Ballard High School is one of four high schools to start a new pilot online communications program this fall. The new program is meant to enhance student academic achievements and communications between they, their parents, and their teachers, according to the Seattle Public School District.

The new program, dubbed The Source, will provide parents with access to their student's academic lives.

With The Source, parents can check their child's attendance, progress in classes, homework assignment status and also get names and e-mail addresses of their teachers.

The new program allows teachers to track how their students are doing in other classes, what they are studying in other classes and is intended to enhance communication between them and the student's parents.

The benefit for students also seems to be diverse. Students can actually see how well they are performing in classes and stay caught up on homework and class assignments.

Similar to Edline, the previous program Ballard High used for comparable purposes, this new program provides special benefits to its users and was created to bring a standardization to all the schools in the Seattle Public School District, said program manager for the project Ramona Pierson.

"There is a national trend to get parents more involved," she said. "Statistics show we are slipping behind other nations with technology communication."

Seattle Public Schools used programs in Bellevue and Everett as a model for The Source, said Pierson.

"We basically learned from what others do," she said, "and added more options to better effect student achievement."

With Edline, and other similar programs used by schools in the region, there are many steps involved that take up a lot of the teacher's time, such as imputing information through Grade-Pro software. But with The Source, many of these processes that used be time consuming, can now be done with the click of a button, said Pierson.

"We looked at Edline and said this is too complicated, so we simplified it," she said, adding that the user-friendly layout is similar to Google, a popular Internet search engine.

John Keithly, who handles technical support at Ballard High School, said that keeping accurate track of attendance at the school has been a problem.

Currently, Ballard High uses a phone dialer system to inform parents when their child has missed a class. According to Keithly, the dialer calls the home of the student in the late afternoon and an automated message tells whomever answers the phone what classes the student has misses for that day. Keithly said he thinks this system will continue even after The Source is implemented.

"There's where The Source has an advantage over Edline," he said, because The Source provides an added resource that Edline doesn't have. It tracks attendance, live. Teacher's can take attendance through The Source which parents also have access to through their parent page on the program

Pierson said most schools that have similar programs use third party vendors, which make extra steps necessary and are usually costly.

Edline costs about $3,000 a year including additional costs, while there is no cost to the schools for The Source, said Pierson.

"The way we built it there is no software cost," she noted. "Since we own the information, we can drive that information into the program for the teachers. Also, it is designed for their specific needs and preferences so it makes it that much easier. We are building a system that can continually grow as the needs of students and teachers grow."

Communications director for Seattle Public Schools Peter Daniels said since roughly 85 percent of the district's funds go towards human resources and personnel, it leaves very little left for books, supplies, utilities and other such things, which is why it is important to find more cost effective ways to develop these programs.

"The development part of (The Source) is cheaper," said Daniels. "With companies that offer these kinds of programs they often charge by the pupil plus development costs, about $5 per student, per year. So what money we do give (the schools) is very limited to other areas."

What seems to be as important as the low costs are the special steps the district has taken to ensure that the needs of teachers are being met with the new program.

"(The Source) looks similar and I was impressed by the presentations made by the district," said Keithly. "They seemed self-assured and it really seemed like they had our best interests at heart."

Each page of the program was developed from significant input from the six schools involved with the pilot project because it was important to the district to make sure the teacher's needs and concerns were addressed, said Pierson.

Teachers are able to design and build their own class websites to their liking and convenience; something Keithly considers a huge advantage for the teachers at Ballard High.

In Keithly's experience, the students at Ballard High use Edline more than the parents, but said those parents who did access Edline were happy with its services, and he expects the same to happen with The Source.

The Source will provide similar services to both parents and students but most likely invoke some resistance, he added.

"There will be naysayers, there always is," said Keithly. "Some teachers will probably complain about the added responsibility and time it will take up."

The school district said they would be providing training for the teachers, students, and parents early in the school year. Kiosks are to be set up at each school for those student's who may not have access to Internet or home computers.

The Source will replace Edline at Ballard High this fall and is also expected to eliminate the uncertainty of the phone dialer system, because soon a secure password and the click of a mouse will be all a parent needs to check their child's attendance and educational status.

Ballard, Cleveland, Franklin, and Garfield high schools and Aki Kurose and Madison Middle Schools are the first to launch The Source for this pilot project. The rest of the district is set to join in early Oct. and the remaining middle schools in Nov. Elementary schools are planned to start the program in Jan. 2006. This program has been funded through a buildings and technology levy approved by Seattle voters, and is said to soon be available in multiple languages.