MarkBook's Role in School Success : Aurora High School

Aurora HS has implemented an intelligent and effective school success plan. This school has developed such a stellar reputation that some parents living outside the school's boundary send their children considerable distances to attend Aurora and to participate in that success.

Bob Hart, Principal

The following are extracts from an interview with Bob Hart (BH), Aurora HS Principal, by Asylum Software Inc. (ASI):

ASI: Aurora has a superb reputation and we understand that communication has played a key role in the school's success. How does the school communicate so well?

BH: Communication is a huge component of the success plan. The school has collected Email addresses from 97% of our parents. Teachers send home MarkBook Email interim report cards, sometimes weekly. Every Friday, the school sends home an E-bulletin with upcoming events, attendance, news stories with photos about recent extra-curricular successes, and so on. Also, staff members are encouraged to use paper report cards, and to make telephone contact when any significant issue arises. That personal touch is so important! Of course, it's a lot easier for the staff to send a hundred Email reports than to make a hundred phone calls! Parents are thrilled with the quantity and quality of information flowing from the school. Additionally, the school's web site has lots of current information for both learners and parents. Teachers use their "moodle" interface tool to add to the site constantly - please have a look at http://www.aurorahigh.ca/school/ By using multiple channels for continuous communication, our extended school community feels very connected to the school. And when all of the stakeholders are connected, we get a supportive environment, and then both academic and extra-curricular successes happen!

ASI: We understand that there was an Email problem just after you became principal. What went wrong?

BH: During the summer holiday, the local ISP changed the way that it handled outbound Email. When teachers attempted to communicate through MarkBook in the first few days of September, the ISP labeled all of it as spam and dumped it. Very quickly, both teachers and parents knew something was wrong - teachers weren't getting responses and parents weren't getting anything from school at all! By the end of the first week, I had complaints from both parents and staff. Of course, I was blamed because I was the new principal! With the district's help, we scrambled to fix the problem and electronic communication has flowed properly ever since.

ASI: Do some parents really expect to get reports from teachers in the first week of term?

BH: Yes. And if they don't get Email and our other communication, they're not shy about telling me! A lot of questions are answered on the school web site so we direct may queries there. But Email plays a key role in maintaining the three-way partnerships among teachers, parents and learners.

ASI: How do you maintain such a high percentage of Email contacts?

BH: Email addresses are collected as part of our registration process and entered into the student information database. Teachers collect some too. Every time that an Email bounces as undeliverable, one of the vice-principals or a secretary calls to find out what happened and to get any new address(es) from that household. We also set up a reception table at school events like Parent Night to gather new contact information.

ASI: What are some of the other components of the success plan?

BH:

1. At the start of the year, every student gets a copy of the school agenda planner. This booklet includes an academic calendar plus a statement of school and district policies. Students use the planner as an organizational tool academically and personally. Again, they're connected!
2. Parents and other adults are given lots of opportunity to become involved - they like to participate to their school's successes. Many of our coaches are teachers but others are community volunteers. We hold evening events, like a Grade 8 parent Open House, for future parents through our feeder schools. At the last one, we thought we'd have low attendance due to a bad snow storm, but six hundred prospective parents showed up! Parents become involved before their child's first day in the school!
3. Every learner can get involved in an extra-curricular niche of their own interest. Music, sports, art, clubs and student government are examples. We include outreach to local shelters and to the Third World.
4. Our parent School Council has four chairs. Each one is in charge of a different component of our community involvement.
5. During the term, our student success coordinators identify students at risk and provide remediation opportunities plus credit recovery. Aurora has a caring and committed staff devoted to student success.

Michael McGibbon, Head of Mathematics

The following are extracts from an interview with Michael McGibbon (MM), Head of Mathematics at Aurora HS, by Asylum Software Inc. (ASI):

ASI: When did Aurora HS start sending MarkBook reports home?

MM: It began about 2000 with MarkBook's paper progress reports. In 2005, Richard Cherry, our Vice Principal at the time, began collecting parent and student Email addresses and adding these to the student information system. The staff picked up the addresses in the data transfer to MarkBook and began sending electronic reports to students and to parents.

ASI: How have the students reacted?

MM: The kids like to see their personal success in each subject classroom. Frequent progress reports are very important to them! And electronic communication keeps them in touch with what's happening in each classroom when they're absent.

ASI: How have the parents reacted?

MM: Parents have told me that the school is amazing with its communication. I have twin daughters attending this school in Grade 11 so I'm a school parent too! I've been getting Email report cards from every subject teacher here since they started in Grade 9. I get the best of both worlds - I see the variations that other teachers use for reporting and I get to copy their good ideas with my own classes.

Detailed Email reporting opens the door to kinds of dialogue that didn't happen ten years ago. For instance, it has helped our parents understand the new mandatory categories for assessment. That assessment process is now very clear to parents. In the old days, parents got a mark. Now they can get a comment, suggestions for improvement, a category analysis, learning skills, classroom attendance and detail about the results on all assessments. And with frequent progress reports, there are no surprises when official reports come out!

ASI: Do teachers keep copies of the Email sent?

MM: Yes, we use the CC option in MarkBook so that we have a permanent record of all correspondence sent electronically.

ASI: Has teacher acceptance of electronic reporting been high?

MM: Yes. MarkBook's Email reporting is so easy to use and takes such little teacher time - those are major reasons why Email reporting has been so successful here. Progress reports are an important tool for teachers too.

» Return to MarkBook's Role in School Success

©1999-2008 Asylum Software Inc.   All Rights Reserved