If you know how much Aspen has cost the city, please specify the dollar amount. As a High School parent, my experience is that system has been a complete waste of taxpayer money, due to the faculty's overwhelming failure to use it consistently. Consequently, none of the information posted on Aspen can be deemed reliable, and it is utterly useless to a parent who is trying to keep tabs on a student's performance. Teachers say they post information on Aspen, but they often don't, and the meager information on there is so unreliable as to be utterly useless. I firmly believe that communication would be improved if Aspen were unplugged, and everyone resorted to more traditional means of communication. Aspen does the entire high school community a huge disservice.
As a parent of 2 high school students and a middle schooler I like Aspen...when it is used by teachers. In my home we find that there are always about 50% of the teachers that keep it up to date. Another 25% use it to some degree before the semester ends, and 25% ignore it until the last week of the semester.
2 years ago less than 25% of our kids teachers were using it at all. I'd like to see the use of ASPEN become part of a teachers job assessment. The teachers are the problem, not the system.
It has helped us give our kids a kick in the pants regularly to make sure they are up to date with homework assignments and we can monitor how they are doing in the classes that use it.
I'd keep it even with the spotty use by many of the teachers because we find it a value, but I think it needs to be a priority for the admin to lean on the teachers and get 100% use.
If you ask the administrators, they will tell you that the teachers ARE using ASPEN, just not in a way that will benefit students. They claim they are all using it to take attendance. What students and families need is for grades and homework assignments to be posted. As of next year, we will have been paying for ASPEN for five years....I don't think the taxpayers are getting a return on their dollar for it.
My guess is that many of the teachers don't want the transparency, and will continue to resist posting on ASPEN, because then everyone will know it takes them weeks, or months, to correct assignments, or that their grading is based on as little as three quizzes for a semester.
Since the principals don't have to be accountable to anyone, and the unions make sure you can't MAKE the teachers do anything they don't feel like doing, I don't expect ASPEN to be fully utilized anytime soon.