April 2008 — Features
Print this article | Email this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Meet the Parents
Notification tools can do more than alert the school community to an emergency. New systems are cultivating parental involvement by sending home daily reports on students' behavior, attendance, and performance.
AS THE SINGLE PARENT of a student at South El Monte High
School, just east of Los Angeles, Marilyn Nihipali is all too familiar with short and
cryptic exchanges with her daughter on the subject of academics.
The nightly talks usually begin innocently, with Nihipali starting simply, "How was school today?"
Her daughter, like teenagers the world over, answers succinctly, flatly: "Fine."
Most of the time, their chats lack the detail that might convey to Nihipali how her daughter is performing in her classes. But she now has an ally: the school's new parent notification system, a service from TeleParent that contacts Nihipali personally by text message or phone to let her know how her daughter is doing.
The system goes beyond basic emergency notifications with its Situational Student Messaging. Based on information her child's teachers provide, the TeleParent system tells Nihipali if her daughter got to class on time, whether she participated, and whether she did her homework. The system also informs Nihipali of her daughter's conduct in class- important information, considering the sophomore has a history of behavior problems.
"Having this information has given me a better sense of how my daughter is doing in school," says Nihipali. "I try my best to look after her, but this fills in the gaps."
TeleParent and other "parent involvement solutions," as the company bills its service, are facilitating parents' efforts to keep watch over how-and what-their children are doing at school. While many of these systems fall under the broader umbrella of student information systems, which function both for the sake of the school as well as the home, many are standalone services that exist exclusively to keep parents clued in.
While parent notification technologies aren't without challenges, their benefits are indisputable. Anecdotal reports from teachers will tell you what a 2002 study by SEDL (formerly the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory) confirmed: Students with involved parents are more likely to attend school regularly, earn higher grades, and have better social skills. The SEDL report (see Bytesize, below right) also showed that students with informed and involved parents are more likely to continue on to post-secondary education.
Sean Moshir, founder and CEO of mobile technology provider CellTrust, notes that other positive effects include increased attendance and declining discipline problems. "Knowing when an assignment is due or when a special event is taking place," he says, "or even understanding a child's difficulty in school, brings the parent closer to the child."
