ne2s
ne3s

The project needs to identify the decision making governance framework.

I would identify the authentication process and how the parents will be tied to the students.

While the details of this were being worked out and the foundation infrastructure being built to support it, I would set out a time-line of narrow to broader focus group sessions to identify what people/parents would like to have in the portal and a relative ranking and priority. These would relay previous focus group ideas out to successive groups and allow them each to add their ideas and apply their rankings.

This information on ideas and ranging would be consolidated for review by the established governance group(s) and would come up with a list of what is to be implemented in what order.

After coming up with the list of what is to be implemented, I would cluster these into phased implementations with achievable target dates. We would need to identify a communication plan for announcing the portal to the parents and how to sign up. This would include what it will provide to them when it is available and what future abilities will be added and when.

New ideas will be added to the end of the list and not be allowed to distract from the planned schedule.

My school district has already done this work. We hired someone (it turned out to be temporary) to interview appropriate people involved in the process--the curriculum director, business manager, technology director, and communications director of the district, building-level "webmasters," and a few others--to get a vision for what the district wanted to communicate and how. This was assimilated into a list of features to look for (subscription-based calendars attached to buildings, clubs, and classes, personalized announcements, automatic syncing with the SIS for direct links to classroom pages, the ability for students to publish material--publicly when possible and privately when necessary).

We thought we'd have to develop our own site (then turn it over to someone looking to build an open source school solution) but now have decided to go with a hosted solution.

I would explore requirements for security, training (this can't be forgotten) communication among stakeholders, accessibility.

Aren't we all responsible whether we have children in the system or not? The students today are the future leaders of our communities, businesses, and our countries. If the community does not care about the students, why should they care about their communities?

Creating a standard for parents is as challenging as enforcing the standard. The audience is as diverse as the student body. If a local district or state selects a standard there will always be a group left out.

I would involve our students...they are the participative stakeholders in the system. Rules are made about them, for them, in spite of them...yet no one listens to them unless a legal issue arises.

I would assess what is currently working and find a method or process to improve upon it or collaborate with it. Regardless, a requirement will exist to collaborate online as well offline until a standard is met that appeases the diverse parent audience.

Well the first thing I would do is check out all the wonderful work Cindy Seibel has already done on the theory, construction and implementation of a Parent Portal. Way to go Cindy!!

The second thing I would do is really research the community that would be served by the portal. By this I mean...

1. How connected are these stakeholders in the real world? Do parents already know each other? interact with each other in the community? share a lot of non-school extracurricular activities? Is there a shared culture? is the community multi-cultural? Are teachers and parents connected/familiar with each other outside of the context of school? part of the same community as a whole?

2. How "internet" connected are the stakeholders? Do they have access to computers/internet? At what point on the "internet use" continuum do they reside?

3. What are the demographics (age, education etc) of the parents you hope to serve? the teachers?

4. What tools are already being used by the school, teachers, parents to connect with each other? what is working? what is not? why is it working/not working?

I'm sure there is even more ground work to be done but that is a quick short-list. I don't believe that there is a one-size fit's all solution to a parent portal. Each district and dare I say school will have their own issues and with the ease, choices and flexibility of the internet these days there is no excuse not to address those issues and construct a portal that honours the stakeholders in that portal. I am a firm believer that what might work in a city school where parents/teachers/students may not interact in any context other than school will not work as well in a small community where the level of connectivity between people is much higher and vice-versa. Understanding the community that you are designing for would be the first and most important step in my mind.