With just a click of a button, individuals from across the world can communicate and share information with ease and efficiency through the internet. Employing similar technology, schools are implementing student information systems with a parent portal component to provide parents, students, teachers and guidance counselors with anytime, real-time avenues of communication regarding attendance, grades and standardized test scores in an effort to increase parental involvement and student achievement. Schools must collect and review data to make sound decisions to guide practice (Mann & Shakeshaft, 2003). Therefore, utilization of parent portals should be evaluated along with the strategies employed to increase parental use. This study is an investigation of the perceptions of high school teachers and guidance counselors on the impact of a parent portal on parental involvement and strategies used to increase parental use. Through descriptive and inferential analyses of survey data, key findings were revealed. Overall, guidance counselors perceived the impact of the parent portal to be positive and indicated more strategies were used in their schools differing from the teachers' perception. However, both indicated a need to partner with the community to improve parental use of the parent portal.  Publishing an annual user guide on the parent portal for all stakeholders (teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, students, parents and the community) was one major implication. Centralizing information distributed regarding the parent portal will strengthen the overall intent of the program and the division's goal of providing opportunities for all to actively engage in student achievement (Longfellow, 2004). / Ed. D.

This study examined the effects of implementing Web-enabled technology systems on the functional role of the community college registrar. The focus on systems implementation included in-house, outsourced, consortia, or combination of implementation strategies. A quantitative and qualitative approach included several interviews and a mailed survey questionnaire. The researcher developed the instrument from human resources position description forms, an adapted administrative Q-sort technique, and a role conflict and ambiguity perception questionnaire. The study targeted the members of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. The research findings indicated that some aspects of perceived role, role conflict (harmony), and ambiguity (clarity) were different for registrars whose colleges used in-house, outsourced, consortium, or a combination of implementation strategies, and for certain background characteristics. For example, the study identified different levels of involvement for some duties and some differences in collaboration among divisions and departments within institutions and with other organizations. Suggested uses of the research results include professional development programming for more efficient technology implementation. The research instrument could be adapted to study functional role of other job positions, implementation projects, and administrative strategies.