Parent Link is a new online tool to help families follow their children’s academic progress and collaborate with teachers to address their children’s academic strengths and weaknesses. Families will be able to use Parent Link at home and in conferences with teachers to view detailed information about their children – including information about attendance, course grades, and scores on State tests and diagnostic assessments. Parent Link will also allow parents to find out how their children’s schools compare to other schools serving similar groups of students. During the next several weeks, schools will distribute instructions to families about how to access Parent Link. Here are some of the things parents will see: child’s homepage; math page; transcript. Elaine Long was part of pilot program and has been using the Parent Link for the past few months.
Q. You are the Parent Association President at PS 85 in Queens. What grade is your son in? What kind of student is he?
A. My son, Ryan, started at PS 85 in kindergarten, and he’s now in fourth grade. He is nine and a half. I am very, very happy with the school. Academically, Ryan is doing very well. He’s performing high threes and fours in math and high threes in reading. So far it’s been good; I have no complaints about PS 85. The teachers are wonderful, sensible, and sweet.
Q. When you first heard about Parent Link, what did you think? How tech savvy are you? Were you intimidated by the technology?
A. The first time I heard about Parent Link was during the parent-teacher conferences in March. The school was encouraging parents who were interested to check it out in the computer lab. My husband and I did, and we sat down with somebody who showed us the system.
I wasn’t intimidated—I know how to log on to a Web site, and that’s basically what it is: you’re basically given a Web site address and your child’s student ID number and you have to create a password. So, all of that I understood.
Q. When you first logged on to the Parent Link and saw Ryan’s information, what did you look at first? What features were you interested in checking out? What was most helpful?
A. The very first thing I saw was his profile, when he had started at the school back in kindergarten, the day, the year. It also had our address and teacher information (what teacher he currently has). The woman helping us with the site told us where and when the ELA scores would show up and where the math scores will show up. She also explained to us that when the scores were up, we would get the exact score and then would see where our child falls compared to other students—I think it would be a little bit more of a breakdown. You can also compare from year to year, as your child takes more and more tests. And since I first logged on in March, Ryan’s third grade scores are now on the Parent Link. The school has since gotten the fourth grade ELA and they’re on now, just went up the other day.
Q. How did you find information about Ryan’s academics in the past?
A. The scores from the internal assessment, to be honest, we never really received the scores unless you knew about it and you asked at parent-teacher conferences or you made a special request to the teacher. Teachers do tell parents they’re doing assessments, but a lot of parents might not ask for it and the scores weren’t sent home. So you really just got the ELA and math scores at the end of the year. And the report cards.
Q. So there wasn’t a lot of information in between the ELA and Math scores and report cards?
A. No, not unless you specifically requested it.
Q. Did you see anything that surprised you about Ryan’s academic history when you logged on to Parent Link?
A. I wasn’t totally surprised at his math, to see where he was. It did help to see the range for his reading, the ELA, because it showed me how close he was to a four. I don’t know exactly how many questions he got wrong, but you could see that he was a high three.
I was also surprised with the attendance. My daughter who’s in kindergarten at PS 85 was out sick a few months ago. Her absences were already on the Parent Link when she’d just gone back to the school that day.
Q. How has PS 85 been communicating with families about Parent Link? Have you spoken with other parents about it?
A. We were informed at evening Parent Association meetings and breakfast meetings. And I think one or two notices were sent to the parents that said to go online and check it out. Outside of my school, I have mentioned Parent Link to my sister who lives in Little Neck, Queens, in District 26. I was telling her that our school was testing the system to keep track of all the kids’ grades, their attendances, and everything. I told her that it was very interesting. Actually, I found out my son’s ELA score before she found hers.
I think Parent Link will give parents a feeling of more and more about what’s going on with their kids, their test scores, grades, keeping track of their attendance. It’s knowledge for the parents.
Q. What advice do you have for parents who are logging on for the first time?
A. Just follow the instructions—it’s very straightforward.
Q. You’ve been checking out Parent Link since March. How often have you been logging on?
A. I probably logged on again at the end of April and then again when I heard about the ELA scores being entered. I also logged on just recently and I found out there was information on my daughter, who is in kindergarten. I happened to be with the parent coordinator of our school, and she said did you check out ARIS for your daughter? I didn’t think there was anything on there about my daughter except her attendance but the younger grades are doing something called e-Class, which evaluates the kids’ knowledge of early childhood education. There was a column that said on, below, or above level. My daughter fell on “on.” She was “on” for everything,
Q. Is there anything else you’d like to say about Parent Link?
A. I think it’ll give the parents more power. Empowerment. Like you asked before, prior to the ARIS system, how did we get their test grades? We really didn’t, right? We got it from the school, and we never questioned anything because it was too late! You know, it was like here’s your report card, bye, have a nice summer! I’m not saying that about my school, I’m just saying that’s how it is. Now you will hopefully know earlier if your child’s score is below, if he’s on, or if he’s excelling.