Schools and Districts Across Oregon Receive Chalkboard Grants
Contact:
Chalkboard Project
(503) 542-4325
info@chalkboardproject.org
Technology Grants Aim to Help Parents Help Students with Assist from Intel
PORTLAND, Ore. (Dec. 15, 2005) – The Chalkboard Project today announced recipients of technology grants that will allow parents to use the Internet to access attendance, homework assignments, and grades on a real-time basis.
The grant program is a strong step forward in advancing Chalkboard’s Parent Involvement tool kit, which helps to bridge the gap between parents, schools and communities. A majority of Oregon parents recently told Chalkboard in its statewide poll that they want schools to make better use of computers and the Internet to involve them in their schools. The grants underscore the significant role technology can play in knocking down barriers to the classroom, and achieving better communication between parents and schools.
The recipients are:
- Creswell High School, Creswell
- Hugh Hartman Middle School & Deschutes Edge Charter School, Redmond
- Huntington School, Huntington
- Oaklea Middle School, Junction City
- Oregon City School District, Oregon City
- Reedsport Junior/Senior High School, Reedsport
- Sunridge Middle School, Pendleton
- The Emerson School, Portland
- Warrenton Grade School, Warrenton
Grants will be funded through the generous support of Intel Corporation and paid through The Oregon Community Foundation, a founding partner of the Chalkboard Project.
The grants will draw on the expertise and national reputations of Edline, a highly acclaimed technology company that provides web-hosting services for K-12 schools, and eSIS, an international web-based student information system.
Both Edline and eSIS allow parents and students to access attendance, homework assignments and grades on a real-time basis, utilizing existing school software programs. With either system, parents can now let their kids know they are keeping track of their progress.
“Anytime you can provide parents with information about their student, it is a positive,” says Chalkboard president Sue Hildick. “This technology will provide schools with a simple, but powerful tool to communicate with parents and staff.
“With mom and dad checking up electronically, there’s new reason for kids to toe the line.”
Here's how the technology works:
Beginning as early as this spring, teachers at select schools across the state will be able to send out detailed emails to students and parents covering anything from class notes, to assignments, to test scores and grades.
The web navigation operates similarly to My Yahoo! but is easier because it integrates with the school's existing software. Students and parents have 24-hour access with individual passwords, and permissions that can be set at different levels.
Parents with several children in different grades, or even different schools within the same district, use one login to access information about all of their children. Parents will be able to use this technology as a means to check up on class assignments, due dates, missing work, materials needed for projects and more. Perhaps most importantly of all, this tool keeps the channels of communication wide open, enabling parents to better help their kids when their grades start to slip.
"Eventually mom and dad will find out, but now we can nip it in the bud. If there's a problem week two, we can deal with it in week two, not week 10 when it's too late," said Creswell High School principal Jan Ophus.
In Southern Oregon, Connie Roye plans on doing just that with her three sons next year, thanks to Edline. All three boys attend Reedsport Jr/Sr High School.
"It will allow us to track their performance on homework and quizzes. If we see their grades start dropping, we’ll be ready to step in to contact their teachers," said Ms. Roye.
“For years we’ve been dreaming of an integrated system where our schools communicate effortlessly with parents,” says Roger Rada, superintendent of Oregon City School District. “We love the idea of a one-stop solution that will download rosters, upload grades, comments and attendance. This is a smart way to use the Internet to keep parents informed of their child's progress, attendance and missing work in a timely fashion.”
In a previous statewide survey conducted by Chalkboard last year among all Oregonians, 83% identified lack of parent involvement as the #1 obstacle to student achievement. When Chalkboard unveiled its comprehensive 15-point Action Plan last June to make Oregon’s K-12 schools among the nation’s best, the foundation-led group highlighted the need for dramatic improvement in the area of parental involvement and promised to roll out a series of initiatives aimed at addressing Oregonians’ leading concern. Today’s announcement is the first major step toward fulfilling that promise.
Chalkboard’s next announcement around strengthening parental involvement is expected to be unveiled in early January, and will take direct aim at breaking down barriers that underrepresented families, including those for whom English is a second language, sometimes face.
About Chalkboard Project
Launched in early 2004, Chalkboard Project exists to inspire Oregonians to do what it takes to make the state’s K-12 public schools among the nation’s best, while strengthening our school system’s financial accountability to taxpayers. Chalkboard aims to help create a more informed and engaged public who understand and address the tough choices and trade-offs required to build strong schools, and to enable statewide programs that can be applied at the local level to improve school quality, accountability, and funding. To date, Chalkboard has connected with about 100,000 Oregonians, asking for their best ideas to strengthen the state’s K-12 public schools. It also has partnered with other education organizations to create the Open Book$ Web site www.openbooksproject.org to track school district spending.
Chalkboard – an initiative of Foundations For A Better Oregon – is sponsored by a growing list of independent foundations. The founding five foundations are: The Collins Foundation, The Ford Family Foundation, Jeld-Wen Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, and The Oregon Community Foundation. For more information about Chalkboard and to learn how to get involved, call (877) YOUR-K12 or visit www.chalkboardproject.org.
