Laura Meade Kirk: Savvy new ways teachers and parents stay connected 

"I keep everything," she said, sheepishly.

But the backpack that overflows with drawings, stories, field- trip notices and school-news fliers in the preschool and primary grades -- the essential information that allows parents to know what's happening in their children's academic lives -- will morph into a black hole by the time most kids reach middle and high schools.

"I know things do get stuffed in those backpacks, but I don't always get them," said Joyce Antoniello of Jamestown, who has one son in seventh grade and another in fourth. In fact, she said, "I never get anything from my seventh grader unless it's something he's interested in."

Many parents wish they had a better handle on what goes on in their child's life at school. So we talked to parents across the state to find out what they liked -- or didn't like -- about communication between home and school. Some were satisfied that they knew what was happening at school, while others were clueless -- especially when it came to knowing what was actually going on in the classroom -- and frustrated because of it.

In general, parents of elementary school children felt most connected to their child's teacher and school. But we found that the communication generally nose-dived as the child approached middle school -- partly because older children usually have more than one teacher, and partly because older children don't necessarily want their parents to know what's going on.

But this is often the time that it's most important for parents to pay attention to how well their child is doing, and to know what's happening in the school. Yet with so many core teachers in middle school, let alone high school, parents wonder how they can possibly keep tabs on education.

Here's the good news: We found some individual districts, schools and teachers who've come up with creative ways to open up a direct link between educators and parents.

A North Kingstown elementary school sends home with each student a binder filled with a week's worth of work for the parent to see (see page --).

A West Warwick middle school teacher uses e-mail to communicate with students and parents during set hours each day (see page --), while a high school teacher there posts her weekly assignments on her personal Web site.

An East Greenwich science teacher introduced "list-serves," a high-tech way to distribute schedules, announcements and other information to parents by e-mail.

Four Barrington elementary school teachers use "digital portfolios" -- a multimedia collection of the children's work -- to show parents how their kids are doing. This includes taping classroom activities and scanning the material into a computer so parents can see everything from a child's struggles in learning to read to behavioral issues.

Indeed, many Rhode Island area schools -- like those nationwide -- are turning to computers and technology in their quest for quicker, easier and better ways to keep families informed.

"TEACHERS HAVE ALWAYS wanted a better way to communicate with parents, a way that is easy to share basic information about what's going on in schools," said Barbara Stein of the National Education Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the cause of public education.

E-mails and Web sites allow teachers to post information or send messages quickly and conveniently, and enable them to more easily communicate with parents who might not be available for a telephone call or a meeting.

Elizabeth Keithline of East Greenwich says even her daughter, Annie Cole, 13, uses e-mail to check in with her teachers with questions about her homework after school. "Let's say she has a writing assignment in French and has a question about a vocabulary word's usage. She e-mails her teacher and the teacher can e-mail back that night."

Rhode Island officials have aggressively tried to increase the use of technology through the creation of the Rhode Island Network for Educational Technology six years ago, explained Bill Fiske, educational technology coordinator for the state Department of Education.

RINET is a nonprofit organization that provides free Internet access, e-mail and Web service to every school and every teacher in the state. Through RINET, as well as a variety of grants, a growing number of teachers are trained each year in how to use technology in the classroom -- as well as how to use it to communicate with families at home, Fiske said.

Fiske said 350 schools now use RINET for Internet access and about 10,000 of the more than 15,000 teachers in the state have e-mail accounts. Several schools and teachers also have Web sites on the RINET server. (School districts and schools with Web sites can be found at www.ri.net.)

In addition, some schools and teachers are using new national commercial Web sites, such as schoolnotes.com or myschool.com, that allow them to create their own Web pages that are easy to access and to maintain. (Check if your school does by logging on and plugging in your zipcode.)

BUT IN RHODE ISLAND, computerized communication is still in its infancy: The quality of these sites varies greatly, with some schools and districts featuring stagnant sites listing only the most basic information. Others are regularly updated with announcements, news and even notes from school and parent board meetings.

Teachers' individual Web sites also run the gamut, from simple sites describing a class or course objectives to sites that are updated daily with current homework assignments, test dates and project reminders.

But not everyone is faithful about the updates. Consider this note from a Barrington high school teacher, who encourages students and parents to "visit my site for homework and long-term assignment information, course syllabus, highlights of my classes and photographs." It was last updated Nov. 29.

Some communities elsewhere in the country are going one step further: Buying software programs that allow schools and teachers to post personal information about each student, ranging from attendance records to test grades, report cards and standardized test results. For example, www.thinkwave.com sells a program that allows districts or teachers to post grades and other information directly online for a year.

But most Rhode Island educators contacted said they're wary of posting such information online, because of privacy concerns.

Even e-mail, which can seem like a godsend to parents who have trouble contacting teachers who are always in class, is not without its kinks, Stein noted. Some school officials fear that they will be inundated with electronic messages. They need to work out a way to provide timely responses without unduly burdening teachers or administrators.

Stein said some schools have set up guidelines for the use of e-mail, telling parents what's appropriate to discuss online and reminding them to be respectful and avoid obscenities.

David Raiche, superintendent of schools in West Warwick, one of the state's leaders in electronic communications, says he hasn't heard of any problems among his teachers, nor has he experienced any with e-mail. "There's nobody who's a thorn in my side, constantly e-mailng me back. I think people, for the most part, are pretty good about using it for the right purposes."

OTHER SCHOOLS HAVE OPTED for e-mail announcements known as listserves, which allows the school to send home information via computer like a mass-mailing without the stamps.

"It's just a real powerful tool," said Peter McLaren, chairman of the East Greenwich School Department's Science Department, who introduced listserves to his school. This is basically a method of sending an e-mail version of an announcement to many people at the same time. But unlike an e-mail, which can be replied to, these are simply announcements.

"We never could have foreseen how important announce-only lists could be until Sept. 11," he said. "Obviously, with the tragedy, a lot of people tried to call . . . Here are people at work, they're really concerned about what's happening around the country and obviously worried about what's happening in school, and they're sitting there in their office with an e-mail from the principal saying, 'Everything's all right.' "

The listserves not only allow for immediate widespread distribution of a message, but they also have a better chance of reaching home than many of the fliers and newsletters tucked in students' backpacks, McLaren said.

They eliminate the middle man between parents and teachers.

"So what you've done is dramatically increase the efficiency of getting information home," he said.

ALL THESE FORMS OF electronic communication "are wonderful," but they also require time and training, Stein noted.

And, although computers can make communication easier, schools can't rely on them exclusively: not all families have access to computers or the internet, Fiske noted. Some families still don't have phones.

There are also language barriers to overcome, noted Kevin Clement, spokesman for the Providence School Department. Right now the city's Web pages are all in English, while school fliers are often distributed in many languages.

And then there's some general resistance, on the part of schools and parents. Some don't understand how to use the technology, and others don't like it.

"I don't have the time to sit up there on the computer, tie up my phone and see if there's something [the teachers] might be talking about on their [Web site]. So I never even look at it," said a North Attleboro woman, whose children attend separate elementary schools that each have a Web site.

Others complain that teachers are posting information online, and skipping the notes and newsletters parents have relied on for years.

But most schools, even those using e-mail and Web sites, continue to communicate the old-fashioned way as well -- with notes and telephone calls.

AND EVEN LOW-TECH communication can be enhanced in simple ways.

The Jamestown School this year began handing out weekly progress reports for all eighth-grade students. And the Quidnessett Elementary School in North Kingstown issues each student a binder in which they collect all of their work each week. The binder, which begins with a note from the teacher indicating how well the student has done that week, is sent home each Friday.

That's in addition to the monthly newsletter with notes from every teacher, the letter from the principal announcing important dates and reminding parents about school policies, and the school's Web site.

"I think you need a compilation" of all these forms of communication to keep the lines open between school and home, said Principal Louise Denette.

And even parents like Elizabeth Keithline, who love the advances that have been made in electronic communication, looks beyond the Web to find out what's going on. "I read the newsletter, too," she says.