LearnBoost is an online grade book and lesson planner that is available for free to educators. It has a grade book, lesson planner, attendance, reporting and calendar. It is easy to use, visually appealing, and you can share information with students and parents. The lesson planner is integrated with state standards and you integrate the whole system with Google Apps.
It is an excellent product and they have just announced a nice upgrade. Parent and Student access to view grades online have been updated. It is now easier to grant access to them to view grades, attendance, calendars and course information. The process is very simple to do.
To read the whole release and information go to their article: http://blog.learnboost.com/blog/view-grades-online-parent-student-access-update/
LearnBoost is a great alternative to paying for course management and gradebook systems.