The new online service, Edline, now allows parents, teachers and students to efficiently discuss student grades and assignments. Most students are now eager to know their grades before interims; parents too can now have instant communication with teachers concerning their child’s progress.

21 high schools and middle schools in Montgomery County use Edline. Based on student registration and online log-in, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of users who log-in and check their grades.

Edline features include posting current student grades, being able to print out assignments for absent students, posting agenda calendars and, most importantly, available e-mail access on the site so teachers and parents can communicate more easily.

David Spitzer, a new science teacher at Gaithersburg High School and technology consultant for the program, helps teachers and students with the new program’s features.

“All teachers have an account, so students’ classes are on the web and are available whenever needed,” Spitzer says. “Since it’s new to everybody, I find it quite exciting. It’s something that is going to grow.”

Spitzer also helps teachers design their own class profile and teaches them the basic features of the program.

The program has mostly been a success, but it has experienced technical difficulties. On November 1, panic erupted when teachers could not log-in to their accounts; the prevented log-ins caused much stress for teachers since marking period grade deadlines were due.

Laurie Bricker, assistant principal and Edline supervisor, says, “The program is new and a glitch caused a server to crash and it caused problems. However, the system was able to bring it back up and solve the problem.”

Bricker later commented that she is very pleased with the Edline results and the improved student grades.