E@sy Marks

Some teachers are tossing aside their trusty old grade books for new high-tech versions that do everything but teach.

by Mary Ellen Flannery

Scream if you’ve ever heard a student sputter, “But you didn’t tell us we had a test today!” Or heard one moan, “Am I getting an A in your class?” And how about this old saw from parents, “No, my darling definitely did not share (fill in the blank) with me!”

Now stop shrieking and listen to Joshua Hunter, a first-year science teacher at North Carolina’s Charity Middle School, answer all those questions and complaints for his students and parents.

Click... Click... Click.

It’s not that Hunter is averse to conversation; he’s just found a more efficient way to share information about assignments and grades. Instead of keeping score in a paper grade book, this tech-savvy teacher has created a virtual one—accessible by password to parents and students on the Internet.

The payoff? “It has made my life tremendously easy,” says Hunter.

Since kids worship all things that glow, they jump at the chance to go online and check their assignments—relieving Hunter of endless reminder duty. Plus, it improves his contact rate with squirrelly middle-school parents. While they might never set foot into his sixth-grade laboratory, their fingers can do the walking on his Web page.

Log in, click on the calendar feature, then pick a date. “Using the information you have learned about your ecosystem,” one day’s posting began, “you are going to create your own animal!” Or, check grades and send a quick question, “Mr. Hunter, will there be any opportunities for extra credit this semester?”

Hunter uses Grade Connect , a free Web-based system designed by a Pennsylvania teacher, but there are loads of products offering a range of services. Start with a good electronic grade book—something to track your dozens of quizzes and figure final grades at a flash—but don’t look far.

For $72 a year, NEA offers an Advanced Teacher Toolkit  that provides a standards-based report card, as well as lesson planning and assessment tools. For free, teachers also can use the tool kit to write individualized education programs (IEPs) and check the curriculum standards in their state—both popular options, says NEA staff Rick Geier. “Teachers finally have quality, easy-to-use instructional and classroom tools designed by practicing teachers,” he says.

This kind of technology, Geier adds, “is transforming

the way teachers do their jobs, making them more efficient and responsive.”

BEFORE YOU CLICK YES

But there are a few challenges in making online grading or electronic report cards work for you. Just ask Roger Green, an English teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology  in Northern Virginia. His school requires the use of grading software—but where, exactly? Green doesn’t have his own classroom, and the system doesn’t allow home access.

And, teacher access to the online world isn’t the only problem: Not every parent has welcomed Bill Gates into their home. Many simply can’t afford to—yet these are some of the families who most need direct contact from educators.

“We’re trying to be conscious of the fact that some of our people don’t have access, and some of the people who might be hurt most would be people with least access,” says Larry Tuura, Webmaster for Minnesota’s Wayzata School District .

At rural Charity Middle, where Hunter teaches, about two-thirds of students can’t pay for lunch, and many don’t have computers at home. To the contrary, in Tuura’s suburbs, almost every student is racing along the information superhighway—and about half of their families have “gone paperless” and opted for instant grades on the school Web site.

Tuura, also a foreign language high school teacher, can’t wait for the day when every teacher and student signs on. How easy does this sound? Post a Spanish quiz on your own Web page, ask the kids to log on from their desks and test their vocabulario, and then sit back while their scores are automatically recorded. Some services also allow for moderated online forums, where discussions can be held in virtual classrooms.

THE POWER OF PAPER

“I don’t need convincing,” Tuura says. “As a teacher who posts homework online, I rarely get interrupted by students asking what they missed while they were absent. And since parents know everything is online, I don’t get a lot of phone calls or e-mails dealing with day-to-day things either.

“I think the kids are happy that they can check [their progress] frequently. They’re always calculating end-of-term grades—figuring out whether they’ll be able to drive the car that weekend!”

But Tuura acknowledges that some colleagues do need convincing—and a great deal of training and on-call support. Why, they wonder, should they throw out a system that, for all its flaws, works? “Some people have said, ‘This is the only way I know how to do things. You’re going to change the world on me,’” he says.

At times, Virginia’s Green also feels that way—a little bit Luddite in a new world. He does appreciate advancements, and he loves the idea that technology could help him keep track of each student’s skill mastery. If a computer program could speak to that need, Green would surely listen. But, at the same time, he worries that his other senses might be deprived.

There’s something about the heft of a paper grade book—its rows of inked grades recording the years gone by that comforts.

“Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, I’ve been teaching for 25 years,” Green says, “but there is a certain emotional security in something I can hold.”

Photo: Stephanie Bruce