Track your child's GPA real time

Parents and students can track fluctuations in a grade-point average from the nearest computer in real time. Programs including SchoolMAX and Edulink are pushing midterm progress reports into obsolescence. Prospective failure is no longer a bombshell dropped in a parent-teacher conference. A bad grade on a test can't be concealed by discarding the evidence. A student can log on at school, or a parent at work, to see the immediate impact of a missed assignment on the cumulative grade or to calculate what score on the next quiz might raise an 89.5 to a 90. Report cards hold little surprise.

These programs can reconnect you to the academic lives of your children; however, the negative is that such knowledge can also feed the controlling tendencies of a helicopter parent if you are one. An e-mail alert is sent each time a grade is posted.

These Internet-based classroom "portals" give parents and students the ability to review grades, download homework assignments and chat with teachers online. This is a great tool for students to know exactly how they are doing in each of their classes. Now there is no excuse because the grade book is open.