'HIPSchools' helps students, etc.

HIPSchools is a program founded by a former Pittsburgh Steeler to get parents involved in their kids' education and, Wired News reports, it turned around Brooklyn's Walt Whitman Middle School 246, which had been deemed a failure by the state of New York. "The school has seen distinct improvement in the performance of its 1,300 students, as well as regular attendance, which has risen to 98% (an increase of over 10%) in the last two years," according to Wired News, and it is now off the state's list of "Schools Under Registration Review," which it was on for three years. Now used by more than 60 US schools, the HIPSchools system lets teachers post homework assignments and announcements on a Web site, where they can be viewed anytime. It also sends parents individual messages (via email, phone, fax, test-messaging, whatever the preference) about anything from kids' tardiness to meeting times to school projects.