By Michael P. Goodman, M.D.

I am the parent of a 13-year-old middle schooler at Harper Junior High School in Davis. My son is a typical early teen; he sometimes forgets his assignments or to have his planner filled out, and at times fails to either understand which assignments are due when, or hand things in on time. (Sound familiar?)

How, then, is a parent to follow his assignments, and keep him on track? Unfortunately, Zangle is only a retrospective record of grades and will tell you only if an assignment is late/not done. And it does not function 100 percent of the time.

In the fall, at Back-to-School Night, we were informed about plans for teachers to have a functioning website that would give both short-term and long-term assignments for each class, allowing parents to more closely keep up on their student’s assignments, should they wish. Unfortunately, as of this writing, at Harper only nine out of 22 core subject’s teachers have a fully functioning site. (That’s 41 percent, if you’re counting — an “F” in anyone’s book.)

Is it better at other junior highs? When I accessed the Emerson site, it looked glowing, until I tried to access each specific site listed. Turns out all but one was “under construction.” Not terribly helpful. Holmes is somewhat better, but still earns a failing grade.

Davis touts itself as having a fine school system, as evidenced by consistently high student testing performances. I think this in large part mirrors the intellectual pursuits and educational importance of its residents, not necessarily a finely functioning system.

Where are the functioning websites we were led to believe would be available? As I understand it, their relative nonexistence is a combination of foot-dragging on the part of some teachers, and possibly not sufficient direction/pressure from above.

It is a relatively simple and not time-exhausting to weekly post the assignments for the following week, and reminders of more major long-term work to come. This would, in fact, be time-saving for teachers, as it would eliminate many emails/phone calls from parents regarding upcoming assignments.

I issue a challenge to the principal of Harper, which my son attends, and the principals of the other middle schools in the Davis system to do more to produce a functioning and updated website system for their schools. It’s not really all that hard, and would be appreciated by both parents and teachers alike.

There are few mechanisms to help parents keep abreast of their children’s assignments in middle school, a time when parents, especially those of children with learning or “executive processing deficiencies” (and, if one includes ADD/ADHD, this is a sizable percentage), are attempting to keep our children from falling behind, and helping to show them how to manage on their own.

It is difficult to do this if there is no mechanism to keep track, prospectively, of assignments other than a daily planner. Davis schools can do better.

— Michael P. Goodman, M.D., is a Davis resident.

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