Re: [school-discuss] Easy-to-use gradebook software

[Kevin Godby <godbyk@aea15.k12.ia.us>]

Mike--

I appreciate the offer.  However, if you're seriously looking into
writing gradebook or school/student information management software,
you'll need more than one person's input.

Each school works differently -- they will each have different grading
periods (different number of class periods per day; semesters vs.
trimesters vs. quarters), different grading standards (grading scales),
etc.  For example, our high school and elementary school each use
different gradebook programs because one doesn't do what the other needs
it to do.  (The high school is using JMC [http://www.jmcinc.com/] and
the elementary is using something else [I can't remember the name
offhand].)

And if that's not enough for ya, each state uses different reporting
standards.  Cf. Iowa's EASIER (there's a misnomer!) with Minnesota's
MARSS with South Dakota's SDSIMS.

To make your software stand out above the rest, I'd suggest focusing on
interoperability (using a common db backend or simple file format that
other programs can easily access) and user interface (to make it easy
for teachers, parents, and administrators to use).


On Tue, 2002-04-02 at 19:22, mikee wrote:
> hello,
> 
> if any person(s) on this list would publish a gradebook spec, we
> would write to it for linux, and make it available for free download
> to this mailing list.
 
----
Kevin Godby  <godbyk@aea15.k12.ia.us>
Technology Coordinator
Moulton-Udell Community School District
305 E. Eighth St.   Phone: (641) 642-8131
Moulton, Iowa  52572  Fax: (641) 642-3461