The Washington Post has an interesting story up about the way that technology is making it easier for parents to check their students’ grades, without having to wait until the end of the semester.
Some school districts have moved to online grading systems that alert parents every time a new grade is recorded into their child’s average. This helps keep both students and parents in the loop about how everything from homework assignments to quizzes and tests affect their overall class average, says the article.
Apparently, many parents really enjoy this new way of keeping up with their child’s grades, but as you might imagine, not all students are thrilled. Even though I was a pretty good student in school, the high schooler in me cringes at the thought of my parents being able to see every single assignment, quiz, and test grade as it is recorded. I can remember plenty of times when I bombed a quiz or paper and had to work extra hard throughout the semester to pull my grade up in the class to something I knew would be OK to bring home to my parents—and it doesn’t sound like students these days have that option.
On the other hand, I can see how keeping parents in the loop about fluctuations in grades can definitely be a good thing for some students. It can help parents intervene when their child may be struggling and alert them to where their child might need some extra help before it’s too late to do anything about it. And it definitely helps open up communication between the parent, student, and the teacher.
What do you think? Does this kind of system help support students academically, or does it take away students’ ownership of their grades? Or does it depend on the student?