Wired schools help keep parents in the know

If Cori Capik forgets to jot down a math assignment, she no longer squanders an evening by calling classmates who might also be clueless. With a few clicks of her laptop mouse, the eighth grader at Miami's Palmer Trinity School can easily track down that homework assignment - or any other one she might have missed. And while she's at it, she can peek at her current grades, check the date of her next science quiz, or download the middle-school dance schedule.

Her mom, meanwhile, has all of the same access. Several times each week, Cherri Capik takes full advantage of the Edline software, which her daughter's school implemented about three years ago, by simply visiting Palmer Trinity's website and entering her password.

"This keeps me from asking every day about her assignments," she says. "Now we can bypass that conversation, and I can still be supportive."

Although students at Palmer Trinity, a private middle and high school, are largely from affluent families, they are not necessarily part of an elite club. Every year, more schools across the United States, both public and private, are joining the online world with websites that post news about school events and also allow parents and students, via confidential passwords, to access teacher comments, test results, and grades.

As this phenomena is still relatively new, statistics about how many schools are wired for parental access are hard to come by, says Don Blake from the US Department of Education. But the National Center for Education Statistics did determine in 2002 that 99 percent of public schools have access to the Internet, 86 percent of those schools host a website, and 68 percent of those update this website at least once a month.

Interviews reveal generally positive reports about American's increasingly wired classrooms. Even teachers, for whom frequent updates about students' work means more recordkeeping, are enthusiastic. For them, it can also mean less phone tag with parents, fewer surprises when it comes time for parent-teacher conferences or report cards, and the ability to deal with problems faster.

"This is a wonderful change," says Steve Laredo, a history teacher at Nantucket (Mass.) High School. "It allows parents to really know what is going on and support their kid's learning. It also removes any doubt or conflict, since the students know their parents know what the deal is, so they're less likely to try and scam their parents."

Cherri Capik puts it another way: "The only bad news is for kids. They can't make any more excuses."

For some families, Internet access to information makes it possible to monitor and more quickly correct behavior problems.

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