Howard County public school officials have not received complaints about report cards mailed to high-schoolers using a controversial software.
But one parent isn?t convinced the situation is fine with the Chancery Student Management System, which tracks high-school student data, such as grades and attendance records.
Mary Jane Barbato-Grauso, president of the PTA Council of Howard County, said her daughter?s grade point average calculation sheet had to be changed after she discovered the error on the report. “There are still issues,” said Barbato-Grauso.
The school system has not received any complaints about 15,000 report cards for students in grades 9 through 11 and about 3,500 for graduating seniors mailed to them after school ended last month, said Susan Mascaro, director of staff relations. “There were no issues reported,” she said.
Jenna Frey, a student who graduated from Mount Hebron High School in Ellicott City, said her
report card was fine.
“I got mine a week or two after graduation, and I had no problems,” she said.
Since last July, the school system has used SMS to track student data. But parents, school-data entry clerks and registrars have complained about the software, saying the process was slow and some reports inaccurate.
In a previous Examiner article, Robert Glascock, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said high schools could have used a software called Grade Transporter to help generate the data, although he said SMS would remain the official student record.
He also said the school system was seeking an “outside vendor” to evaluate the school system?s issues with the software.
Chancery recently finalized an agreement with the school system to ensure that technical experts continue to work with the system to fix any problems with the software, Glascock said.
