WHen asked why the teacher didn't send a note, email or call, the teacher said "That's not my job. I don't have time for that."
This is why I love digital gradebooks. (We use Powerschool) Some teachers hate them but when I was teaching full-time, it was perfect! Parents get a private password and everything is online in real time. So if your kid didn't do homework? You can see it that night. Your kid failed the test? You can see it instantly. I resolved so many debates by saying "Did you check online?" Even in our relatively poor school district, every single parent had an email address that could be notified when a child skipped school or dropped below a certain grade point (set by the parents!)
I'd like more cheap, creative solutions at both ends of the curve.
How about just plain old teaching? At our *hopefully* new school, the teachers were stunned that my K DS was not allowed to move up for reading and math at his current school. One teacher put it really well "Why would I want to reinvent the wheel when the 2nd grade teacher already knows how to teach that?"
In most cases, fluidity is pretty darned cheap! Someone else is already doing that somewhere... harnessing it is cheaper than making it new.
