Homework notification system gets board review

Homework notification
system gets
board review
BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer

Increasing communication between a school and parents is a top priority in many school districts nowadays.

Reporting to the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education on a homework communication pilot survey, Barbara Mammen said she will recommend a plan that will allow teachers to inform parents of their children’s daily homework assignments.

Mammen is the K-8 school district’s science/technology supervisor. No specific plan for the homework notification system has been endorsed by the board. Mammen indicated that teachers may eventually have a choice of how they want to make the assignments available to parents.

"In this world of technology, whether it’s by the phone, Internet or by e-mail, it’s another way of communicating information," she said.

The survey revealed that teachers found e-mail to be cumbersome, while parents like it better, Mammen said.

"[But], I think that we should allow the teachers to make that decision as to which way they want to go, rather than [requiring] everyone to use one particular method," she said.

The survey results, which filled a thick report booklet, were broken down by grade and subject.

"Parents were overwhelmingly in favor of doing this," said board member Michele Stipelman.

Mammen told the board that parents who had children in kindergarten through second grade didn’t think that it was necessary for them.

Although 85 percent of parents said they loved the idea, Mammen said, "Only about 8 percent of parents accessed it more than once a week. About 10 percent [of parents] used it on a very limited basis, but it was there if they needed it."

Mammen said teachers in the district have very effective homework procedures in place in their classrooms without this form of communication and noted that pupils do come home with their homework assignments.

"Parents found if kids were absent, it was useful," said the supervisor. "Parents liked it because it was there when they wanted it, but they didn’t use it all that much."

Mammen said the homework notification system is not meant to remove the pupils’ responsibility to copy down their assignments. She said it is just an additional way to communicate with parents.

Board member Martin Spindel asked why the survey didn’t include the children, and was told that the survey was designed to deal with parent communication.

"The mindset was that this was basically for teachers to communicate homework to parents," Mammen said. "Kids would be able to access that information as well, but it was set up as a home-to-school communication between teachers and parents. Any time you can increase communication between school and home you should do it. So I think we should actively promote a homework communication system."

Mammen said teachers should be allowed to determine what type of homework notification system they would like to use.

No official vote was taken by the board. However, the plan did meet with the approval of most board members, who indicated that addi­tional discus­sion will take place before a plan is implemented. The following staff members worked with Mammen on the home­work communication pilot program: Bari Kotofsky, Ann Moyle, Valerie Hecht, Kristine Scharaldi, Stephanie Walden, Connie Bryson, Giuseppe Formica and secretary Susan Lillis.