Keeping parents up to date on their child's progress is difficult everywhere. But in a multicultural school district like San Francisco Unified (SFUSD), the difficulty is compounded by the number of languages spoken - twenty.
That's why SFUSD is implementing a new school-to-home communication solution that aims to solve the district’s problems in communicating with parents. SFUSD chose School Loop, a K-12 software company that keeps all parties in the loop regardless of language or computer access.
After completing a successful 20-school pilot of School Loop last Spring, San Francisco Unified is rolling out School Loop to its 111 schools, 55,000 students, and their parents in the Fall of 2009. Response from the pilot school teachers has been very strong and the district is providing incentives to encourage all of its teachers to participate in School Loop.
School Loop is an online system that allows teachers to publish assignments, grades and attendance, and parents to get the information they need. Each night, School Loop sends a custom email to each parent and student with the student's assignments calendar, attendance and current grades.
What about those parents who don't speak English? With School Loop partner TeleParent, teachers can use School Loop to reach non-English speaking parent, who will receive a phone call in their native language letting them know if there is an upcoming test, an important assignment, or if their student's grade is trending up or down.
"When I was a teacher I found my scarcest commodity was time. When I founded School Loop, I had as my mission saving educators time while helping them communicate efficiently with all parents. Our technology has allowed this mission to become a reality," says Gross.
