TOPIC 10.
Development of Web-Technology Structures
to Facilitate Educational Collaboration
Among Teachers and Parents in Middle Schools
and High Schools

• PTComS - An Interactive Parent-Teacher Communications System
• Virtual Community Toolkit Components Designed to Overcome Specific Barriers to Parent-Teacher Collaboration
• Webs for Learning
• Advanced Web Tools for Educational Interaction
• Research for Development of Customized CRM Software Deployed over a VPN to Facilitate K- 12 Parent-Teacher Partnerships
• The GradeNet Toolkit - Enabling the Web for the Educational Community

SPONSORING OFFICE:
Office of Educational Research and Improvement

Abstract:
This Phase I Small Business Innovation Research Program proposal outlines methodology and research directed towards the development of a web-technology structure that will facilitate educational collaboration among teachers, parents, and students in middle schools and high schools. This Parent-Teacher Communications System (PTComS) will consist of a user-friendly web-based database system that will allow middle and high school parents to access information about school curriculum, and statistical information about specific class and student progress. The web-based interface will also support message forums, email notification and list services, and real time private parent-teacher conferencing. Security of information within the proposed system will be handled by assigning users level specific access and by having public and private sections of the database. The scope of this phase I project entails defining, designing, producing, and testing a basic prototype model to show the feasibility of the concept.

The proposed product will significantly aid parents in obtaining information and in monitoring the progress of their children's schoolwork. It will also aid the implementing school by reducing and streamlining work required for parent outreach, and will help schools achieve the national education goal of promoting parental involvement in education to improve student achievement and performance.

Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:
None provided.

Abstract:
Family involvement is a powerful influence on children's academic achievement, and the foundation for all other forms of family involvement in education is communication between the home and school. The Internet offers an unparalleled opportunity for two-way communication, but there are obstacles to overcome if it is to become a successful and inclusive collaborative medium. Internet-based parent-teacher collaborations will only work if documented barriers to collaboration are carefully investigated and considered in the design of software tools.

Phase I of this project will research and determine the feasibility of integrating software components into a "virtual community toolkit" that specifically address language, cultural, economic and psychological barriers to parent-teacher collaboration. Our research will:

• Identify web technologies that address specific barriers to collaboration.
• Develop a library of toolkit components and design elements for evaluation.
• Test and demonstrate these components through a partnership with a school district that serves a diverse population of middle and high school parents and teachers.

Our goal during Phase I is to determine, through research and testing, if web tools identified as useful in removing barriers to collaboration are effective, so that we can integrate them into a Virtual Community Toolkit during Phase II.

Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:
Phase I of this project will:

1. determine the effectiveness of software components identified as potentially useful in breaking down barriers to collaboration; and
2. demonstrate, through public testing on a school district network, the feasibility of incorporating the best of these tools into a product designed to simplify the construction of an "inclusive" virtual community that facilitates collaboration between the parents and teachers of middle and high school students.

The results of Phase I will be used to specify and produce a full-scale prototype of the Virtual Community Toolkit during Phase II. This prototype will be subjected to a comprehensive field-test during Phase II, followed by the development of a marketing plan so that the toolkit can be commercialized and introduced to the educational marketplace during Phase III.

Abstract:
Middle and high schools serving poor youth cite the lack of parent involvement and support for school aims as a leading cause of educational failure for students. In the most creative of these schools, outreach efforts take many forms but continue to yield less-than-desirable results (e.g., Rossi et al., 1994; Rossi and Stringfield, 1997; Rossi, in press). In more affluent schools, parents also often face subtle and not-so-subtle barriers to involvement in the learning process. Professional jargon, teacher reticence to opening decisionmaking processes to scrutiny by nonprofessionals, students' reticence to having mom or dad at school, and the lack of time and convenient opportunities for teachers and parents to exchange information and review progress all militate against development of constructive relationships. In the absence of these relationships, parent involvement in setting education-related standards and expectations for their children have been shown to be potentially counterproductive (e.g., McDermott, Goldman, and Varenne 1984).

In this Phase I effort, iBuildCommunity.com staff will assess the feasibility of delivering internet-based tools to train teachers and parents to work with one another effectively and to use the web to establish with one another and with students a 1earning place where all can teach and grow together.

Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:
We expect to learn how best to design interactive tools to promote establishing shared vision, trust, and effective communication between teachers, parents, and students in support of learning goals. We also expect to identify solutions to the potential problems of internet access for poor families and of confidentiality for student information. Finally, we will determine the most effective strategies for accommodating the language needs of non-English-speaking families.

Our approach has important implications for delivering needed training and providing communication possibilities tailored to the needs of busy teachers, parents, and students.

Commercially, we will be laying the ground for direct sales of capacity-building tools to education agencies and continuing sales of on-line (ASP) professional development services to teachers, schools, and school districts.

Abstract:
The increase in two-earner families and single parent families over the past 20 years has decreased direct parental involvement in the educational process. New methods are needed to improve positive parental involvement during the Middle School years when the student is experiencing significant social and academic stress.

Electronic gradebooks with Web-based access have recently become available. These products enable report cards, attendance and homework assignments to be tracked and viewed by parents. Although useful, these tools provide only a snapshot of academic performance and do not accomplish the important goal of getting parents fully re-involved in the educational process. Most technology approaches to this issue actually serve to further distance parents.

Mission Research Corporation , in collaboration with the Nashua School District and other school districts in Southern New Hampshire, is developing the next generation of educational Web-based tools to positively re-establish parental involvement in the schools. These tools will feature the acquisition, assembly and porting of student portfolios, Web-cam simulcast and archival of student presentations, teacher-moderated chat rooms, electronic assembly and distribution of school announcements and literature, and the identification and web site linkage to sources of volunteer and professional academic help.

Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:
The results of the Phase I and Phase II programs will be a commercially viable educational tool for use by school districts, parents, teachers and students across the entire country.

The proposed program may be commercialized directly by Mission Research Corporation or in collaboration with existing electronic gradebook software distributors. These products just started becoming available in late 1999 and the market is evolving rapidly as each tries to establish dominance.

Abstract:
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software addresses a wide range of business communication and information needs. Simply put, the more you know about your customers' needs, the more effectively you can act to satisfy those needs. By defining academic performance as the product and the parent as the customer, CRM software could be modified to create a dynamic solution for connecting parents to schools. Parents could visit chat rooms and communicate with teachers in real time. Also, parents who are disenfranchised because of literacy or language issues could also be assisted. A database would log and record all contacts with parents. In addition, parents would have access to data such as curriculum, assignments, projects, school performance, student evaluation reports, forums, statistical data and much more depending on the school's LAN or WAN.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a private connection between two computers that send private data traffic over a public network (the Internet). VPNs have cost and operational advantages over the traditional Remote Access Servers (RAS): First, a VPN requires less maintenance; second, no direct long distance circuit fees are necessary; and third, a VPN can accommodate cable modems and DSL lines. Thus, technology can easily be used to connect parents (as well as teachers) to their school's networks from any geographic location for the price of a local phone call.

Ultimately, School Bell Networks will conduct research crucial to the development of a technological model for interactive Parent-Teacher Partnerships using customized CRM software. Specifically, it will assess the needs of teachers and parents; explore a comprehensive set of capabilities; suggest ways of providing Internet access and PCs to families without computers; and by means of survey, lay the foundation for a quantitative and qualitative study of the results.

Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:
None provided.

Abstract:
Helping teachers use technology effectively may be the most important step in assuring that current and future investments in educational technology are effective. Recent achievements in web-technology provide revolutionary means for educational reform and have created an explosion of new computer-based learning opportunities, but teacher adoption is slow, because teachers face a steep learning curve and perceive little immediate benefit to their work. We propose to remove this barrier by creating a multifunctional open information system, GradeNet. GradeNet will be able to collect, store, and manage students' test scores and assist teachers with their daily tasks, such as preparation and evaluation of tests, exams, quizzes, etc., records keeping; and curricular materials preparation. These immediate and direct benefits in their daily work will motivate teachers to use the GradeNet Toolkit, and transparent integration into an Internet-accessible database will give parents access to a student's achievement data and assignments, and school and district administrations the ability to perform real-time quantitative evaluations of what their students are learning.

Summary of Anticipated Results and Implications:
The end product of Phase I will be:

1. A working prototype of the GradeNet Toolkit user interfaces - Multiple Choice Checking Tool, Teacher's Grade Book Interface, and preliminary Parents-Students Web Interface.
2. Spanish and Chinese versions of Parents-Student Web Interface.
3. A report, describing Phase I results and containing summary plans for production of full scale working prototype (Phase II) and distribution and marketing of the completed product (Phase III).

The Phase II effort will concentrate on the development of fully integrated and fully featured, Web based, information System. Two additional modules to GradeNet Toolkit will be created - Information Exchange Module and School/District Interface, and incorporated in GradeNet Toolkit Information System. The development of these interfaces and refinement of those demonstrated in phase I will be integrated with our key marketing efforts, as we work with all the members of the target community - teachers, administrators, parents, and students - to achieve the simplicity of use and feature package which will support widespread commercial adoption in Phase III. Key to widespread commercial adoption will be the integration of sponsorship of web access, under the control of the school district to ensure that only appropriate advertisers have access, while providing highly targeted marketing opportunities to education-related private companies.

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