Edsby has made report cards obsolete in Tampa
It’s the end of a tradition in Hillsborough County, the school district around Tampa, Florida.
Parents of Hillsborough County Public School’s 200,000 middle and high school students can now go online to find their children’s quarterly and semester grades. Those wanting the paper version are able to make a special request, but the district is no longer planning to send paper versions home by default.
An article in the Tampa Bay Times describes how Hillsborough’s adoption of the Edsby learning and analytics platform helps parents understand their childrens’ grades in real time, which is translating into to large cost savings and more effectiveness for the district in ensuring parents get regular updates on their children’s education.
Hillsborough’s decision was one of economics and logistics. District leaders are looking to cut spending, and sending home tens of thousands of report cards isn’t cheap. Compounding the issue, not all mailed report cards made it to their destination.
“This actually solves a problem for us,” district chief information and technology officer Anna Brown said. “We had a large number of report cards returned in the mail. It was close to 50 percent.”
Edsby is also making report card time less stressful, writes the Times, given that it allows parents to check their childrens’ grades throughout the school year.
“With Edsby, you already know what their grades are,” she said, referring to the district’s online portal that parents and students use to check assignments and scores. “I can go online and print it out.”
Hillsborough’s chief information and technology officer calls this “the wave of the future” and said the district would like to be able to use this same delivery method for as many student reports as possible.