Kinvolved, whose users include a Harlem school, lets teachers take attendance and inform parents by text message if a student is absent or late. An App Helps Teachers Track Student AttendanceThere was one parent who said, Please stop sending me these messages, said Habib Bangura, the community school director for Wadleighs partnership with Teachers College, Columbia University, which is an effort to improve educational outcomes in high need Harlem schools. They asked to be removed, just like a telemarketer. We were happy to oblige. Kinvolved is one of many apps and software services aimed at automating or streamlining longstanding school practices, like classroom behavior management or exam proctoring. Kinvolved Inc., the three year old start up that developed the app, was founded by two entrepreneurs in their 2. Miriam Altman and Alexandra Meis, who met as graduate students at the Robert F. The New A Morning Stroll Movie ' title='The New A Morning Stroll Movie ' />Ruidoso, New Mexico at nearly 7,000 feet, is a cool mountain oasis away from the heat of surrounding desert. Ruidoso is located in Lincoln County in the Sacramento. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University. Ms. Altman, Kinvolveds chief executive, previously taught history at a high school in Manhattan. As is the case in many districts, she was required to take attendance by hand using bubble sheets, marking her students A for absent or L for late. The sheets were fed into a processor, with each A leading to a robocall to warn parents. But the system that sent automated voice mail messages often had out of date family contact information. I was flabbergasted that parents werent being notified, Ms. Altman said. Kinvolveds goal is to spur greater parental involvement by increasing the details parents receive from their childs school while making the communication process more efficient. In addition to sending attendance notices in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole and other languages, teachers may use the app to inform parents about school events or class tests. For administrators and teachers, the app also includes pie charts showing schoolwide or student specific attendance trends, such as lost instructional time in a given week or month. The Teachers College partnership program is covering the cost of Kinvolved, which can run 2,6. Harlem schools. Daisy Fontanez, the principal of Wadleigh, likens the schools adoption of Kinvolved to accountants who used to enter financial information by hand and then the Excel spreadsheet came out. Parents may also see Kinvolved as a counterweight to the increased autonomy mobile phones can confer upon children. Photo. Kinvolved in action. The app helps teachers take attendance and automatically sends a text message to parents if a student is absent or tardy. Theres a lot of new technology, like cellphones, that have undercut parent influence in socializing their children and increased peer influence, says Patricia Greenfield, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. This restores a bit of parents ability to socialize their children in a very constructive way. Like a number of school apps that slice off symptoms of complex problems and tackle them as information deficiencies, however, Kinvolved also raises questions about technologies that treat students more as subjects to be surveilled and analyzed than as participants in their own education. I get why these interventions are sexy because they are relatively cheap, says Kevin Gee, an assistant professor of education at the University of California, Davis, where he studies the effectiveness of educational policies. But text based programs, such as school letters that inform parents that their children are overweight, he said, often rely on a hypothesis that more information naturally results in better outcomes for students. Professor Gee added, Is information enough to move the needle on this problemMs. Altman said that Kinvolveds staff members coached school administrators to help them use attendance data to shape the programs they put in place. We believe that technology alone is not going to solve any problem, she said. At Wadleigh, administrators tend to view Kinvolved as a detection system for habitual absenteeism not as a means to address underlying problems, like family illnesses, job loss or homelessness, which may cause students to miss school. Kinvolved is a tool that gives us the attendance number, but it doesnt give us the qualitative information that will allow us to address the issue, said Mr. Bangura, Wadleighs community school director. There are legitimate and structural reasons that some students are late to school like the responsibility to drop off younger siblings at a babysitter and we are trying to put some solutions in place by communicating with the family. The school has used data logged by Kinvolved to direct additional attention to those families whose children miss school most often. The students meet regularly with advisers and mentors to set monthly attendance improvement goals. The school rewards students who meet their monthly goals, giving them a free movie ticket. Teachers at Wadleigh have also taken it upon themselves to share Kinvolved data with their students. I like them to see how many minutes late they are, said Jillian Fisher, a social studies teacher. It takes the guesswork and the excuses out of it. Administrators also invite parents to meetings so they can join forces to improve a students attendance. One morning this month, a couple arrived at school after having received text messages saying their daughter had been late to school and was also skipping classes after lunch. They huddled with Mr. Bangura to discuss strategies for motivating their daughter to go to class. She says she is coming in to school, her father said. But the picture is not so pretty as she paints. It seems clear that school attendance efforts will not succeed without devoted teachers like Ms. Covington who, even without an app, have developed their own internal radar that tracks truant students who may be at risk of falling behind. As Ms. Covington walked down a school hallway lined on either side with yellow student lockers, she caught sight of a ninth grader ducking into a classroom. The teacher deftly caught the student, who had missed her first period science class that day, by the elbow. When are you coming to me to make up class Ms. Covington asked. In education, the killer app is the teacher. Continue reading the main story. Ruidoso, New Mexico Nestled in the cool pine trees at nearly 7,0. Top Cat Begins Movie Online. Sacramento Mountains of South Central New Mexico, lies the vacation paradise of Ruidoso pronounced Rui doe so. Ruidoso is the Spanish word for noisy. The village is named for the river that runs through it, the Rio Ruidoso or Noisy River. The Rio Ruidoso has its headwaters up on the majestic 1. Sierra Blanca White Mountain that provides the back drop for our scenic village. The river winds through the beautiful Upper Canyon, the village of Ruidoso and finally down through the Hondo Valley. RuidosoWhat can you do here, you ask Almost completely surrounded by the White Mountain Wilderness and the Lincoln National Forest, there is hunting rifle, bow, muzzleloader and camera for everything from turkey to elk, fishing, horseback riding, kite flying, backpacking, hiking, camping, skiing, tubing, sledding and lots of golf golf all year round. In the village itself is every kind of gift shop you can imagine and some you cant imagine, go carts for kids of all ages, childrens boat ride, pony rides, mini golf, maze, rock wall climb, coffee shops complete with wi fi, clothing stores and any kind of restaurant from fast food to steak houses. A movie theater with three screens and venues for several live shows, including during the summer months a western shootout, authentic cowboy meal and music. Relax with a pleasant stroll along the Rio Ruidoso near mid town or on an exercise trail just minutes from the village, but giving you the feeling that you are miles back in the woods. In other words, you dont have to get a baby sitter to do things in Ruidoso, NM. Instead, why not use the opportunity to get closer to your family Ahhh. Ruidoso. Typical summer temperatures in the 8. On many winter days, you can ski in the morning and golf in the afternoonRuidoso weather conditions. Click for weather forecast. Make Ruidoso, NM this years must see vacation destination for your family.