With a click of a mouse and a log-in code, parents throughout the state get the skinny on how their kids are performing academically.
And many have found an alternative use for the technology, gaining an upper hand when doling out teenage privileges.
They jokingly call it Busted.com.
Their kids are less amused.
“It’s kind of a bummer,” laments Patrick Semple, a 16-year-old Aspen High School sophomore. His parents check up almost daily by signing on to a program called PowerSchool through the school’s website.
The Semple house rule says Patrick’s scores can’t dip below a C, or else. Earlier this school year, his parents discovered he got a D on an English quiz; they promptly clipped their son’s wings for the weekend.
“The next day, I was doing everything I could to get that grade up,” Patrick says. “Last year when I got a bad grade, I would sometimes forget to tell my parents.”
Computerized grade-book programs have been in use for nearly a decade as a tool for teachers to keep track of grades, attendance and other student records.
But in the past few years, parents have been given access to the virtual lists. And as the programs become more sophisticated, they track more than midterm or semester grades and students who skip classes.
Now, many teachers use them to record every quiz, homework assignment or paper.
Parents love the programs because they can easily track potential problems as they occur. That they would use this information in delicate parent-child social negotiations has been an unintended result.
“We developed it as an educational and communication tool,” says Mary McCaffrey, president of Pearson School Systems. “How parents use it is their business.”
Lorenzo Semple makes no apologies for his vigilance.
“If I can check my e-mail every day, then I can check my kid’s grades. It enables you to be more involved,” he says. “It also makes a student more willing to share what’s going on because they know you’re going to find out anyway.”
And that – as any parent of a child over a certain age will tell you – can be critical.
Jim Anderson is a senior systems administrator for Denver Public Schools and oversees a similar monitoring program for the district called Infinite Campus. He also is the dad of a 15-year-old daughter, Courtney, at Lakewood High school.
It’s in the latter capacity that he finds himself logging on about once a week to the Infinite Campus program at his daughter’s school. He jokes that it helps crack the monosyllabic code of adolescence:
“How was school today?”
“Fine.”
“How did you do on that test?”
“Good.”
It is unknown how many school districts across the country use the programs, but McCaffrey says, “It’s definitely growing.”
Pearson recently acquired PowerSchool from Apple Computer Inc., which developed the software. A handful of other companies offer similar programs.
Denver, Jefferson County and Cherry Creek schools are among area districts using programs with “parent portals” so moms, dads and students can check individual status as often as they wish. Douglas County schools plan to implement a program soon.
Another aspect of the system is its instant e-mail link to encourage more efficient parent-teacher communication. Safeguards have been loaded into the programs to prohibit computer hackers from changing grades. Alternatively, some parents have discovered posting errors on quiz or test scores and contacted teachers before the grades get averaged into a final score.
While these programs typically are geared for upper grades, there are plans to eventually bring versions of it to elementary school too.
Oakland Elementary in Denver started using Infinite Campus this fall in a pilot program to track student work.
The site doesn’t list letter grades and scores, says Reggie Robinson, principal at Oakland, but allows parents to see a student’s progress and proficiency.
National education expert William Jeynes studied the link between parental involvement and academic achievement and found student performance was consistently higher when parents were watching. His findings remained consistent across all economic and racial groups and in both urban and suburban schools.
Alicia Pray, technology coordinator at Grandview High School in the Cherry Creek district, says some parents use these programs more than others, depending on their parenting style.
“The same parent who is looking every day would be the kind who calls teachers all the time,” she says.
And using the program won’t turn a D student into one who gets an A any more than not using it will cause a student’s grades to slide, she says.
Karen Riley, an assistant professor in the Child, Family and School Psychology Department at the University of Denver, adds that these programs – while helpful – should not take the place of occasional face-to-face meetings between parents and teachers.
A student could be making good grades or completing assignments but have other issues that a computerized grade book cannot reflect, Riley says.
Still, perhaps most surprising to educators is the impact the programs seem to have on the students themselves.
“I’m so obsessed with it,” admits Shannon Conry, a 17-year-old senior at Grandview. The A student checks the site every day, mostly to make sure she isn’t slipping or hasn’t forgotten to turn something in. Her parents, on the other hand, rarely log on.
“They don’t need to,” she says.
But she has friends whose parents do.
As the school week closes and grades get posted, clusters of Grandview students huddle at school computers to find their grades.
In fact, students seem to check scores more often than parents.
At Smoky Hill High School, for example, there have been 5,479 “parent access” hits on PowerSchool far this year. “Student access” hits have topped 23,000.
Maybe it’s curiosity; maybe it’s competitive.
Or maybe weekend plans are at stake.
Staff writer Jenny Deam can be reached at jdeam@denverpost.com or 303-954-1261.
