Celeste Paul likes to keep up with how her son, Rio, is doing in school. But Paul is busy and at 12, Rio, like many his age, may not always be the most forthcoming about things.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where the Kent School District\u2019s SKYWARD Family Access program comes in. By checking in with the district\u2019s computerized gradebook system, parents and guardians can follow along with their students\u2019 progress, checking on homework assignments, test grades and attendance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d Paul said recently. \u201cI think it gives the parent the ability to stay abreast of what\u2019s going on in their student\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul said it\u2019s not always easy for teachers to get information to parents, especially through middle school students, but Family Access gives her a running log of exactly how Rio is doing.<\/p>\n
According to Meridian Middle School Principle Doug Boushey, that\u2019s exactly what administrators had hoped for.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents and parents can work together to find out if they need to make adjustments,\u201d Boushey said. \u201cYou can zero in on why exactly a student is doing well or not so well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes away that lack of communication that comes when kids are starting to become independent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Family Access program was created in 2006 for the middle and high schools in the Kent District. This past fall, a pilot program expanded Family Access to 10 of the district\u2019s elementary schools, though it is slightly different at the primary level, where only student information \u2013 not grades \u2013 are available.<\/p>\n
According to Susan White, who leads the district\u2019s support team of the program, the application was brought in to help create a better partnership between teachers and parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to make sure everybody is as up to date as possible,\u201d White said, adding that she hears \u201cvery positive feedback from parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cParents love it,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can see record and it\u2019s immediate feedback for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul said she checks every day to make sure Rio is staying on top of his work and though she says he is \u201cpretty excited\u201d about the program himself (sometimes leading her online to see a grade he is proud of), Paul says Rio would prefer his mother did not have the ability to check up on him like that.<\/p>\n
But she says Family Access has allowed her to catch him in a few attempts to get out of doing homework.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt keeps him honest,\u201d she said. \u201cSkyward\u2019s gonna tell it.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Boushey, the parent-student split is fairly standard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of students who would prefer it wasn\u2019t there,\u201d he said, but added that parents \u201creally, really love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boushey said Family Access can help create a \u201chealthy conflict\u201d between parents and students and can help them catch a problem early enough to make a difference on grade books.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you find out too late it\u2019s hard to do anything about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Learn more<\/p>\n
For more information on the SKYWARD Family Access program visit the Web site www.kent.k12.wa.us\/ksd\/it\/familyaccess.htm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Celeste Paul likes to keep up with how her son, Rio, is doing in school. But Paul is busy and at 12, Rio, like many his age, may not always be the most forthcoming about things. That\u2019s where the Kent School District\u2019s SKYWARD Family Access program comes in. By checking in with the district\u2019s computerized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":14676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14675"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}