Edline

An e-mail response within 24 hours from a teacher; a weekly report on a child’s grades; and around-the-clock access to school assignments and schedules. Those are just a few ways technology in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD) is helping to improve the lines of communication between school and home. The technology is Edline—the world’s leading web-based solution for K-12 schools. School officials say the improved communication from Edline has resulted in more parental involvement and led to higher student achievement.

“Edline has had a significant impact on school to home communication,” said Trent Bahadursingh, technology services administrator at PVPUSD. “It’s really changing the culture of how our schools and community can work together. A key component of academic success has been strong parental involvement.” Two of PVPUSD’s high schools are listed in the US News & World Report's Top 100 “Gold Medal” High Schools in America, and many of the district’s elementary and intermediate schools have been recognized as California Distinguished Schools.

Studies have shown that an involved parent results in an excelling student. “Edline really helped our family through a rough period,” said Julie Robinson, a mother of two boys. “When my one son turned apathetic toward school three years ago, Edline allowed me to check his homework assignments daily to make sure he was turning them in.” The opportunity to catch a problem early helped her son get back on track before his grades suffered too far into the school year. Now her boys—one at Palos Verdes High School, the other in Miraleste Intermediate School—check Edline regularly to manage their schedules, review homework instructions and check their grades. And with her boys attending two different schools, Robinson finds it helpful to log on to one Web site to find all the information she needs—from combined calendars to academic updates.

“There are no surprises with Edline,” said Laura Schenasi, mother of three in PVPUSD. “You get information immediately from the school and can give feedback immediately to your kids.” When her children do well, she can play her part in continuing that behavior by rewarding their successes. And she sees a greater confidence in her kids with every success they achieve. Her kids are on Edline all the time as she encourages them to be responsible in printing out their homework assignments and checking their calendars for scheduling purposes. Schenasi recognizes Edline requires additional effort for teachers as they input all of the necessary information; but in the long run she believes it results in less work for them because parents become more involved in their children’s lives with Edline.

Middle school teacher Cherish Steinbach has seen the fruits of her labor. She recalled when four students were absent from her class, they all returned the next day with completed homework thanks to the online access to their assignment. Students also have “digital lockers” where they can store data and files, easily retrieving from home what they have done at school. Steinbach sees more students being responsible about their schoolwork because they have all the information they need whenever and wherever there’s Internet access. Steinbach noticed students are more motivated once she updates their grades online, especially if they score poorly on a test. “It changes their behavior in class,” Steinbach said. “They tend to ask more questions in class and seek help after class.”

Steinbach also likes the ability to communicate with parents via e-mail. She said, “In the past, during conference time, parents experienced a lot of panic when they found out their child wasn’t doing well in school.” She now is able to address the problem right after a grade is posted. “It allows parents a more active role more regularly sharing the responsibility with their child's teacher.”

An estimated 17,700 users are online with Edline this school year in PVPUSD. The number of teachers, parents, students and administrators has steadily increased since Edline’s inception four years ago. In schools across the country, high Edline usage rates have shown high student achievement; so PVPUSD believes the web-based technology will continue to play an important role in its school culture and success.

More accountability in the classroom is helping students in the Palm Beach County School District (PBCSD) achieve success in their schoolwork. And it’s Edline—the world’s leading web-based solution for K-12 schools—that’s holding administrators, teachers, parents and students responsible through an improved line of communication.

“Edline has become part of our family life,” said Cindy Wilcox, parent of two and computer technology assistant at Allamanda Elementary in PBCSD. Using Edline for the past five years, Wilcox says she and her children, who attend Bak Middle School of the Arts (MSOA), log onto Edline daily to check various information—from school schedules and homework assignments to announcements and student club details.

On a weekly basis, grades are posted and Wilcox receives emails from her children’s teachers alerting her of new grades posted on the site. “My kids will even go online to check their own grades,” Wilcox added. “Edline has helped them take more responsibility for their school work and schedules.” The technology also has Wilcox feeling more connected to her children’s teachers with Edline’s e-mail feature. “Within a day or two a question is answered or problem resolved.” There’s no playing phone tag or driving to the school for a meeting; and that means at-risk students can be identified and addressed earlier rather than later in the school year.

Teachers are encouraged that the extra time they put into communicating via Edline has gotten parents more involved in the educational process. “Parents have a greater understanding of the upcoming assignments and current grades,” said Lisa Hanser, a 7th grade gifted social studies teacher at Bak MSOA who uses Edline weekly. Hanser also goes to Edline to post her PowerPoint lesson plans and attach Internet links helpful to her students. “I’ve seen the quality of students’ work improve, especially in students who have lost or forgotten their school assignments,” Hanser added. Students have no excuse now; they can access all of this information online from home, a library, or their parent’s workplace—wherever there’s an Internet connection.

Hanser also has found Edline useful in reaching out to parents with requests for project supplies or volunteer speaking opportunities. It does require additional time for teachers to input all of this information, but they find it well worth it.

School administrators have found advantages when it comes to time management. “Time is saved in the reduced number of phone calls and teacher-parent conferences that are necessary,” noted Elizabeth Kennedy, principal at Bak MSOA. “Edline provides a good back-up for important information and assists when paper handouts are misplaced.”

Teachers and administrators continue to find creative ways to keep families engaged with Edline. Teacher Web pages now include audio and visual content, such as photo slide shows of field trips and student created presentations. A few schools are translating their Edline sites into Spanish and Haitian/Creole. As for the IT professionals, they are working to put textbooks online.

No more book bags? “The hope is to have half of student textbooks available via the Web by year’s end,” said Kim Cavanaugh, Manager of Technology in the Palm Beach County School District. There will be no excuses for not being able to do homework because a book was left in a locker. And students won’t have to overload their backpacks with books. All of their reading needs will soon be accessible at home online.

An estimated 500,000 students and adults throughout the district use Edline. “Kids are rabid about it,” Cavanaugh noted, and they are driving the demand for teachers to update their content. Features like combined calendars and all-school events power student use too.

With all of this dissemination of information, Cavanaugh said, Edline is “rock solid in integrating and handling it,” making communicating a lot easier. The result is a more confident kid in the classroom knowing they have an online tool to be successful in school.

If you’re making the long trip across Pennsylvania via I-80, just off Exit 62 you’ll find the Clarion Area School District in Clarion, a town of about 10,000. Despite its rural environs, this is a university town with many professionals.

The district opted for the full suite of Edline solutions in the summer of 2009 but for many years has been an active user of GradeQuick, the powerful, teacher-friendly online gradebook solution to manage every critical classroom activity — assessments, attendance, lesson plans, standards, reporting and online parent communication. Rich in features yet entirely intuitive in terms of design and usability, GradeQuick is available in web, network and handheld platforms.

“We chose Edline and GradeQuick as a way to save time and prevent headaches. Plus it was fully compatible with existing administrative software. Edline provides a good, solid product with a simple gradebook interface,” says Jim Smyton, Clarion’s I.T. coordinator.

Smyton admits that when GradeQuick was introduced there was some resistance among teachers. “As with any change, we had some convincing to do early on but, when they realized how much time GradeQuick would save over the long term, they embraced it happily.”

That’s true. Whether among teachers or administrators and staff, Edline’s exclusive GradeQuick solution is saving countless work hours and making life easier at Clarion.

Since it was designed with their needs and experience in mind, teachers like GradeQuick because it’s easy to use in terms of posting grades with a simple click in a familiar interface that actually looks like a gradebook. Plus, Edline offers a cross-platform solution. Whether Windows or Mac, teachers can use the personal computer or operating system they prefer.

More than anything, though, GradeQuick is a timesaver for teachers. At Clarion Elementary they’ve recently moved from a handwritten to an electronic system that is fully integratable with the existing district-wide system. And inputting grades now takes a mere fraction of the time. “What used to take teachers two full days of work over a weekend — calculating grades and averages, filling out report card content, transferring grades to report cards by hand — now is completed much, much faster, with just a few keystrokes,” says Smyton.

The same is true for quarterly grade distribution reports. Instead of lengthy calculations by hand, teachers have all the information they need instantly available through existing software that interfaces seamlessly with GradeQuick.

For administrators and staff, GradeQuick offers a level of speed and quality retrieving essential data that wasn’t available before, which is particularly useful for school transfers, state reporting, and other administrative needs.

“We’re able to get statistical data reports that used to be unavailable or difficult to obtain. Like grade distributions by school, class or subject — a treasure trove of information — all in one place,” says Smyton. “It’s pretty outstanding stuff. I wonder how we lived without it before.”

Ultimately, however, the true beneficiaries of Clarion’s use of Edline and GradeQuick are students and their parents. Studies show that when parents are more involved, student performance increases.

“Our parents want to be very engaged. With Edline they can interact with the school much more and see the progress of their children in content areas. If they see a problem they can be proactive rather than waiting for results and the end of each quarter,” adds Smyton. “This is where Edline really makes a difference for us. It helps us give parents a window into education of their children.”

Schools of all sizes, whether public or private, constantly seek out ways to improve their academic experience both inside and outside the classroom. But especially during these difficult economic times, school administrators face the challenge of budget cuts rather than the luxury of extra dollars to allocate.

Administrators at Bayside Academy, an independent, co-educational college preparatory school in Daphne, Alabama, however, have found a simple way to save nearly $10,000 each year. How did they do it? Bayside's leaders knew that getting school news and announcements in the hands of parents was essential but that the labor and production expenses involved with vital informational mailings of this sort were using up precious resources. So Bayside turned to Edline, the world’s leading web-based communication solution for K-12 schools. And in its first full year of using Edline, Bayside has seen its annual mailing and labor costs to the 550 families it serves decrease by almost $10,000.

Before partnering with Edline, Bayside's routine contact with parents mostly involved sporadic monthly mailings. These included such school news as sporting events, camps and other extracurricular activities, lunch menu options, as well as students' homework assignments, attendance, quarterly and semester grades and other progress reports.

With Edline, Bayside now has a coordinated and systematic method for sharing information with parents via a private and secure website customized for Bayside. When something new is posted or when important details change, parents receive an email alert encouraging them to access that information.

“There’s a fine line between overwhelming parents and keeping them informed,” says Mills. “Edline helps us walk that line — and parents appreciate it.”

The savings from moving to a web-based solution come in many forms: fewer sheets of paper and envelopes used, reduced postage, less wear and tear on copy machines and other equipment, and decreased maintenance and labor costs.

“But it’s important to realize that we are seeing value beyond that in many ways that aren’t so easy to quantify,” notes Mills. As an example she cites the extra work created by having to quickly alert groups affected by canceled sporting events or activity time changes. Urgent announcements such as these, when time is of the essence, now can be sent directly to those who need to know via an email alert system, dramatically reducing the workload for school personnel.

That’s right: no more time-consuming, last-minute calling trees. “I really don’t see how we ever could go back to the old way,” says Mills.

Edline has become an essential element of the Bayside experience for both parents and students. Beyond simply sharing information, this web-based solution helps engage parents and their children by encouraging dialogue among all members of the school community.

“We’ve stressed that it is as important to activate their Edline accounts as it is to enroll,” adds Mills.

And there's more good news: saving money with Edline's web-based communication solution allows Bayside to reallocate funds toward improving access to technology, purchasing books and teaching supplies, and enhancing extracurricular activities — areas that enrich the Bayside experience for students.

In just four short years, Edline’s cutting-edge communications and technology solutions have become an integral and appreciated part of the instructional routine at South Park School District in southwestern Pennsylvania. The suburban district may be relatively small, with just 2200 students spread across an elementary, middle and high school, but it benefits from an administration that understands the importance and power of online technology used to its full advantage. And with an increase in teacher turnover during recent years, the staff is getting younger and more enthusiastic about using technology to improve student performance and increase parental involvement.

Today, South Park’s teachers of core subjects are required to use Edline, but most other teachers use it regularly as well. Each Friday the district calls for teachers to post such information as grades and assignments for the week ahead. This helps students keep up with coursework and plan accordingly — and provides parents with better insight into their child’s education.

“In the rare cases when a teacher is absent and does not post this weekly information to his or her class page, we know right away because parents call wondering where to find the latest information” says Steve Boisvert, director of technology at South Park. “So we know the system is working.”

Even so, since Edline was implemented, teachers in South Park report a dramatic reduction in time spent on the phone with parents — sharing and repeating information — because nearly everything parents need is now readily available online.

South Park teachers also like Edline because of its familiar, intuitive interface, ease of use, and speed, all of which allow them to do most things themselves quickly and easily.

“I mean it as a compliment when I say that Edline is not overly sophisticated. What it does it does well, plus the learning curve for users is quite flat,” adds Boisvert. “And frankly, teachers don’t really want or need all the bells and whistles. They need the ability to do some basic customization and post content quickly. Edline gives them that.”

Boisvert says that South Park coordinated intensive training when it first implemented Edline but all that is needed now is a few hours of training each fall for new teachers, who are then assigned a mentor to guide them through using Edline during their early days with the district.

One teacher group in particular appreciates what Edline has to offer. Thanks to the “Link a Student” feature, Edline has become a particularly powerful tool and timesaver for Special Education teachers, who may not see specific students as regularly as homeroom or other teachers.

“It saves those teachers in particular a ton of time on information gathering. The old way was to walk the halls to collect grades and track progress of Special Education students. Now that information is accessible online with just a few mouse clicks,” says Boisvert.

He adds: “Teachers of all kinds are overworked as it is, with little extra time for planning outside the classroom. When you have a system in place like Edline and, rather than grumbling, you actually get thanks — well then you know you’re doing something right.”

Boisvert has empowered users among the ranks of teachers, administrators and support staff to add and edit content. “That means I don’t have to be the webmaster for everything, which I like,” he says.

In doing so Edline has become a powerful tool for sharing vital and timely information both within groups among the district and with parents and the South Park community.

“Edline does what it needs to do for us very well,” Boisvert says. “I can tell you, we’ve had zero complaints. And that’s remarkable.”