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Palos Verdes Peninsula News - December 18, 2003

By Chris Boyd

Technology has changed the way we live and communicate, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District is not immune to its effects.

For the past year, district officials slowly have begun using a new Internet-based, electronic-communication system known as Edline, which they hope will enable better communication between schools and parents. By accessing the system online with a user name and password, parents at no charge can get information about their children, including the classes they're enrolled in, grades and attendance, as well as a schedule of tests and a list of homework assignments.

"We made it available to every school and there are various stages of implementation," said Superintendent Dr. Ira Toibin. "Peninsula High School probably is in the furthest stage of implementation."

Peninsula High Principal Kelly Johnson said 2,500 out of 2,820 students, as well as more than 1,000 parents, are using Edline, a program he calls "unbelievably successful."

When students are out sick, they can access their homework assignments on Edline. "It lets the student have up-to-date information," Johnson said, adding that doing so also saves staff time. "We're moving toward where we'll be doing registration online. We are simply joining the 21st century."

Johnson credits Assistant Principal Karen Darling and teacher Gary Kurdyla for making Edline work. Kurdyla gives Edline training to teachers and sets up the system at schools across the district.

Now, teachers can grade papers and update lesson plans at their home computers. "Peninsula High has had two years of intensive technology training," Kurdyla said. "You always have people who are a little reluctant to try something . . . but teachers who use if find it saves them time because they can archive all their lessons. It's very stable, very secure and very easy for teachers to use."

Said Toibin, "Ultimately, that's what will get people to migrate over and use the system."

Kurdyla is working to get both Palos Verdes and Rancho del Mar High Schools online with Edline. "We have a community where a majority of the kids' parents have computers," he said. "By next year, everyone will be on Edline."

Principals at the different school sites determine what goes into Edline. For example, Johnson has told teachers that Peninsula High parents can view their children's assignments and grades. Soon, those parents also will have access to their children's attendance numbers.

Big Brother?

Some students complain the system is Orwellian, but district officials point out there's nothing on Edline that parents can't get through a simple conference with their child's teacher. The only difference is that with Edline, the information is available as soon as a teacher posts it.

Peninsula High parent Alexis Parkes gets an email every time a teacher updates her 10th-grade daughter's profile. "I can keep track of every grade, every test, every quiz, every homework assignment that goes on in a class," she said. "I love it, but my daughter hates it because I know way too much. We're right up to speed with her and what's going on in her classes."

Four out of five of her daughter's teachers use Edline extensively, Parkes said. "With Edline, I can pretty much know what's going on at the school on a day-to-day basis. It's almost scary," she said. "You can also email the teachers."

Though Parkes sometimes worries she's invading her daughter's privacy, she said the system has helped improve her grades. "It's been a blessing in our family because she was having trouble in some specific areas," she said. "This is a good way to monitor their progress and make sure they stay on track."

Besides, Parkes said, it's up to parents to choose how much of their children's information they want to see and how often they want to view it.

Johnson agrees. "If you don't agree or think it's an invasion of privacy, don't look at it," he said.

But what about parents who want to compare their child's grades to other students, or the student who wants to compare himself to his classmates? Is Edline secure from everyday hackers?

District officials answer with a resounding, "Yes, as long as parents and students don't give away their passwords," Toibin said, "nobody can access their information. It's protected in the same way that your bank account is protected," he said.

To get an Edline account, Parkes had to create a login name and password, as well as obtain an access code from the School District. "Unless you hand out that information, I don't think there's anyone who would have access to it, except maybe the school," she said.

Students also must get their own IDs and access codes. Though there have been snafus, such as one student changing his parents' password, they have been minimal, Kurdyla said. "It's very secure."

Future of Edline

Eventually, Toibin said, teachers will generate electronic report cards and file them on Edline. At the elementary school level, teachers soon will include an explanation of how state standards apply to students' grades.

"The goal is for the parents to be able to see how their child is doing at any point in time," Toibin said.

Dapplegray Elementary School Principal Fred London said the electronic report card is still about a year from fruition, but his school already has saved 2,800 sheets of paper a month by sending its newsletter online. "We jumped into it in September. It's a great tool," he said. "The biggest thing is getting people to use it."

Nearly 70 percent of Dapplegray parents currently use Edline, according to London. "Once you wean them away from the paper thing, they've got nowhere else to turn," he said.

London plans to upload electronic grade books on Edline in the near future so parents can check students' progress daily. "We're working on that now to get it nailed down," he said, adding that Dapplegray also uses Edline to post a master calendar and information about other elementary schools. "It saves us a lot of paper."

One elementary school parent using Edline is Carri Bender, whose two children attend Montemalaga Elementary. "I use it probably twice a week, and I use it to check up on what's new in their classroom," she said.

Bender's eldest son, a fourth-grader, uses Edline and its links to other sites to improve his classroom skills. "They have many different kinds of math and science games," she said. "[The kids] also like to look at it because the teachers put pictures on there."

Bender recently moved to the Peninsula from Omaha, Nebraska, where she didn't have access to anything like Edline. She views the system as a blessing. "This way, I don't have to be bothering the teacher," she said. "It really improves the communication and I can find out what's going on in the classroom."

Privacy isn't much of a concern to Bender now that her children are young, but she admits it could become an issue as they get older. "You can make it as private as you want to make it," she said. "I would hope there is nothing they'd want to hide. I don't think you can put anything on the site that they don't know."

When it comes to security at the elementary level, London said it's a matter of keeping confidential information, such as special-education reports, off Edline. "As long as we can keep the system clean of that kind of stuff, we're OK," he said. "We don't want [users] having access to the whole class."