Online Reporting - Making it Happen.
All Secondary Schools are expected to make the following information available to parents via secure online access [PDF 6300KB] by September 2010, and Primary Schools by 2012:
- Attendance and behaviour (+ve and -ve)
- Progress and attainment
- Special Needs.
Becta has published a toolkit [PDF 6300KB], but as my previous post on the new requirements for managing personal data in schools highlights, setting up robust and secure systems for getting personal data online are a complex matter. Who is the parent? Who is allowed access? What happens where step-parents or estranged partners seek access? Will schools be able to manage the user accounts on complex reporting systems containing sensitive personal data?
One of the challenges with any system requiring the management of a user account is ensuring that accounts are created, edited, kept up to date and deleted at the appropriate time e.g. when the child leaves or transfers, when parental control changes hands, where one parent has siblings in more than one school, and where step families are involved and a parent may have children in two families (or more!).This is a complex area, and it is not clear how this could be managed effectively. One of the onvious problems with any portal is that school administrators aren't able to view what a parent or child views as they don't log in as them; they can remain blissfully unaware when access permissions are not working properly. When we have set up learning platform accounts, we always create dummy users in each category to ensure we see more or less what the user sees as a quick sanity check. This isn't likely to be possible in day to day administration in a school.
The framework document is colourful and interesting but light on the specifics of managing complex stakeholder relationships and how these map on to data structures in the school MIS system. It is imperative that the rules for management of users (Identity Management)are clear, and the rules of the game (policies) established before moving this forward. We also need to consider who needs 'God Mode' in the game. Download the document, but my guess is that it is too light on specifics for any school to manage a transition or to meaningfully plan a strategy for online reporting, and this is a clear case for either learning platform / MIS system providers introducing suitable products and services, or Local Authorities setting up common systems. In either case they must be based on clear guidance on the data sets and structures required, and how these reference to Becta's new guidance on personal data; the alternative is each school re-inventing their own wheels (again).