McLean has begun the process of piloting StudentVUE, an extension of the Student Information System (SIS) program. StudentVUE allows students to create their own accounts instead of having to log in through ParentVUE accounts.
Students no longer have to share an account with their parents, but instead have an account within the SIS system, giving them more freedom to access their grades.
“I think students should have access to their own grades,” junior Zoe Chandra said.
McLean students are able to create StudentVUE accounts through the school’s webpage, where there is a notification that directs them to registration.
“You’ll just…put in your logins, and then you’re in,” Principal Ellen Reilly said.
StudentVUE is being piloted at McLean, Mount Vernon, Lake Braddock, Madison and Woodson this month. It will be introduced to the rest of Fairfax County Public Schools in August 2016, before the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year.
The features of StudentVUE and ParentVUE are similar, with students having access to most of the same features as their parents.
“All the features will be the same. The only thing [students] will not have is the discipline [records],” Reilly said.
Creating a separate account for students instead of having them use their parents’ allows students to personalize their accounts.
“It just makes it your own. I feel like [students] have access to it [right now] but it just doesn’t feel like [their] own,” Reilly said.
Students said they are excited for the StudentVUE pilot.
“It’s great that students are getting their own accounts so they can view their grades in a more personalized way,” sophomore Zita Venetianer said.
ParentVUE, which was introduced to FCPS at the beginning of the school year, has led to a new era of parent-teacher communication.
“Now when I have a discussion with… parents, we’re able to have a real discussion instead of this hypothetical thing,” Reilly said.
However, some complications have arisen with ParentVUE and the switch to the SIS program over the school year. Students and teachers alike have experienced difficulties with the new features of the program.
“One problem that I am aware of is the extra credit points,” French teacher Isabelle Brazell said.
Some teachers have experienced a glitch in the program with extra credit points. For example, inputting a grade of 102 out of 100 into SIS would give a much larger boost than intended.
“Since I’ve found out about it I have stopped doing it,” Brazell said. “I’m taking more time to make sure I’m not making mistakes.”
The program as a whole, including StudentVUE, has changed the pattern of communication between students, their parents and teachers.
“The fact that [students] can see [the grades]—that I like,” Brazell said.
Click here to create your StudentVUE account: https://sisstudent.fcps.edu/
Click here to watch an instructional video: http://fcpsnet.fcps.edu/it/offices/itss/fasteam/isis/sis_stuvue/SIS_StudentVue.mp4
User’s Guide: http://fcpsnet.fcps.edu/it/offices/itss/fasteam/isis/sis_stuvue/sis_stuvue_users_guide.pdf
