I think the Family Access system has helped significantly in parents and students being able to track their progress. No, it isn't perfect, and yes, sometimes teachers can get behind in paperwork or entering grades (it would help if at the high schools prep times were to actually be used to PREP and not walk around the halls with walkie-talkies and checking bathrooms for graffiti, but I digress), but overall I have had parents express a lot more satisfaction with this program than anything else. When I have entered a column for an assignment, but not a grade it automatically comes up as "missing" and I have many parents who call right away to ask about it - and honestly, I LOVE that parents are taking that initiative! My students often check it as well, and I am human, sometimes I make mistakes, and I have no problem being caught in terms of an incorrect score or someone reminding me to get caught up! So, concerned parents - don't give up!

Fisherhouse, I have also taken away the cell phone, computer, video games, social time with friends, etc. I have asked to attend classes. Maybe things are different at Parker but when I asked to attend classes with my daughter, I was told that I couldn't. They said that it would be a distraction to the other children. I figured one week of Mommy being in class with her might change her attitude and I was more than willing to do so.
I guess that sometimes I feel that I am doing all that I can and it just isn't working. I am very involved, some say too involved with my children's lives. They aren't allowed to go to a friends home unless I have met the child and the parents. I check up on them to make sure they are where they are where they said they would be. I make sure there is a parent supervision if they are going to someone's house.
I have spent the last 5 years trying to find something that will work for her with her disability. In fact, I try to do it without putting to much stress on the disability because in the future, she will have to learn how to function in the real world where they will not take her disability into consideration.
Anyways, maybe I/we took this discussion way off topic.
So, back to the topic. I feel that her report and trying to stay in touch with the teachers works best for me to keep up on how things are going at school.

Parker will call and let you know if your child is tardy or missing from a class. The teachers will also send letters if kids are not attending class. As parents we need to be involved with our at all times, not just with school. Parents can always call the teachers and ask how their child is doing. My child knows that if she doesn't bring home the homework I will take her back to school to get it. She also knows that if she starts skipping school I will take her and attend each class in my pj's. She also knows that when the report cards come out and there are f's on it she will lose the cell phone until the next report card comes out. If f's or on that one, no phone. My kid my hate me at time but that is ok with me. We are parents and need to know what our kids are up to. People need to stop putting the blame on other people. Take responsibility.

It's the teacher's job to teach. It's the parents' responsibility to know what the heck is going on with their kids. It is the KID'S responsibility to get their work done. All three need to work together. If you know there's a problem, it's YOUR JOB as a parent to contact the teacher and stay on top of it. Not the other way around. She's got how many other kids to monitor ?? PS - she can send home as many notes as she wants - whether or not your kid hands you the note is not up to her.

I blame evything on the school just because i cant find anyone else. kidding. parents and teachers need to keep in touch better. but the some teachers are worried about making money not teaching kids.

Before there was Family Access I used email. This way I was insuring that I knew what was going on before it was too late.

Trish: I have a son who is the exact same way. He is so afraid of making ONE mistake that to him it is better to not try than err (and therefore learn from it!). It has taken nearly 3 years to get an offical special education referral so he can continue to get the special help and interventions he needs to learn and be sucessful. We have worked very hard to help him overcome and cope with these obstacles and he is showing much improvement. He is still in elementary school, but even there the teachers are telling me that it is HIS homework and HIS choice to do it. That ultimately he has to have the "I want to" attitude. He has homework every night. If it is not in his backpack, I do email his teacher to ask why. If he doesn't turn it it, she emails me to ask why. It is a struggle and frustrating to say the least but has been more palatable because his teachers care and WANT to help: sadly not all teachers around the country are this way. Two of my other kids are well-advanced for their grade levels in school. My daughter does have an on-line homework monitoring system at her school and it does help us keep her accountable for her assignments. But, that only works because her teacher is very diligent in updating it everyday by a certain time! Prior to my son having difficulties in school, it was foreign to me how kids could not do well or how kids could be below grade level. Because of my lack of experience, I was quick to pass judgement and make assumptions. What I can say now: if you have a child who is excelling or even completing scholastic tasks at grade level with a normal amount of "struggling" you are lucky. Until you have a child who knows the material but freezes at test time, isn't exactly at grade level, struggles with reading, or has any other academic difficulties that the "mainstream" kids do not: please don't be as ignorant as I was and point fingers or place blame because you simply have no idea.

MYYEAR08, Did you even read my post? I was at the school at least once a week to check on her progress. I would email her teachers and out of all of them, only 2 or 3 would respond. Then, I would receive a call when it was too late to do anything.
I raised 4 children and only the one has had problems. 2 have graduated and one is younger than this child and in the gifted and talented program. Why is that only this child has problems in the school? Well, it is because she is more difficult to teach. Not by her choice but because she has a disability. One of the differences I have noticed is that in the grade school they had several teacher assistants that were available to work with the children that needed extra attention. I haven't seen that in the middle school setting. I think the teachers need more help. I have seen the way some kids behave as I am in the school all the time and I can see how overwhelming it must be for them. She just tends to get scared of failing and needs constant reassurance to overcome. She seems to think it is better to not try than to try and fail. We work with her every single day at home and at school. The problem I have with the school is that they will not meet or do not have the ability to meet the needs that she has because of her disability. It's not okay to only teach the easy ones. I support the school, voted yes to give the schools the money they wanted/needed, and I post in support of the teachers on their website. As I said, we have had some wonderful experiences and some awful ones. Most of the awful ones are not with the teachers.

MYYEAR08: Please don't imply that students can't succeed if their parents aren't keeping close tabs on their studies. Many parents don't have or don't take the time to be involved --- and the kid still does fine. My parents rarely knew what courses I was enrolled in, much less how I was doing. Still, I was lucky and did well anyway. Other parents are very involved in their child's education and the child still does poorly. In those cases, I agree that teachers need to make the time to contact parents and let them know the whole story. Some students try very, very hard but still don't make the grade. They need and deserve more attention in school. I know that most teachers are short on time, but we need to find a way to invest in students actually learning the material. I would back that more than millon-dollar additions to school buildings.

To MYYEAR08-
When I confronted my son about his homework, he would produce undone assignments most of the time. I would make him do them, and then I would check them over. Maybe once a week he would say he didn't have homework. I could make him do the homework that he would cop to, but I couldn't get him to turn it in. I could drop him off at school, but that wouldn't mean he was going to do his class work. I was under the impression he was turning in his assignments and going to class. He would be in class for attendance, and then get a hall pass for the bathroom and leave school at least once a week, in different classes. By the time the teachers caught on he had missed too much school and was far behind. We received no notices that he was absent from class, or that he was failing. What were we supposed to do? The whole family was pitching in to help him with his homework, and he was still failing.

Four children grew up in the same house, and he was the only one that had this kind of trouble. We tried everything we could to keep him interested in school. We all set examples for others, and we do the best we can. I don't expect the school to babysit my child. I expect them to pay attention to the kids in their classes, and not just hand out assignments. Teachers should notice when their students are struggling. They should contact the parents directly when there is an issue that can't be worked out by simple discussion with the student.

You have got to be kidding me ? You didn't pay attention to what was going on in your childs life the whole sememster or quarter for that matter and you are blaming someone else for that ?

No wonder kids don't take resposiblity for their actions now a days . Their parents don't seem to be able to either !!!!!!!! poor kids didn't have a chance . Blame it on the school ..

I have experienced the same thing. My favorite is the phone call at 1 o'clock in the afternoon on the last day of semester to let me know my child has 20 missing assignments. All missing work has to be turned in by the end of that day to be counted. What am I supposed to do now??? Come pull her out of school, gather all the work from all her teachers and bring her home to try and do 20 assignments in an hour?? Come on. At that point, why even call? Mind you, I am at the school at least one day a week. The skyward access is only useful if the teachers make/have time to update it. I have seen some assignments not get graded and/or put in the system for 2 weeks or more. So, when I go on there and find something missing, I have to ask her is she did it/turned it in.
Don't get me started on how I feel about the schools, teachers and mostly the Principals and Assistant principals. These people have no clue. I encountered many teachers that were wonderful in the grade schools, but middle school is a whole different story.

If an electronic homework monitoring program were in place at Parker HS 4 years ago, I would have found out that my son was failing most of his classes long before the semester grades were issued. I wish someone would have notified me that my son was doing poorly. My other children were doing fine in school; homework was brought home, done and turned in on time. There were plenty of notes sent home from teachers praising them for their work. I received nothing alerting me to my childs poor performance.

Checking that my son did his homework and having an assignment notebook for his homework helped him ZERO! I could not force him to bring his homework home.
Parent teacher discussion helped him ZERO! It made things worse, for whatever reason. He eventually dropped out before his junior year.

I am curious to know if there are other parents in Janesville who have experienced the same thing.