Keeping a closer eye on students
By: Kamala Kelkar
Examiner Staff Writer
August 17, 2009
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| Get to class: A proposal by the SFUSD to use new technology to keep tabs on students’ attendance and grades is not readily accepted by all educators and parents. (Examiner file photos) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Students skipping class or receiving bad grades will soon find it harder to keep their wayward ways from their parents.
The San Francisco Unified School District has signed a $233,000 contract with San Francisco-based School Loop to help teachers save time and encourage more efficient communication among students, parents and teachers. CEO Mark Gross said more than 80 districts are already using the technology.
The data management system has several amenities, such as blasting daily e-mails to parents, making bilingual phone calls for homes without computers and calculating trends in test scores and other areas.
“So we’re kind of coming into the 21st century,” Board of Education commissioner Sandra Lee Fewer said.
Every teacher has the option of throwing away their pens and grade books in exchange for an online data entry system that documents their curriculums, whether students are doing their homework and if they have attended class. Furthermore, parents will be able to see these things online through their own personal accounts.
The idea of opening up the school process to parents via technology is not universally embraced by educators.
Teachers could spend an inordinate amount of time learning how to use School Loop and inputting data, United Educators of San Francisco spokesman Matthew Hardy said.
E-mailing is also a mixed blessing because sometimes it means teachers are expected to be available 24 hours a day, Hardy said.
“It doesn’t really give them any down time. They’re already working 20 hours overtime, including nights and weekends, and parents might expect access to them seven days a week,” he said.
The company, however, disputes that moving to the technology will be a drain on teachers’ time.
Ideally, the teachers would not be using extra time to input the data, and could even appoint a student to do it for them to teach the student how to use the Web, Gross said.
Gross, who started the program for himself while he was teaching social studies to ninth graders in San Jose, said he understands reluctance to change, but the bottom line is the program is supposed to save time.
“We can either say ‘pooh-pooh’ or we can move forward,” Gross said.
Though the new program will help parents keep track of their child’s attendance, school officials say they understand it will not be an instant fix for the district’s long-running problem with truancy. That issue has even led to San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris prosecuting parents for not sending their kids to class as ordered.
School officials say one issue is that not all parents have the technology to use the system and others do not have the computer skills.
But Fewer said she believes it’s all the more reason to start mending the digital divide.
“Let’s start training parents how to use e-mail,” she said. “I think it’s a really great idea.
A watchful eye
Online tracking system will allow parents to have access to:
Calendars
Curriculums
Seating charts
Grades
Homework
Attendance
Student portfolios
Trends
Discussions
Source: School Loop
kkelkar@examiner.com
