Gilroy
– More high school students and their parents are able to get
homework assignments and grades online thanks to increased teacher
participation in a controversial Internet-based communication tool,
high school administrators report.
Gilroy – More high school students and their parents are able to get homework assignments and grades online thanks to increased teacher participation in a controversial Internet-based communication tool, high school administrators report.
Despite teacher protests and worries about extra work when the program was introduced in fall 2004, the number of teachers using Edline – a Web site where parents and students can access academic information that teachers post – rose from about 25 percent in February 2005 to the current rate of 70 percent, said Greg Camacho-Light, assistant principal at Gilroy High School.
Teachers typically use the program – hosted by a Chicago-based company that has a $5,000, two-year contract with the high school expiring later this year – to share class assignments, attendance figures and grades. Students and parents can then access this information from any computer for free.
Teacher usage increases
In the months after the program started, participation from teachers was about 25 percent and many complained that expectations that they use it were unreal.
“What bothers me is when teachers are expected to volunteer,” said math teacher Wayne Scott in February 2005. Using Edline would require 30 minutes more work each day than using his own personal Web site, he said.
Now two years later, some teachers are finding that using the program has, rather than increasing their work, decreased it, Camacho-Light said.
“I was a little hesitant at first,” said Guido Zvigzne, who teaches social studies to 10th and 11th graders. Soon he realized, however, that “it lightens the teacher’s workload.”
Zvigzne worried that learning the program would be a laborious process. However, the training was brief and inputting student grades and assignments for his five classes takes only about an hour each week.
This hour of time is more than paid off by a decrease in time spent answering questions, he said.
“It just makes communication faster, quicker and more efficient,” he said.
Students, Parents find it useful
Students – of which about 60 percent use it, estimates Camacho-Light – agree that Edline makes information about their performance in classes much more available.
Members of the high school choir, now in the midst of a 12-day tour of Japan, are using it to prevent falling behind on work, said Barbara Heisey, a district parent and wife of parent club president Bob Heisey. Her son plans on using the estimated 12-hour plane flight back home across the Pacific as a chance to catch up on the classes he missed Wednesday and Thursday, she said.
Another student on the choir trip, Carly Apuzzo, uses the program even when not on a school trip or missing school, said mother and Trustee Denise Apuzzo. All six of Carly’s teachers post information on the Web site and it is therefore an easy way to keep track of performance, she said.
However, the program is just one means of communication teachers can use, Apuzzo said.
“I don’t think it should be required if teachers want to do things differently,” she said.
Some students would be fine if their teachers did not post as it makes it easier for parents to catch when students slip up or skip school.
“God, I hate Edline,” said senior Mandy Jo Torres. “My mom uses that on me all the time.”
Despite the positive feedback from all parties using Edline, the program is not likely to become a mandatory part of instructors’ duties at the high school, said principal James Maxwell.
“That would be a union issue,” he said.
The extra hour required to input data into the program would have to be stipulated in teacher contracts and compensated for, he said. Doing this would be tough, he added.
“Since we’re the only school using it, it would be very difficult to negotiate something just for the high school,” said Maxwell.
The high school is thus looking for ways to encourage, rather than require, teachers to use the program, he said.
The school’s contract with Edline expires at the end of the school year. The school is already considering other providers, including School Loop – a Burlingame-based company that charges $3 per kid per year. This two-year total of nearly $15,000 would purchase a cleaner, more modern interface and an easier process for uploading documents, said Camacho-Light. However, the process is still in the early stages, he added.
Even with these advantages, teachers, parents and students using the current system might not utilize the new one because learning the new system takes time and effort, said Camacho-Light.
“It may be ultimately easier,” he said, but “we could lose some participants.”
In addition, the school would have to pay to train the teachers, he said. Therefore, choosing which provider to go with will be about striking a balance among price, usability and the behavioral patterns of teachers, parents and students.
Whatever the decision, it will be aimed at including parents in the effort to make students succeed, said Maxwell.
“As kids get older, parents get less involved,” he said. “Schools look at any way to keep that involvement going.”
