The Role of Online Grading Programs in School/Community Relations
- PDF / 198,127 Bytes
- 15 Pages / 595.22 x 842 pts (A4) Page_size
- 60 Downloads / 179 Views
Volume one, Issue two
July 2011
The Role of Online Grading Programs in School/Community Relations JOSEPH T. CAMERON New Sathorn International School, Bangkok, Thailand Bio Data: Joseph T. Cameron is an American with many years of experience as a teacher in the USA. He now lives in Bangkok where he teaches at the New Sathorn International School. Abstract This paper discusses online grading programs and their role in school/community relations. It also looks at the consequences from the lack of consistent communication among the school and the student and the parents. In order to gather the information about the use of online grading programs, surveys were distributed to Ten grade 12 students who are currently using online grading program and 20 teachers at a private international school in Bangkok, Thailand. The study finds out that implementing an online grading program, properly managed, can effectively and efficiently share timely information between the school and parents. Introduction Building and nurturing more effective school/community relations is an important part of raising a school’s effectiveness at achieving its main goal – raising student achievement. Studies show that making the students, parents and community feel part of the school increases the effectiveness of the school and helps all parties involved. (Zygmunt-Fillwalk, 2006) Indeed, there are school/community relations of some form occurring all the time, whether school staff are aware of them or not. Students talk with their friends and families about what happened at school. Parents talk to other parents about their children’s school. Teachers talk with each other about the students and 91 | P a g e
Language Testing in Asia
Volume one, Issue two
July 2011
parents. A gap of mistrust is created, spread and widened because the parties talked about are not the parties being talked to. Transparency in the education process keeps all parties accountable and aware of where the other parties stand. School buildings however, tend to be separated from the rest of the community. (Black and Wiliam, 1998) Students enter the building every day but in their lessons, there is often a disconnection between what their perception of their achievement is and their teachers’ perception of their achievement. Students turn in lessons and may or may not get results and/or feedback from their teachers. The teacher keeps up with the students’ progress but does not necessarily share that information with the students and certainly not with the parents until grades come out. There just is not enough time during the term to share individual grades with individual students and individual parents. Thus, at grade time, there is normally a great deal of surprise. Students who do not get specific feedback from their teacher are surprised at their low grades. Parents, who get all their information about the student from the student, are equally surprised at the low grades. Teachers, who have experienced the lack of effort and/or understanding in the student and ar
Data Loading...
