This page contains a list of links to the home pages of numerous K-12 school districts throughout the nation. The purpose of this page is to offer links to some sample district home pages as well as to provide a critique of the function, effectiveness, and design of these home pages. This page is organized into the following three sections:
District home pages can be thought of as interactive electronic bulletin boards. A wide array of information can be disseminated and viewed using the web as a medium. News and information that school districts and their component parts routinely disseminate to their constituents (parents, faculty, staff, students, community members, professional colleagues, etc.) can potentially be enhanced and disseminated more efficiently using the web. Here are some potential advantages for districts maintaining a home page:
The sample sites listed in the next section of this page contain these features and more. Clearly a home page is a powerful tool a district can employ to facilitate communication, but it should be used to supplement, not supplant, existing communication tools.
Below are several examples of current home pages constructed by K-12 school districts from across the United States. Each example includes a short summary of the page as well as a "hot link" to the actual site. Browse around these samples and observe the wide variety of formats and content. Enjoy!
Putnam Valley Central Schools
This is the Home Page for a K-12 school district in New York. It provides information about the district, individual buildings, student work, projects, the local community, teacher information, and other items relevant to the district. I think this site has a particularly good design and user-friendly navigational system.
Monta
Vista High SchoolThis is the Home Page for MVHS in Cupertine, CA. This school has been applying internet technology toward K-12 education since 1992. The school was visited by V.P. Al Gore to examine how MVHS uses the internet. This site contains information about the district, students, projects, and MVHS history of using the internet in the classroom.
I find this site a bit difficult in terms of organization and navigation. It seems to be more of smorgasbord of information and categories rather than an organized and coherent page. Small details such as the background of the page and the icon images contribute to the confusion.
Boise City Schools, Boise, IDThis is the school district's home page. Here you will find general information about the district's schools, administration, calendars, telephone directories, and other links related to the district. Additionally, there are links for Boise alumni, students, and teachers.
This is a good example of how a home page can help to organize the many schools and departments of a large school district. The page is designed well, contains pertinent information, and offers a wealth of resources to teachers, students, parents, and community members.
Grosse Pointe Public Schools Home Page
This web page is in the style of a major university's home page (like the University of Michigan's). The web site has information regarding district administration, schools, student population, sports, curricula, community news, and more.
Benefits to this site are easy-to-find locations to provide feedback about the page and e-mail lists of on-line employees. Additionally, the resources for students are particularly good in the G.P. South English Department site. On the downside, the site is a bit "busy" and looks more like a Las Vegas style neon sign at certain spots.
This site contains some important information of Eddlemon Adventist school. It includes information about the philosophy of the school, it's Christian missionary background, brief introductory profiles of the teachers and the staff, school sponsors, school calendar and map. Additionally, links are provided to numerous educational sites meant for kids, parents, and teachers.
This site is nice and reflective of the small size and private nature of this school. This site is a good electronic "brochure" for parents interested in learning more about this religious school.
This site provides information about Tappan Middle School's mission, issues relating to administrative leadership, upcoming events and school schedules, and descriptions of special projects and courses.
This is not a "district" home page, but rather a home page for an individual school. It is a good example of how a page can be relevant to a narrow group of constituents, but perhaps not too useful to people outside of the Tappan "family."
This is a directory of school district home pages from across the nation. These sites are broken down by individual states. Click here to check your state!
School districts, like any large organization, must employ efficient and effective means of communication between several groups - faculty, staff, parents, students, and community members. The content of the communication between a school district and its many constituent groups is varied but typically includes information about district operations, curricula, building and district wide events, fiscal matters, student achievement data, board policy, etc. Traditionally, this communication has occurred via newsletters, memoranda, press releases, telephone conversations, and face-to-face contact.
The World Wide Web provides a new vehicle for facilitating communication. The web provides both disseminators and consumers of district information new communication opportunities that can be more efficient, more expansive, and more targeted. Parents interested in confirming school vacation dates, community members inquiring about an upcoming milage proposal, or teachers collaborating on a new instructional strategy are only a few mouse clicks away from accessing this information at their convenience. Furthermore, the web allows for dissemination of a wider array of material than typically seen in more traditional forms of communication. For example, in the case of a printed district newsletter, print space is limited and the potential exists for some information to be edited out. In the case of the web, new and more detailed information can be disseminated such as examples of student work from several grade levels and courses without supplanting other pertinent information. With a district web page, the task of editing information moves from the disseminator to the consumer. This notion presents new possibilities as well as new challenges.
I think it is important to evaluate the potential of a district home page from the vantage point of different users. For administrators, the home page is another vehicle to provide information and communication to students, teachers, parents, and the wider community. Furthermore, this format provides administrators with valuable feedback by way of an e-mail system. A home page allows administrators to categorize information into different topic headings and indexes. This feature allows for better targeting of information to potential consumers. Parents can click on sites of particular interest to them and perhaps by-pass or only glance at other less relevant sites. The same holds true for other constituent groups. Administrators can expand and enrich the type of information disseminated to consumers as well. With print material, it may not be possible to mail out a copy of every important document due to cost and the possibility of overwhelming the reader with too much information. The web allows for additional space and provides a permanent "home" for important information, reports, and policies.
For the viewpoint of parents, a district home page offers convenience, expanded accesses to resources, and another link to communicate between the home and the school. Parents can scroll through an electronic table of contents to find the information they are interested in while by-passing other materials. Often with newsletters and the like, parents grow weary of sifting through information they already know about and stop reading before they get to something new or important. Additionally, parents have access to resources concerning their child's classroom as well as links to other resources concerning child rearing, growth and development issues, etc. Finally, parents have one more link to communicate with the school. Communication between home and teachers is vitally important but oftentimes difficult with conflicting schedules and inadequate phone messages. A home page can provide e-mail connectivity producing substantive communication between parents and teachers.
For teachers, a home page provides another source for student learning. Whether it is publishing essays, accessing other resources through links, or providing on-line reminders and help to students at home, a district home page can be a convenient headquarters. In terms of teacher-to-teacher communication, a home page can be used to post ideas, bulletins, or information regarding a whole host of issues related to instruction and curriculum. Teachers can also use a home page as a directory of e-mail addresses for colleagues and collaborators.
A district web page provides benefits for students as well. Students can maintain a connection with school while at home. This is critical for students who may forget information or who have difficulty communicating with busy teachers during the school day and in between classes. Students can also use the home page as an index of resources and links the can assist with assignments, projects, and research. Perhaps most important, a home page fosters student interest and provides for experience in an important new content area - technology. All students must become adept and comfortable using computers and related technologies in order to keep pace with a rapidly changing workplace and world.
In general, a good district home page should provide resources for parents, students, teachers, and community members. It should include general information about the district and its schools, important policies, relevant reports and data concerning school and student achievement, announcements and bulletins, schedules of events, telephone and e-mail directories, and sites for students, teachers, and parents to post relevant information and products. In terms of design, the web page should be easy to read, easy to navigate through, and organized according to topic and category. An internal search engine is also a nice feature.
As previously stated, district web pages offer several new possibilities as well as several new challenges. Schools should carefully examine issues surrounding this new form of communication and explore its potential on a district-by-district basis. Clearly not all of a school district's constituents are going to have the capability or perhaps even desire to utilize this new communication tool. As a result, this tool must be used to supplement current communication vehicles, not supplant them. Designs, formats, and applications of district home pages are evolving every day. Most of the sample sites provided above have been revised since I first viewed them. Perhaps future improvements in internet capabilities as well as issues related to accessibility and cost will cause district home pages to become as commonplace as report cards in the mailbox.