Each year, more teachers use computer software to better manage their classes. Some teachers use spreadsheets to calculate grades while others use software packages designed for broader classroom applications. No matter what product is used, judicious use of such software provides classroom teachers with a potent ally in delivering quality education.

Good software and meaningful applications provide substantial benefits for students, parents, and school administrators as well: no surprises, vastly improved communication, greater accountability, better student compliance, and greater objectivity in evaluation.

There are two reasons why people use computers regardless of their profession. Firstly, they're fast. Secondly, they're accurate. However, there are software products for teachers which negate one or both reasons for using computers - they're slow and they generate mistakes!

1.1 EDUCATIONAL VALUES for TEACHERS

A. The first argument for computerized class management software is that it saves teacher time. This argument is misleading. Typically, classroom management software takes at least as much teacher time as a manual system. However, the time is spent at the beginning and throughout a course, not at the end. Data entry time is expended in bits and pieces throughout the term. There is no frenzied term-end panic as every teacher faces hours of manual calculations, or interpretations of achievement charts just before a critical submission deadline.

B. Teachers assess more often with management software. There are a variety of reasons for this. Given that calculation or re-calculation is instantaneous, teachers have much greater confidence about calculating overall grades at any moment. Thus, there is no fear about assessing more often. Additionally, teachers report personal satisfaction when using a computer to manage their assessment data and other aspects of their daily professional activities.

C. Teachers are more likely to use a robust and meaningful weighting system when using good software. When appropriate software is used (i.e. software that facilitates rapid re-weighting of individual assessments plus whole categories), the weight/value of each assessment can be adjusted at will to improve fairness and to bring the entire set of assessments in line with published objectives. For instance, if two units should have equal importance in a course, how can the teacher ensure that Unit Test #1 marked and recorded out of 50 is weighted equally with Unit Test #2 out of 75? Furthermore, using a manual system, can the teacher determine, after the fact, that Unit Test #2 was too difficult and adjust its weight/value downwards to reduce its negative impact on the overall grade? These re-weighting adjustments are simple with good classroom management software. For an example of weighting and re-weighting capabilities in the MarkBook, go to section 7-6.

D. Teachers create a wider variety of assessment types (categories or strands) when using software. For many, the computer provides their first opportunity to do a thorough analysis/breakdown of individual student performance within categories e.g. A+ on labs, C- on homework, B+ on tests, etc.

E. Good software permits rapid diagnostic analysis during the term as opposed to summary analysis at the end of the term when remediation is too late. Good software should provide early information about individual deficiencies in performance. For an example of such analysis from MarkBook, go to section 9-1. For an example of a student's performance as a printable "trend" graph, go to section 9-3. Or, for an example of a display of performance by category bar graph, go to section 9-2.

F. Evaluation becomes more objective and is perceived as being fair. How many teachers have encountered a colleague who "pulled a rabbit out of a hat" when assigning grades? Clearly, a huge fraction of that grade was based on "personal evaluation" or "participation". While a subjective component frequently enters the evaluation process, it is reduced and contained with good software. An educator using software must live within department policies and deliver an A&E package according to committed objectives and methodology.

How many teachers have seen a colleague give a final grade of 85% to a student who got 97% for the term and 93% on the exam? Or a final of 50% to a student with 35% on both term and exam? Software shouldn't override professional judgment but it tends to eliminate these severe discrepancies!

G. Communication about grades, attendance, and behaviour is vastly improved. With good software, teachers are more likely to post grades, to ask students for improvement, and to communicate with parents. Criticisms are fewer when communication is better!

For examples of communication tools see MarkBook's Class Report, section 8-7, and Student Report, section 9-6. Administrators frequently request a copy of each teacher's record book at the end of term. MarkBook's Detailed Class is the answer! Not only does it show the raw data, but it also indicates how that data was used to arrive at the final grade.

H. Teachers mark assessments sooner. This observation has been made with many teachers. Teachers who use good software tend to "get on top of their marking" sooner than colleagues who use manual systems. We are not sure why this happens, but it does!

I. Teachers prefer the professional appearance of the documentation produced by good software. In an age when professional educators are convenient scapegoats for social problems ranging from youth violence to funding deficits, teachers must enhance their image whenever possible. One of the most effective ways is through the quality of documentation produced. Good class management software should provide an ultra-professional look whenever documentation is printed.

J. Good software promotes co-operation and congenial atmosphere among teachers. Teachers consult with each other about mutual concerns - assessment, communication and reporting are frequent discussion candidates. A good software tool promotes lots of discussion as educators learn and apply the software's capabilities. With MarkBook, it starts as soon as teachers need build their classes. Often, one or more staff members become the unofficial "class setup" person(s) using an import file as described in section 4-4, section 4-5, and section 4-6.

K. A major issue with today's teachers is accountability. Good software makes teachers accountable. Their assessment practices are transparent and their decisions (i.e. 'evaluation') are justifiable.

1.2 EDUCATIONAL VALUES for STUDENTS and PARENTS

A. With good class management software, students know where they stand in the course. So do their parents. Both get an earlier warning about developing problems and a better opportunity for remediation. In the author's school, one subject department undertook a trial program of sending home a computerized subject report card to all parents once per month. This was in addition to the first official report which was delivered ten weeks into the term. When surveyed, 100% of these parents indicated that they wanted to receive a monthly subject report for all courses. All students wanted reports in their other subjects too!

B. Students have greater confidence about how they are being assessed and where they stand. They behave accordingly.

C. Students know that a report can be generated by the computer quickly and easily. Consequently, the standard student question, "What's my current mark/grade?" changes to "Can I get a new report card?" In the author's experience, when one asks, the entire class chimes in for a fresh subject report! Ask yourself and your experienced colleagues: do your students spontaneously ask for report cards? Students take responsibility for their own marks.

1.3 EDUCATIONAL VALUES for ADMINISTRATORS

A. How often do administrators have to deal with students whose report card grades were a surprise? With regular communication from class management software, students and parents know the grades long before the official report comes out. No surprises for administrators!

B. How often does an administrator have to make a critical decision about a given student without an accurate and thorough idea of current performance from subject teachers? When dealing with problem students, an administrator typically contacts teachers seeking data and comments. With good software, individual reports, section 9-6, come back from teachers faster and with much better data. Hence, a better decision can be made and sooner!

C. If administrators use the file structure described in section 12-2, or they use MarkBook Admin Edition as described in section 12-3, they will have fast access to current data for all students in the school! Again, a better decision about any specific student can be made sooner!

D. A school using good class management software has a better image among parents and the community. Not only do the teachers acquire a better image but the school's reputation is improved. Interestingly, student behaviour improves because they know that they are attending a quality school.

There is a choice of software on the market. Some products are very simple and often attract novice users. Others are more complex. Some, particularly the spreadsheets and data bases, require considerable algebra skills to make them calculate accurately. Choice may be based on cost, platform (e.g. Windows, Macintosh, etc.), pre-requisite skills required by the users, and which functions in the software one wishes to use.

As with any software, the more it can do, the more complex it seems. As complexity increases, the user's learning curve will be steeper and longer. However, complex software is usually more flexible and will enable more applications.

ANY computer program requires data to "crunch". Put another way, something of significance must be entered in order to get something useful back out. The better class management software products require a bit more data than the poor ones. That's because they are designed to produce output (on-screen or printed) that has a higher quality, more meaning, and greater use. If one wants to be perceived as a pro, then cultivate a professional look!

However, there is a limit to the quantity of data that an educator can be reasonably expected to collect and computerize! We have seen some "assessment managers" and "trackers" that require each educator to input marks for hundreds of objectives each year. If you have 30 students, 800 objectives to measure, and you must measure each objective multiple times (3 for example), this works out to 30 X 800 X 3 = 72,000 entries into a computer PER CLASS! Too Much! No time to teach, prepare lessons, or grade all of those assessments!

2.1 All classroom management software packages, including spreadsheets, perform the following functions. Each:

A. records individual assessments and calculates an overall grade (arithmetic mean or average), and

B. produces a class report that communicates the averages.

2.2 The custom software packages include other features as well. Their normal improvement over spreadsheets is the absence of algebraic formulas required to calculate an overall grade. Additionally, a better software package

C. builds seating plans/charts with templates for different classroom configurations. Go to section 5-4 for an example of this application from MarkBook.

D. builds attendance forms. Some have a bar coding option to enable rapid data input. Go to section 6-4 for an example.

E. records, analyses and summarizes attendance data. Go to section 6-2 for an example from MarkBook.

F. analyzes attendance data for patterns as in section 8-1.

G. builds record forms for manual record keeping (backup) of all assessment results as in section 5-2.

H. graphs student achievement by individual assessment. This trend graph, section 9-3, will show achievement patterns (sliding? improving? etc.). The ability to compare each individual to the class average/median for each assessment is very helpful. In the author's experience, this trend graph on an interim report card has proven to be a tremendous incentive for students to improve.

I. graphs/analyzes student achievement by category. This performance-by-category (a chart or a bar graph) shows areas of weakness (e.g. poor communication but good on knowledge) and should compare the individual to the class average. Go to section 9-2 for an example.

J. produces summary reports that can be posted in the classroom or on the Internet periodically. Individual identities are hidden on these posted reports through the use of anonymous code names. See a sample Code Name Class Report in section 8-7.

K. easily produces individual subject report cards. These should have assessment and attendance summaries, space for hand-written or computer comments, and space for a parent signature. Go to section 10-2 for an example of computer generated comments. Go to section 9-6 for an example of individual report cards.

L. tracks such items as texts and other loaned equipment. See section 5-6 for an example.

2.3 A thorough classroom management software product also:

M. permits flexible calculation for missed assessments so that these are excluded (by teacher/administrator choice!) from any selected individual's overall grade. This makes calculation much fairer (and easier!) for such reasons as a lengthy illness or late registration in a course. This calculation is very difficult with spreadsheets since each student's formulas must be altered manually. See section 7-4.

N. permits rapid re-weighting of any and all assessments and categories. Go to section 7-6 to see an example.

O. has appropriate display screens for parents, students, or others to see trend graphs, section 9-3, category summaries, section 9-2, and other data during class or at a parent interview session.

P. enables the user to handle more than one student stream within the same class. For instance, a given course may have two or more academic streams in the same class. Or there may be students with learning disabilities (SLD), "English As A Second Language" (ESL) students, or others requiring independent evaluation from the rest of the class. Top software products will enable such independence through the use of "Mark Sets" which break the class into assessment cohorts or sub groups.

Q. has the ability to import data electronically from an SIS to set up classes. Some class management programs can selectively import student records. That is, they can perform a logical import based on defined criteria by the user. See MarkBook's section 4-4 and section 4-7 for examples.

R. has the ability to retain multiple sets of marks for each student. MarkBook calls these 'Mark Sets' as in section 4-3.

S. has the ability to clone data to enable a teacher to quickly spread assessment data into multiple categories and to apply it against multiple objectives. See section 1-5 and section 7-2 for examples.

T. handles numeric and non-numeric data simultaneously. That is, good class management software can track and report assessment results in more than one assessment scheme. Letter grades, levels and numbers can be used simultaneously.

U. communicates to students and parents using Email.

V. calculates central tendency in a variety of manners. That is, in addition to the traditional arithmetic mean, it determines the "most-consistent" level of achievement, individual weighted median, mode. etc.

W. exports summary data electronically into the school's SIS software.

X. exports data to the Internet as files or as HTML documents. See section 9-7.

Class management software will change the way teachers carry on professional activities. Good software will change the way educators communicate with each other, and it will improve communication with students and parents.

Following are some implementation suggestions that work! That is, they encourage better evaluation procedures which, in turn, encourages appropriate student performance: completion, compliance, co-operation, attendance, attention to task, and communication. If you are a teacher:

3.1 Build and print seating plans, section 5-4, for each class before the first day of the course if possible. Assign seats randomly - mix up males and females. Students come into the room on their first day and discover that they have a pre-assigned seat. Result: students are instantly aware of the teacher's degree of control over the class.

Be prepared to re-assign seats at any time (your decision!) if individuals are unhappy or too happy with their current locations.

3.2 Send a sample report card home for signature on the first day of class. This lets both parents and students know what you will do about assessment and communication. Use a report from the software's sample files or use one from last year with the personal identification details changed. Include a covering letter to the parents that explains how this report works, how often it will be sent home, etc. You could even give out a series of questions that requires an interpretation of the report e.g. What is the sample student's current grade? How many days absent? Late? What is your telephone number at school? How many assessments are incomplete? etc. Ask to have this sample report signed and returned for the following class.

3.3 Collect anonymous or secret code names from all students and include these in your student data, section 4-1. These names should be selected by each individual student and known only to you and that student. Post summary subject reports for all students sorted by code name and update frequently.In this way, a teacher can communicate grades to all students with one posted report but will maintain individual privacy. Be prepared to change a code name if a student so wishes. Code names can be used on your computer screen so that groups of students can read their data summary (grades, attendance, missing assessments, etc.) without knowing the identities of other students.

Do you allow students to hand in missed items? With a late penalty? Or re-do poorly-done items? If so, posting is particularly effective at pointing out areas of improvement.

3.4 If your seating plan, section 5-5 prints seating plan cells or a grid, use these to record marks, attendance, or check-off items. Result: you can tell at a glance who has missed an assessment, who has not presented a completed form, who owes field trip money, etc.

3.5 Use the re-weighting functions of the software to decide if the value or weight of certain categories should be increased or decreased. For instance, you may have decided at the beginning of a course that a "work habits" category (homework & notebook) should count for 10% of the final grade. You anticipated that the homework and notebook components of this category would each count for 5%. Yet, near the end of the course, you realize that you have assessed homework 11 times and looked at notebooks only once. Clearly, a change is due such as making homework 8% and the notebook 2%. Re-weight these two items. Go to section 7-6 for a weighting/re-weighting example.

Similarly, you may realize that two assignments, which you marked out of 10 each, were very different: one was much tougher and took far longer. Therefore, you have decided that the tough one should count more in the overall grade. Use the software re-weighting function to adjust the relative weights of these within your "assignments" category.

3.6 Send subject report cards home regularly. Once a month or more frequently! And require an acknowledgment with a signature! By the time the first official report card is issued by the school, subject teachers may have sent home two or three subject reports. Result: students are very aware of their current grades AND very interested in fixing the deficiencies. Naturally, parents encourage this to happen and can be very effective if they know the nature of the problem(s). When the formal report card arrives, there are NO surprises.

3.7 Send individual reports to administrators, counselors, and parents. Having a problem with a given student? Print out their current individual report and forward it to the selected person(s). In the author's experience, such reports are extremely effective at triggering appropriate responses. This includes attendance reports.

3.8 Send all subject reports cards home with all students on a regular basis. This depends on all teachers using the same or similar software and their preparedness to report with it on a pre-determined schedule. Generally, an administrator will have to co-ordinate this process.

3.9 Send Email home on a regular basis.

4.1 The most frequent teacher argument is "I don't have the time!" This argument is really "I don't want to learn to use a computer!" We have seen computer phobic teachers commence their own computer education by using MarkBook software, move on to word processing, and end up loving their new-found capabilities!

4.2 "It ties my hands on evaluation!" We agree. See 1.1C, 1.1F, and 1.1G above.

4.3 "Frequent reporting costs too much" for paper, toner/ink, etc. When you calculate the costs of these items, one sheet of paper per student subject plus toner, the funds expended are truly minuscule. Of course, communication by Email and HTML reporting is paperless!

4.4 "Too much information is being sent home!" In our experience, no parent has ever complained about this!

4.5 "If I start sending quality reports home, my colleagues will be embarrassed." In our experience, once a teacher commences using good software, the attitudes of their colleagues evolve quite rapidly. This initial attitude is quickly replaced by curiosity. Soon, they try the software too! Ask ANY teacher who has found good class management software if they would EVER go back to a manual system. The universal response: "Not A Chance!"