PowerSchool Powers Up

In the week since instruction letters went home to parents, 929 families have logged in to see their childrens' progress.  Superintendent Brian Osborne mentioned the figure at Monday night's Board of Education meeting, not as part of a formal report, but noting PowerSchool's popularity so far.

The PowerSchool Parent Portal is an online program that allows parents to monitor  academic performance of their sixth through twelfth graders. The program gives parents password-protected access to an online grade book. The grade book can include information such as attendance records, completion of homework and lab assignments, grades earned on individual quizzes and tests, midterm and final examination scores, quarterly grades, and teacher comments. In addition, the site maintains a record of student test scores.

Notification went out last week to parents, who received log-in instructions in the mail.  Board member and district parent Andrea Wren-Harden tried the system and praised it at the meeting. "It's easy and intuitive," she said, noting that it engages "kids and parents."

Osborne noted that he experts more parents to try out the system, especially, he said, after the first report cards go home. Secondary school report cards will be mailed on Fri., Nov. 19.