October 2001 — Applications
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North Ogden Junior High Adopts Gradebook Solution
A few years ago North Ogden Junior High in Weber County, Utah, had no computers, no network and no software to speak of.
Teachers spent long hours doing grade calculations, yet parents and students were in the dark until report card time.
The staff was overburdened recording daily attendance from paper forms and inputting quarterly grades to their district's administrative software. "We spent all this time coloring in scanforms," says teacher Ron Farnsworth, of his quarterly grading process.
“...[With Edline] teachers click to post GradeQuick's
detailed progress reports so families can view this
secure up-to-date information form home.”
Jackson Software's GradeQuick, a cross-platform gradebook, resolves those issues. GradeQuick integrates with most administrative packages in the market, including North Ogden's AS400 CIMS system from NCS.
GradeQuick eliminates thousands of dollars in scanforms, freeing staff from time-consuming and error-prone manual data entry, and keeping parents up-to-date via the Internet.
At the beginning of every class, teachers simply click on their seating chart to send attendance lists directly to the school or district office.
GradeQuick keeps grade calculations updated and at the end of the quarter instantly sends them to CIMS at report card time.
 Student view of an Edline class page. Shortcuts to grade reports and calendars appear in the upper left corner. |
Using the Edline Web service, teachers click to post GradeQuick's detailed progress reports so families can view this secure up-to-date information from home.
They can also post calendars, homework assignments, news and more. This is critical in helping inform parents before report card time.
"Several years ago we dreamed of an integrated system where each school communicated effortlessly with the [Weber County] district," says Farnsworth, who helped implement the software.
“GradeQuick eliminates thousands of dollars in
scanforms, freeing staff from time-consuming and error-prone manual data entry...”
"We wanted one solution that would download rosters, upload grades, comments and attendance. We wanted to leverage new technologies like the Internet to keep parents informed of their child's progress, attendance and missing work in a timely fashion."
So, Weber County started searching, comparing and contrasting software seeking the best solution, which ended up being Jackson Software's GradeQuick.
Today, nearly every school in this 35-school district uses the Jackson solution. "We bought a total, comprehensive package - it's the approach I recommend - that way you don't fall into the trap of finding some key features that require some other major implementation later on," says Dr. David Lundstrom, district technology director.
