I just read an interesting article in today’s Washington Post about how some schools in the US are using internet-based classroom portals to provide information to students and parents on student progress and assessment outcomes as also information on assignments that need to be completed.  For parents it provides a connection to their children’s academic life – a connection that diminishes when the children move to high school.  This would also ensure that parents receive ongoing reporting on their children’s progress at school rather than the once/twice a year written report.

The prac. school I was at already maintained online markbooks. All that would be required would be to enable secure access to students’ records to only those authorised (carers, teachers, student themselves). 

Grandmother’s report card http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriabernal/2289482819/  Made available under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence