 and5 teachers follow the same steps as the middle school teachers. Our IT team worked with PowerSchool to adapt the software to meet the needs of an elementary report card (ex: The addition of check marks for effort/participation/behavior grades).
- K-2 students do not receive letter grades. Their report card is comprised of approximately 80 check marks that cover practically every objective for each subject. Some teachers print comments on the back of the report card using a pen. Other teachers type a paragraph on full sheet labels, print them, cut them out, then stick the comments on the back of each child’s report card.
I help a NCU (non-computer using…yes, really) friend of mine with her comments by typing them for her at the end of each marking period. (She insists on compensating me for my time.) Rather than printing them on labels, I formatted a Word document to fit the measurements of the report card, so we can run the original report card through the printer. She likes the fact that her comments are very professional looking, and that by changing the size of the font, she can write much more than before. My hope is, the more I engage her in computer use, the more likely she’ll be to try something on her own. She’s retiring this year, and I truly hope she stays in touch…via email at least. 
I bring this up because I wonder how far digital report cards or Web 2.0 tools could take our district. Or how far they should take our district. I don’t have children of my own yet, but I know many parents keep report cards in scrapbooks and as keepsakes. I assume eventually that the parents in our district will be accustomed to digital everything and therefore may not be upset by not holding a hard copy of their child’s report card. But when will that change be appropriate?
I believe that the more parents know and understand about what goes on in a classroom, the more they are able to help their children, and understand why the children receive the grades that they do. Web 2.0 tools can help us share more of the classroom experience with parents. But how much sharing with parents is appropriate? Assignments, homework, projects, grades, meetings, podcasts of lessons, webcams in the classroom? Obviously parents are interested, but do they have the time to keep up with it all?
If you use Web 2.0 type tools to specifically communicate with parents about their child’s progress in school, please take a moment to leave a comment describing it. How far can/should we go? Will we one day see parent/teacher conferences conducted via webcams?
