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48 °F Forecast | Road Cams Friday, January 28, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 23, 2004 Web site to bare student progress Medford School District parents will be able to tap into their children’s grades, attendance and homework assignments By DAMIAN MANN Mail Tribune Parents soon will be able to log on to the Medford School District Web site and get detailed information about their child’s academic progress. Missed assignments, coming assignments, grades and absences will all be just a few mouse clicks away for parents who have children in Medford high schools or middle schools. Teachers also will post comments and announcements on the Web program called PAL, or Parent Access Link. Individual schools will announce dates and times for informational sessions before PAL is rolled out in February. The district will have a similar program for elementary schools in the future. Advertisement Schools already allow e-mails from parents to excuse absences. Now there will be a link that allows the parent to send the e-mail directly to the attendance secretary. Links also will be available to send e-mails to individual teachers. Keith Brabham, manager of information technology for Medford schools, expects a flurry of activity as the program becomes available. "Discussions we’ve had with other districts indicate that right off the bat there is a lot of activity, and then it comes down," he said. School board member Tricia Prendergast wondered if the program would place an extra burden on teachers. Brabham said, "I don’t think there will be so much extra work, but when you make a change there is a always a learning curve." Most teachers already keep an electronic grade book to keep track of the 180 or so students they have. And parents are already using e-mail to contact teachers. Some parents send two to three e-mails a day. Although the program has been tested by administrators and teachers, Brabham said it hasn’t been tested on all operating systems and Web browsers. "We’re not guaranteeing it will work for every system out there," he said. To ensure privacy, parents will be required to fill out a form, available online, and return it to the school. "We want to make sure the parent is the parent," said Brabham. Once the verification is made, an e-mail is sent to the parent with a password to access the site. The district’s Web site, which was upgraded last year, is http://www.medford.k12.or.us . Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers