OH Parents Can Track Students on
Web
St. Joseph in Falls uses Edline to let mom and dad peek
at grade book.
by Craig Webb, Beacon Journal, October 13, 2003
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When St. Joseph School signed on to the Edline at the start of
the school year, the move brought groans from some students but
cheers from their parents.
Deacon Robert Kochanski, principal, said parents can now track
daily whether their son or daughter completed their homework and
what grade they received on the work and tests, thanks to the
Internet-based service that essentially lets parents take a peek
into the teacher's grade book.
Aside from tracking daily academic progress, Kochanski said,
Edline offers a variety of other information from homework
assignments to school lunch menus to an after-school activities
schedule.
St. Joseph is the first elementary school in the Cleveland
Diocese to sign up with the private company. But it is not the
first private Catholic school in the Akron area to do so --
St.Vincent-St. Mary High School logged on last school year.
Kochanski said the service will cost the school about $1,200 a
year -- and that's already paying dividends.
One parent in the Ohio National Guard, Kochanski said, called in
to praise the service because he can now be more actively
involved in his child's academics while away from home.
So far about 72 percent of the parents of the school's 445
students have registered online to access their child's records.
"This way there should be no surprises at report card time,"
Kochanski said.
Jonathan Abrams, chief executive of Chicago-based Edline, said
the company will not release, for competitive reasons, the
number of schools using the 4-year-old service. He did say the
service is now being used in every state and has thousands of
clients.
Interest among schools in the Cleveland Diocese is so high,
Abrams said, a meeting will be held this month at St. Joseph's
so other principals can take a firsthand look at the service.
Kochanski said students may complain they "can't pull off
anything anymore" but ultimately they will benefit from having
parents who are more actively involved in their academic
progress.
"We were looking for a way to increase communication with
parents, and this seemed like the way to go," he said. "I really
have to believe that most schools will be looking in this
direction."
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