After decades of having very limited access to their school districts’ student information system, teachers are now being seen as full-fledged members of the SIS user base. This change has come about as a result of several factors:
Most teachers now have the required computer (whether workstation or laptop) and most school districts (via the e-rate program) now have a robust telecommunications network interconnecting all classrooms, schools, support units and the district office.
Teachers are increasingly expected to frequently update student progress related information in the student database, and employ analytical use of student achievement data derived from the student database to inform their instructional design decisions.
Parents and students are increasingly demanding transparency into the underlying data which supports the periodic reporting of student progress (report cards, etc.), as well as requiring that communication between parents and schools be more convenient and consistent with the other means of communication they employ in their everyday work and home life.
Synergy® addresses the needs of today’s Teacher through its TeacherVUE solution for gradebook, classroom management and standards-based reporting functions.
TeacherVUE Classroom Management – This module allows teachers to view the full range of data contained within the student database, subject to the security provisions adopted by the school district and school. It also provides a quick and efficient way for teachers to input attendance, grades, assignments, and other information into the student database.
TeacherVUE Gradebook allows teachers to create and grade assignments, including exams, quizzes, and homework. Class, grading setup, and student information is loaded automatically and there is no limit to the number of classes or students that can be defined for each teacher. Teachers can create any number of assignments per class, and can group related classes to allow sharing of assignments, including sharing between classes taught by different teachers if allowed by the teachers and administration. Teachers can also organize assignments into customizable categories, which can be weighted for purposes of computing student grade averages. Grading scales can be loaded centrally for all teachers to use and teachers can use different grading scales for different assignments within their classes.
Standards-based Report Cards – The gradebook module also supports standards-based grading. Standards and their associated rubrics can be loaded centrally, and applicable standards are selected for each subject. When an assignment is created, teachers select which standards apply to the assignment, allowing them to grade the relevant traits/objectives using a rubric, letter grades, or percentages, depending on how the standard is defined. Cumulative averages are tracked for each trait/objective for each standard associated with a subject. The standards-based report card displays the trait/objective grade for each standard and grading period.
ParentVUE – This module allows a parent (with educational rights) access to demographic, attendance, assignment calendar (including school and district events), health/immunization, discipline, conference, course history, graduation monitoring, grading (report card and grade book entries), fees, schedule information and the online course request process.