Educating our youth to embody a lifelong Christian worldview and core Christian values (such as glorifying God, pursuing excellence in everything, and being a servant to others) is a fundamental principle of Christian schools.
They can not only mold the environment to model Christ-like behavior but provide parents with the necessary tools to actively engage in their children’s education.
By developing a strategy that integrates technology to enhance communication and connections, the needs of families seeking community engagement will be met.
A web portal is the perfect platform to strengthen real and meaningful relationships with teachers, parents, students, and staff.
It can provide users with access to many resources and services, such as instructional materials, lesson plans, student data, news about current events, instant messaging and email, and more.
Today’s parents, especially tech-savvy Millennials who now have kids of their own, are demanding this kind of added value from their educational experience and investment.
A typical contemporary parent – and most students – are highly involved in their education and not only expect but demand ongoing access to their academic data. Two to four report cards a year no longer constitutes sufficient communication between the school, parent and student.
Today’s Student Information Systems (SIS) need to be equipped with the resources the school community demands to get the most out of their solutions.
The web portal should offer an intuitive, easy-to-use platform that can smartly manage student data and allow secure access to the information you need anytime, from any device.
Does your school’s SIS allow for your parents, teachers, students and staff to communicate easily?
As the head of technology or head of school, when choosing an SIS system, you want to be sure it has the communication channels community stakeholders need.
When researching your next SIS solution be sure it can do the following:
Instantly share information online
Integration with all products (gradebook, billing, admissions, mobile aps, etc.) allows parents, teachers and staff to view important data in real-time, including grades, attendance, schedules, assignments, and more.
Provide a single point of access for information
Interactive web portals enable school administrators and teachers to instantly share data and engage with parents and students in a secure environment.
Email integration and messaging
Parents, students, teachers, and staff can easily communicate with one another with integrated email capability.
Mobile access
Mobile Apps for iOS and Android make it easy for the entire school community to stay connected. Meet the mobile demands of staff, parents and students by giving them access to grades, attendance, class schedules, discipline, announcements, lesson planning, school directories, etc.
School notifications
With a school notification system, administrators can quickly notify thousands of contacts within the school community via email, text and voice message, about school cancellations and delays, emergency alerts, news updates, and event notifications.
Provide security
Visitors can log in to their accounts from any device securely. An encrypted connection ensures your student and family information stays secure.
Technical assistance
Technical assistance is provided to users through various options, including email, telephone, online assistance, community forums, and more.
Including a portal system that will be used by students, teachers and parents requires careful planning based on the needs of the entire school.
Your current student information system should allow you to reach all the important members of your school community quickly and easily.
If your SIS is lacking this technology, it may be time to step into the future and invest in a mobile-ready system that will open wide the door to renewed family engagement in Christian education.
This article is courtesy of Rediker Software, a leader in school administrative software for PK-12 schools, www.rediker.com.
What one Christian school says about their web portal
Having the Portal has brought our school completely online. It allows us to be better stewards of the resources we have by saving us time and money from all the paper we used to send out on a regular basis. My students now have the option to electronically select courses which makes scheduling so much easier. Because of the regular and instant communication the Portal offers us, we are better able to connect with our families and no student falls through the cracks.
Tammy Prosser
Christian Central Academy
Williamsville, NY
