Grade books to be posted online for Chesapeake parents' perusal

By Amy Coutee
The Virginian-Pilot
© February 16, 2008

CHESAPEAKE

This spring, hundreds of Chesapeake parents will be able to find out if their children skipped a class or aced an exam without waiting for the youngsters to tell them.

Hickory Middle School and Oscar Smith High School parents will be the first to test an Internet program that lets families see teachers' grade books online. Among the things parents will see are absences, test scores, homework assignments, schedules and notes from teachers.

Suffolk and Norfolk have similar programs that give parents online access to students' grades. Virginia Beach will offer a program called SchoolNet for parents starting in 2009.

The goal is to help parents monitor student progress and improve communication between teachers and parents, school officials said. Only the teacher can change the data in the system.

The Chesapeake program is free for families, but it cost the school division about $138,000. Officials do not know how many students' homes have Internet access, but said teachers can print out any of the information parents need. They would not say how parents will be notified about the program, and the division has not decided when the program will be rolled out divisionwide.

Amy Coutee, (757) 222-5216, amy.coutee@pilotonline.com

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Great Idea

Submitted by contractorva on Sat, 02/16/2008 at 9:38 am.

This is a great idea, but, I'm glad it wasn't in use when I was a young student in a Chesapeake Public School. I have spent a few days when I supposed to be in school at crystal lake, or the cat hole fishing, or just trudging around the woods or swamps. I know it doesn't matter now, but, at the time I would have preferred my parents never found out. Thank God there was no Internet then, I would have never gone outside. Many of the places I frequented are now gone, and are covered with businesses, houses, and wider roads.