Keeping track of your kids
Putnam City parents now can go online to check their children’s grades, attendance and more.
Among its bells and whistles, ParentCONNECT allows parents to check on a child’s assignments, receive an e-mail if he or she misses class or fails to turn in homework.
The service is free. It is password-protected and linked only to a parent’s child.
Going back to a conversation we had last week here on The Oklahoman’s eighth floor, getting your child’s whereabouts (or when he or she isn’t in class) beat implanting a microchip in the skin. Leave that for pets.
I like the idea of being able to check assignments, homework, etc., but the real draw to me of this service is the e-mails if a child skips class or doesn’t turn in something.
To sign up, visit https://parentconnect.putnamcityschools.org.
“We don’t expect or even want ParentCONNECT to take the place parent-teacher conferences, phone calls or any kind of interaction that takes place now between parents and school staff. We see ParentCONNECT as an added tool to make sure there is the strong school-to-home connection that helps students succeed,” Superintendent Jim Capps said in a press release.
Study Break
It’s time to study. For lawmakers, at least.
The Oklahoma Senate has announced 35 interim legislative studies, and several are tied directly to education.
Here are the topics — some rather broad — along with the Senator who requested the study and committee it was assigned to:
Graduation and drop out rates; GED requirements and rules; Thunderbird Youth Academy; Sen. Kathleen Wilcoxson; Education committee
Academic Performance Index; Sen.Kathleen Wilcoxson; Education committee
“Weighted” students, “at risk” students, and the proportion of funding schools receive; Sen. Judy Eason-McIntyre; Education committee
Funding mechanism for (OSU) Extension Services; Sen. Jeff Rabon; Appropriations committee
Review of the higher education funding formula as it relates to two year and regional institutions; Sen. Kenneth Corn; Appropriations committee
Higher Education funding formula with respect to institutional peer groupings; Sen. Susan Paddack; Appropriations committee
Review the constitutional and statutory requirements for serving on the Oklahoma State Board of Regents for the Agricultural and Mechanical
Colleges; Sen. Patrick Anderson; Education committee
What are your thoughts on this list? Do you think anything will come of the committee studies?
E-mail me at ssimpson@oklahoman.com
Susan Simpson, Education Writer
Cheating news
I received another e-mail today from my favorite test-security experts, Utah’s Caveon Test Security. This stuff is never boring, folks. Caveon reports:
1.) TIME
(Vietnam) …In recent years, entrance-exam fraud has been highly publicized in local media. Last year, two dozen students were caught being fed answers through Bluetooth headsets concealed under wigs. Earlier this month, police busted a ring issuing fake IDs to university students who were to take the test for struggling prospective scholars. The price? $2,500 — more than twice Vietnam’s average annual wage. In response to concerns over cheating, authorities have beefed up security, calling in local police and even the Public Security ministry to guard exam sites….
2.) San Francisco Chronicle
…More than 30 years ago, Donald Campbell, an eminent social scientist, warned about the danger of measuring effectiveness by a single influential metric. The more any quantitative indicator is used for decision-making, he said, the more subject it will be to corruption and the more it will corrupt the very process it is intended to monitor. The use of high-stakes testing is precisely the kind of process that Campbell’s Law unwittingly foresaw. When attention is focused on standardized test scores to the exclusion of other factors in evaluating educational quality, the stage is ideally set for unethical behavior. Uprep, however, is not alone. And neither are charter schools….
3.) Institute for War and Peace Reporting – London
(Kazakhstan) …According to the press service, the man was arrested as he attempted to sell a compact disc for 1,300,000 tenge (around 10,600 US dollars) containing 10,000 codes of correct answers to UNT questions. During a subsequent police raid prompted by the arrest, NSC employees found large sums of money – 25,000 dollars, and over 2 million tenge (around 16,000 dollars) – said to have been received for assistance in passing the UNT….
4.) Inside Bay Area – Oakland, Calif.
…This year, Padia said, investigators found 2005 algebra and geometry test booklets at the school — a major security breach. As a result, he said, Uprep’s standardized test scores for 2007 will be invalidated as well. “This is pretty serious, in terms of having actual copies of the test,” Padia said. State education officials have asked Oakland school district officials to take over the investigation and to handle the administration of future state tests at the school, Padia said….
5.) ArmyTimes.com – Springfield, VA
…Thomas was a test examiner for the Office of Personnel Management when, between September 2000 and February 2002, she received a total of about $1,500 in cash for boosting ASVAB scores for about 70 applicants, according to court documents. The documents also state that Thomas conspired with Guard recruiters when determining which test scores to manipulate….
6.) SFGate.com – San Francisco
…Now, eight former teachers assert in a 27-page report to state and local education officials that a culture of cheating exists at the school. And they say it’s done at the top level. The teachers claim: — Students’ grades are frequently falsified. — Course titles don’t always match the easier content tested. — Low-scoring students are barred from taking state-required exams in an attempt to keep them from lowering the school’s scores. — Discipline is arbitrary and intimidating….
7.) Naples Daily News – Naples, FL
…The number of students taking online courses is surging, which is making things very difficult for educators who want to prevent cheating. “We have gone from testing with paper and pencil to almost exclusively online,” said John Pribanic, a testing specialist at Edison College in East Naples…
What do you think about the test cheating and its prevalence? E-mail me below to let me know.
