As technology advances, the paper report card may be on its way out.

Rocky View Schools Superintendent, Greg Luterbach figures in five years, information shared between parents and teachers will happen on an ongoing basis with the help of electronic tools.

"When you have that kind of access, suddenly the report card itself becomes for many (not everyone) less important. Our desire is to have that ongoing communication with parents so they know how their child is doing along the way not waiting for set periods in the year."

Luterbach said that the electronic grade book 'Power School' is being used at different levels depending on the school's adoption of the program.

“It can be opened and have as little as attendance information, but when teachers start to put some of their assessments in there and parents get to read how their child is doing and read those individual comments I know that it is appreciated.”

According to Luterbach, the benefit of eventually becoming entirely digital will be in the consolidation of information.

“We've been working on it with the parent portal and electronic grade book (this is now year three) and it is going to to take a little bit more before it's common practice across families. We're continuing to try to develop more tools here that can streamline it for parents; they can make sense, unify information so parents don't have to go to three different spots to find the newsletter, how their child is doing academically, and to see what event is going on next weekend. We are trying to combine all those things in a unified spot, we are hoping over the next year or two that is a big improvement in our communication capacity with parents.”

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