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East Richland puts more information online

Olney Daily Mail - November 07, 2005

Mary McGlasson, Staff Writer

Communication between parents and teachers has always been one of the key factors in ensuring a quality education for any child. Educators have traditionally attempted to foster this through parent-teacher conferences, newsletters, meetings, and other avenues.

In the age of the Internet, however, more options exist to allow educators to more effectively bridge the gap between parents and teachers. The East Richland School District recently implemented Edline, a website hosting system, into the administration of all three district schools in addition to their previous websites.

Edline allows schools and teachers to post grades online; create detailed websites at the school and classroom level; and maintain a variety of special features, including district, school and class calendars. The program makes all of this information easily accessible to parents and students when they log in to the system.

Edline is still fairly new for the schools and their teachers: ERMS and ERHS have only gotten the various web pages and grades up and running in the past few weeks, while ERES plans to fully incorporate the system later this month. Nevertheless, the early results say this venture is a successful one for parents and teachers alike.

First and foremost, it allows parents access to their child’s grades with a frequency and efficiency heretofore unknown. One of Edline’s features includes an automatic e-mail notification for parents when grades are updated, so they may more easily keep tabs on new grades. “Parents like to have a way to monitor their child’s progress, and with this they can monitor it themselves, accurately,” said ERES Principal Suzanne Hahn.

ERHS Principal Chris Simpson agrees. “The response has been overwhelmingly positive from parents,” Simpson said. “I’ve received e-mails and heard comments from parents saying how good the system is and how appreciative they are to be able to check their student’s progress.”

The Edline implementation poses its own set of new problematic issues even as it solves old ones. The first hurdle is obvious: Not everyone with a school-age child owns a computer or has access to the Internet.

However, ERMS Principal Andy Thomann sees this as an obstacle that can be overcome, thanks to the availability of public Internet access. “Many people either have a computer – not all, but more than you think – or can get to the public library to gain access to one,” he said.

Along those lines, both teachers and parents need training to properly use the Edline system – more so for teachers than for parents. All three schools worked hard to provide ample time for their teachers to learn the software and implement it, and the flexibility is there for teachers to utilize the system in different ways according to their comfort level with the technology. By all accounts, the teachers have adapted well.

“All of the middle-school teachers are using it,” Thomann said. “Some are more tech-savvy than others, of course, so some will give it 110 percent while others will give what’s needed, but everyone’s been doing great.”

As for parents, basic familiarity with the Internet allows them the necessary skills. “It’s a very user-friendly system,” Simpson said. “Most parents who have any computer knowledge at all can navigate it easily.”

The schools have made an active effort to ensure that parents know about and understand the Edline system, sending out notifications and access codes in advance. All three schools timed the final implementation of the system to coincide with their first rounds of parent-teacher conferences and open-houses, and ERMS used the most recent meeting of its Advisory Council, which is made up primarily of parents, to train parents in the system’s use.

According to Simpson, early stats show these tactics have worked well for the high school. “By the time we had parent-teacher conferences on Oct. 20 and 21, parents already had their access codes for a couple of weeks. By then we had 125 parents log in,” he said.

As ERMS and ERHS continue to spread the word about Edline, ERES plans to have its system up and running, with grades posted, for third through fifth grades by midterm. The school plans to complete training for its kindergarten through second-grade teachers in November and December for a second-semester implementation.

As both an educator and the parent of an ERMS student and an ERHS student, Hahn is enthusiastic about the Edline system. “I think it’s excellent, just wonderful,” she said. “It’s a great resource to keep parents well-informed, and it allows closer contact with the children.”

Simpson sees Edline as a way of reaching out to parents who have a more difficult time staying apprised of their child’s day-to-day education. “It can be a struggle at the high-school level,” he said. “Parent involvement traditionally decreases as the child goes to higher classes, so our goal is to help parents to be active partners in their student’s academic progress.”

For East Richland schools, introducing an Internet-based communications program marks an important step into 21st-century education and administration. “We’re hoping it will streamline a lot,” Thomann said.

“That’s down the road aways, but that’s the direction things are heading, and we want to make sure we jump on board.”

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