School software up and running after glitch

The system-wide software used for tracking attendance and grades in county schools is back up and running at full speed, system officials said.

The software, known as Aspen, had been running exceptionally slowly in the days leading up to the start of school, system spokeswoman Patti Caplan said, which created problems for teachers who were unable to open the program to take attendance or enter grades into the gradebook.

"It shouldn't have been so slow," Caplan said. "It should have been capable of handling 10,000 users at the same time without problems."

The slowness was caused by a programming error, Caplan said, which was identified and corrected. A test run Saturday, Aug. 27 went smoothly, she said.

The program was up and running for the second day of school, Wednesday, Aug. 31, Caplan said, for teachers to track both grades and attendance.

In the past, Caplan said, grade- and attendance-tracking software varied from school to school, with some allowing parents to have online access to their children's grades. Since last year, all schools had been using Aspen to record attendance, but this is the first year the software is being used to keep grades as well.

Caplan said the grading portion of the software was being rolled out in the county's secondary schools this year, with the system preparing for elementary use next fall.

In an email to school staff two weeks ago, Linda Wise, chief academic officer, said the activation of the HCPSS Parent Portal – the tool that will allow parents to access their children's grades – would be postponed till mid-September. Caplan said that launch could possibly happen next week.