Posting Grades on Net Is Too Risky

Given the wealth, high educational levels and interest in technology in Orange County, it is not surprising that home computers are common and the Internet is as familiar to many as the television set.

Schools in the county have seized on computers as a good tool for education. Again, that’s fitting, since the earliest beneficiaries of the network known as the Internet included universities exchanging information.

Some school districts have designed their own home pages and all 28 are wiring campuses to establish a countywide system on the Net. It is a good idea, facilitating communication between teachers and administrators. Even better, it can provide parents with more information about what is going on in their children’s schools.

But there is need for caution.

One proposal for a countywide system to be run by the Orange County Education Department would have students’ grades and test scores, plus teachers’ comments, posted on the Internet. The student would have an identification number and a password. Know those and you can find out how the pupil is doing.

Officials insist the number and password ensure security and privacy. That is doubtful. Hackers have shown a remarkable ability to tap into all sorts of computer systems, including those of the Defense Department. It would be unfair to students to have their grades known to anyone other than teachers and parents unless they consented to wider dissemination.

However, if the Education Department can provide a system that lets parents use home computers to learn their children’s assignments in school and the homework they are expected to produce, that’s a good step forward.

Most parents today work outside the home. The time is long gone when one parent, usually the mother, had the time to drop by school during the week, peek into the classroom and chat with teacher about the progress of Dick and Jane. It is difficult enough to juggle job and chores and find time to visit the school on parents’ night. The more parental involvement, the better. It demonstrates to children that their parents value education highly; teachers and administrators also get that message.

But in a busy world, time is precious. Signing on to a school page via the Internet can keep parents in touch and let them ensure that homework assignments--which sometimes have a way of getting lost or forgotten--are remembered and completed.

The schools also must remember that not every home has a computer. In those that do not, assignments will have to brought to parents’ attention the traditional way: Parents asking where the homework is and ensuring that it has been completed.