
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 26, 1992                   TAG: 9203260420
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE HOT LINE AT PULASKI HIGH

IT'S NICE when parents buy boxes of light bulbs or candy to help their children's school buy new band uniforms - but this doesn't help the students' scholastic achievements. What does help, education experts know, is meaningful parental support and involvement in their children's day-by-day learning.

OK, in many modern families, parents may not have time to visit the school frequently for conferences with their children's teachers. Teachers, who may have several classes of up to 30 children each, don't have time either.

But a lot of parents are more interested in what's going on in the schools than they're given credit for. They want more contact with teachers; more information about how and what their kids are doing than what they get from report cards and PTA meetings.

And, contrary to the notion that teachers wish parents would just get out of their face and not interfere in their jobs, most teachers would gladly welcome more parental attention.

With the help of computerized communications, Pulaski County High School is trying to accommodate it. The school has set up an information network to which parents - and students - can gain access on a 24-hour basis by calling 674-4357 (that's 674-HELP) on a touch-tone telephone.

They can punch 2, for general information, ranging from the outcome of a basketball game to the schedule for drum-majorette tryouts. Or they can punch 1, then punch in an individual student's access number, and hear from each of that student's teachers.

The teachers' voice messages, updated daily, get to the heart of the network's purpose. To communicate: What was the material covered in class that day, what is the homework assignment for that evening, what will be expected of students tomorrow. For example: "We'll have a vocabulary quiz tomorrow. Parents can help by reviewing with students the vocab words on pages 32, 45 and 61."

Eventually, the computer network will be programmed for out-calling as well as in-calling, so teachers can ring up parents at home with student-specific reminders and information.

So far, 674-HELP has been a hot little number. School officials have been pleasantly surprised at the number of calls to the user-friendly system each evening by students and parents. In use for about a month, it has already resulted in a dramatic increase of teacher-parent contacts - more in two days with the call-in system than ordinarily in a year.

Pulaski students who may have been absent from classes can no longer say they didn't do their homework because they didn't know what was assigned. And there's no excuse either for Pulaski parents who don't turn off the TV and make sure the kids keep the books cracked until homework is done.

Pulaski's communications experiment - similar to those being tried in about 200 schools nationwide - was designed in part by a task force of parents and teachers who recognize the great potential in a stronger bond between homes and schools. It's an experiment worth watching and emulating.

by CNB