With second semester upon us, students here at New Trier are already faced with course selections for next year. Unlike rising junior and senior classes, the incoming freshman and rising sophomore classes are able to register online. Instead of students sitting down with an advisor and going through their entire schedule, parents of new freshman and sophomores will be able to enter their student’s course selections through an extension of the New Trier website.
Matthew Ottaviano, New Trier’s Assistant Principal for Administrative Services, commented, “We’ve had the ability to do this through our system for a while. The Home Access Center, HAC, it’s part of our student management system.” Three components make up the entire student management system: the teacher access center, where teachers can input class attendance, the students access center (also known as eSchool) and now, the home access center.
On-line course selection will continue for the rising sophomore class of 2017 and every subsequent class in lieu of the past, adviser-controlled process. When asked why the administration has decided to begin using this technology, Ottaviano responded, “Ultimately, I think we’d like it to be more automated with the parents and the students being able to do it at home… Up until this point in time, the system has evolved from the data being handwritten and put in by an office secretary, which is a lot of work, and they don’t know the kids.”
Because parents now play a key role in signing up for next year’s classes, it provides less room for error in creating next year’s schedules. This is because a parent can help a student recognize mistakes in either wrong class levels or inaccurate course selection. Parents who help select the future courses might minimize potential scheduling errors. The final deadline for submitting course selections is February 14th.