By Karen Braynard

Staff writer

This school year, many parents will have the opportunity to monitor their children's grades via the Internet.

Edline, a web hosting portal and software program, allows teachers at participating schools to input students' grades for Internet viewing.

"Edline is an industry leading solution," said Matt Frey at the office of educational technology.

He described the program as a great communication tool for teachers, parents and students.

The program is actually two software components; Grade Quick for the teachers' input and Edline for viewing access.

"Many of our teachers were already familiar with Grade Quick, which was one of the reasons the district went with Edline," he said.

"We trained 460 teachers on the program over the summer. Exit surveys showed 90 percent were satisfied with the training," he said.

"Hopefully that correlates with their satisfaction of the program itself. We'll know in October when we survey the participating teachers again."

Mr. Frey said 18 of the 57 elementary schools were already using the program and 21 of the 27 secondary (middle and high) schools were using Edline.

"At least 6,198 parents have activated accounts and our goal is 10,000 by November," he said. Based on the number of student households, in the county, there are almost 50,000 potential accounts.

Martha Moriarity's son is a sophomore at Satellite High School. She has high hopes for Edline to help her stay in touch with his teachers.

"If used correctly, this program will allow parents great access to their child's teachers, grades and assignments," she said.

"If I have questions, all I have to do is e-mail the teacher right from the Web site," said Mrs. Moriarity.

In the past, her children's teachers had their own Web sites and grades were not posted for personal security reasons.

"The teachers' Web sites were very labor-intensive to maintain. I have to believe this new system is much easier on the teachers," she said.

Mr. Frey said Edline cost the school district $225,000 to purchase. There is an annual fee as well.

Mr. Frey stressed that confidentiality and security are important and parents should feel more secure knowing the technology used for Edline is similar to bank security software.

According to the Edline Web site, security of the student's information is provided through advanced firewall technology which is monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The site also states physical security is maintained via biometric recognition (hand scanning sensors), motion sensors, security alarms and video cameras.

The schools with the most number of parent accounts are Viera High School with 646 parent accounts and Tropical Elementary School in Merritt Island with 229 accounts.

"We're requesting the remaining schools submit a strategy for implementation and anticipate full participation by the 2008-09 school year," Mr. Frey said.

Mr. Frey said so far the informal feedback has been positive. Parents should be aware that it is up to each principal's discretion as to whether or not a particular school will participate at this time.

"Hopefully parents will be patient with the program as we bring teachers and school online," said Mr. Frey.

Call Karen Braynard at (321) 751-5962 or email braynard@hometownnewsol.com