Not All Families Signed Up for Agile

By Edie Grossfield, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.

Jan. 26–While the number of Rochester school district parents using Agile has increased rapidly to 3,600, that still represents fewer than half of the approximately 8,780 middle- and high-school students in the district.

Part of the reason not every family is signed up for the new Rochester public schools Web site is that many families don’t have computers at home, said district administrator Jacque Peterson, who works in the office of elementary and secondary education and helped launch Agile last school year.

Agile is for secondary students only and is primarily used by parents to access their children’s attendance and grade information.

Patricia Dahl, a math teacher at Willow Creek Middle School, said she thinks Agile is a good program, but she is concerned that many families cannot easily access it.

“If we’re trying to level the playing field, then it’s not being level if some parents are able to access their children’s grades and some parents aren’t,” Dahl said.

The district has not studied how many of its families have computers at home, Peterson said. But a recent study at John Adams Middle School found that 85 percent of that school’s families have home computers, and that’s probably a good indicator for the district.

Peterson pointed out that families can access Agile any time using computers at the schools or the public library. Also, the district has had evening information sessions at the schools to show parents how to use the system.

In addition to access, reluctance is another reason some parents don’t sign up to use Agile, Peterson said.

Garnett has encountered some of those parents.

“And I think it’s sad when parents say ‘Oh, I’m not the e-mailing type, or that’s not my thing, or I’m old-fashioned, you know, they have a lot of reasons for not doing that,” Garnett said.

“But as parents are involved in their children’s lives, hopefully, that’s something that they would learn along with their kids, and learn that they can use that as a tool for themselves and their kids down the road,” she said.

It’s not just parents who benefit from Agile. Part of Julie Garnett’s job as a guidance counselor at Century High School is to help struggling students get back on track with their schoolwork.

Agile helps Garnett do that more efficiently because it puts most of the information she needs at her fingertips.

“It’s very helpful when I’m meeting with a student who has a great deal of missing work,” Garnett said. “I can print off each of their academic summaries, which shows their various scores on tests and quizzes and assignments. But it will also show me which assignments are missing or haven’t been turned in yet.”

School counselors also find it useful for communicating with parents about their children’s progress in school.

“Sometimes I’ll be meeting with parents, or on the phone with parents who don’t have access to the Internet. And so that’s a way for me to provide information without having to contact all the teachers and be another e-mail or phone call to them,” she said.

How to register to be an Agile user

–Parents and guardians must sign up for Agile in person at their child’s school. Call the school for information. A photo identification is required to prove that the person signing up is a parent or guardian.

–Agile users are given a password. Visit the Rochester public schools site at www.rochester.k12.mn.us/ and click on the Agile button. The site allows parents to choose whether their children can have access to the information.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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