I think posting homework assignments & dates, displaying student work, sending email and the like to parents are all great ideas.

Asking them to participate in activities, answer surveys, or provide feedback are trickier, because some parents will see these as burdens — even though they are no doubt valuable. What will they get in return for these investments? Whatever their returns are, I would emphasize them in your promotion of the portal.

I also like Tom Whyte’s idea of expanding the reach of this to other groups too, which I think I remember you mentioning at one point too.

Great job, Cindy. Keep it coming!

Richard Schwiers last blog post..bay area funk live at la peña

1. A date/time stamp showing the last time a parent logged in to view work or grades

2.I know you are focusing on parents but an educational community approach would be great to showcase work at different levels

3. Set levels of authority to allow access to only certain areas (hate to be killjoy but FOIP exists for a reason)

4. And lastly whatever shape this takes it has to make sense to the most technically illiterate parent, teachers do not want to spend hours and hours and have no one come because they cannot navigate easily

Also here is an example of what a company is building for us in our district, might give you some ideas:

http://www.centralparkschool.ca/