For all on EE...we are in the middle of switching from version 6 to version 7, and have noticed a difference in how attendance is tracked. If a student misses a class, he gets a fraction based on the number of classes he had that day. This would be fine, except that all students do not have the same number of classes each day. For instance...if a student has 5 classes that day, then he gets a fraction of 0.20 for mission a class. If a student has 4 classes that day, he gets 0.25 for missing a class. Tardies are even more fun...if 3 tardies equals one absence, and a student is tardy for a class on a day when he had 5 classes, then he gets a fraction of 0.0667 for that class...if a student has 4 classes that day and is tardy to one class, then he gets a fraction of 0.0833 for that class. This would be great if every student took the same number of classes every day, but as a high school that offers a wide variety of courses, and operates on a split schedule (classes start at 7:05 am and end at 6:15 pm---with two other classes meeting from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm two nights a week) which allows our students the opportunity to take classes on both sides of the day (a maximum is in place, but we have several who are taking 8 classes and not working at all), or take classes in the morning and work in the afternoon or vice-versa. Any of you out there who are using EE and have had similar problems, please reply with any suggestions you might have to help with how you are tracking attendance.

We have not converted yet, however we have been using gradebook and recording attendance in the following manner: If a student is out for the day, a day's attendance is entered. If a student misses a class or classes, we use one-tenth (.1) since we have ten teaching time periods a day. In Gradebook, absences recorded for the day appear in all the classes for that student; as well as class absences. Absences for each class are tallied and the teacher of that particular class has a record of those totals. (However, this function is not working properly in gradebook and is giving false totals and the teachers have to tally the absences themselves.) Our students are allowed 15 absences a year. If a student is out of a particular class more than 15 times, that student will not receive credit for that class. Lates are recorded during the homeroom pattern (which is not one of the ten teaching classes). In that way, we can track how many days a student is late. Detention is assigned after three lates. If we do a report for a particular student of their absences, the report will show, not only the full days, but also the particular classes missed if there is a record there. Because of this, it is not easy to determine how many days a student is absent, so we use classes. Also because we track in this manner, the absences for a particular class will be different than others, and the attendance that is summarized on report cards is not a clear representation of the student's absences. We, therefore, have added a grade column next to each class on the report card in which absence totals appear for that class. If anyone comes up with a better way, please let us know. Thanks, Carol Colluccio