An online peek into your child's school day

Other programs, such as Pearson's PowerSchool, apply a similar idea to grading and attendance. Teachers across the country, including in El Segundo and Alhambra, keep track of students' test scores and how often they show up for class, and parents go online and see how their child is doing. Aries Technology of Tempe, Ariz., recently launched a service that allows parents to check their child's progress online as well.

Some programs allow parents to see what subjects their child needs to improve in, as well as disciplinary records, lunch menus and personalized information from teachers.

Parents can become intimately involved. A promotional video on Pearson's PowerSchool website boasts that "Most Power parents know what tonight's homework is before their children even arrive home from school."

Sound like a lot of pressure?

"Transparency creates pressure," said Paul Curtis, chief academic officer of the New Technology Foundation, an organization based in Napa, Calif., that is creating schools that use technology to teach. "But overall it's very healthy for the students."

Critics say some programs give parents too much control. After all, children have to learn to become more independent as they grow up, and such programs let parents keep a close watch on what their kids are doing.

But Brent Bingham, vice president of product marketing at Pearson School Systems, said the programs let parents nip problems in the bud. They can see whether their child is struggling and can intervene before the bad report card arrives.

"This isn't surveillance software," he said. "Parents are really interested in the benefits that come with timely communication."

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alana.semuels@latimes.com

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Keeping tabs

Technology being deployed in schools across the country allows parents to keep tabs on what their children are eating for lunch, how many times they're late to class and just how poorly they're doing in algebra. Here's an overview of some of the more popular programs:

MealpayPlus: A program from Horizon Software International that lets parents go online to put money into lunch accounts and see what their children have been eating.

PowerSchool: Software from Pearson Education Inc. that lets parents track grades, attendance and homework assignments daily.

It's Learning: A product distributed by Aries Technology Inc. that lets teachers grade work online. This year parents can log on and see their children's grades too.

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Source: Times research