Does your school post grades online?

[page017]

The high school I work at is going to go on a new system next year where parents will be able to log on to the schools website, and see the up to date gradebook for their child. Parents will not only get the up to the minute average, but they will also be able to see each specific grade that the teacher logs into the computer.

Does anyone have something like this in their district? How did it work out, what were the pro's and cons that came from it?

If your district doesn't have this, would you like to have something like it, and what information do you hope to be able to get from it?

[chris13]

My kids go to a private school that does it.
Homework assignments, grades, attendance, etc. It's all online. I love it.

[sandgal]

I am a teacher and parent in a district that does this. I love it. I love that my student's parents can look and see how their child is doing.

As a parent, I get annoyed at teachers who do not post grades often enough. If the teacher does not stay on top of grading, it is not very useful. Entering a ton of grades the last week of a quarter is not helpful to me as a parent.

[page017]

I am a teacher and parent in a district that does this. I love it. I love that my student's parents can look and see how their child is doing.

As a parent, I get annoyed at teachers who do not post grades often enough. If the teacher does not stay on top of grading, it is not very useful. Entering a ton of grades the last week of a quarter is not helpful to me as a parent.

That's one of the problems we heard about from a nearby district that started this a few years ago. You have some teachers who are simply not good about getting things graded very quickly, or about using the grade software to get the grades online. Then you have some projects that take longer to grade. Usually I get my nightly homework assignments and weekly quizzes graded the day they are turned in. But the larger projects and unit tests could easily take a week or more to finish grading. Since my priority in grading is the things that I want the students to go over right away. There was a concern that some teachers would start shying away from larger projects that take longer to grade. (Our administration has told us all assignments need to be graded and online within a week of the due date)

Some people from the district that allready uses this tells us that parents will start calling the school or e-mailing the afternoon that an assignment is turned in, wondering why the grade isn't online yet. Our principal is going to send a letter home explaining what his expectations are and how he wants parents to interact with him and what he wants to get a e-mail or call about, and what he doesn't.

When you learned how to use the system, were you given any directions or expectations regarding this?

[pubschteacher]

The high school I work at is going to go on a new system next year where parents will be able to log on to the schools website, and see the up to date gradebook for their child. Parents will not only get the up to the minute average, but they will also be able to see each specific grade that the teacher logs into the computer.

Does anyone have something like this in their district? How did it work out, what were the pro's and cons that came from it?

If your district doesn't have this, would you like to have something like it, and what information do you hope to be able to get from it?


We use it and have for the last 5 years. Overall, it has been a positive experience, it does save you time having to constantly look up students grades, they can just log on to any school computer and check their grades. It is important that as a staff you agree on how often grades need to be updated and that the teachers attend to that professionally. Our grades need to be updated every two weeks and that seems to work out pretty well. Personally, I am all for it, parents and students can stay on top of their grades and if a kid misses two or three assignments and the grade starts to drop, they know it and THEY need to do something about it. The old "I didn't know my grade was so low" flies out the window.

[page017]

We use it and have for the last 5 years. Overall, it has been a positive experience, it does save you time having to constantly look up students grades, they can just log on to any school computer and check their grades. It is important that as a staff you agree on how often grades need to be updated and that the teachers attend to that professionally. Our grades need to be updated every two weeks and that seems to work out pretty well. Personally, I am all for it, parents and students can stay on top of their grades and if a kid misses two or three assignments and the grade starts to drop, they know it and THEY need to do something about it. The old "I didn't know my grade was so low" flies out the window.

When you transitioned to it did you find that it had any positive effect on students grades?

We went to a system where we started posting assignments on the internet a few years ago. Some teachers are better about it than others, but I can't definitively say that the teachers who post homework online have a higher percentage of homework completion than those who don't.

[pubschteacher]

When you transitioned to it did you find that it had any positive effect on students grades?

We went to a system where we started posting assignments on the internet a few years ago. Some teachers are better about it than others, but I can't definitively say that the teachers who post homework online have a higher percentage of homework completion than those who don't.

We actually did see positive effects both on grades and the percentage of assignments turned in. It shifted some responsibility to parents and students and took pressure off teachers trying to keep track of 200 students and their daily assignments. Don't get me wring, there will be parents and students who abuse the system, but after 5 years, that has virtually disappeared. I want to reiterate that you need to emphasize professionalism when you set up when grades are going to be updated. A few teachers not getting that done in a timely manner can lead to some problems.

[Wake-Up]

My kids are already out of college and went to a top rated public school system that has done this for at least the last 12 years.

We loved it and so did the kids. The teachers did an excellent job keeping it updated. The students and parents had their own login and passwords so they could check too.

Our kids used it for planning their studies around due dates as well as checking their progress. They even had direct links to the teachers email to ask questions for they parents.

From what we could tell and heard it did not reduce face to face communications but enhanced knowing what was going on and coming up.

We saw nothing negative in it and the teachers we knew in the district all thought it was very positive as well.

[Apatriot]

The high school I work at is going to go on a new system next year where parents will be able to log on to the schools website, and see the up to date gradebook for their child. Parents will not only get the up to the minute average, but they will also be able to see each specific grade that the teacher logs into the computer.

Does anyone have something like this in their district? How did it work out, what were the pro's and cons that came from it?

If your district doesn't have this, would you like to have something like it, and what information do you hope to be able to get from it?


IMHO, all schools should have these kinds of systems. My children's system doesn't at all schools, but they are working on it.

[Apatriot]

I am a teacher and parent in a district that does this. I love it. I love that my student's parents can look and see how their child is doing.

As a parent, I get annoyed at teachers who do not post grades often enough. If the teacher does not stay on top of grading, it is not very useful. Entering a ton of grades the last week of a quarter is not helpful to me as a parent.

When my wife worked at a school that had this, part of the general rule was that grades had to be entered within a week of the assignment being due (with a little leeway for larger projects/papers).

[sandgal]

When you learned how to use the system, were you given any directions or expectations regarding this?

I started teaching in this district after the online gradebook was already in place and I started in the middle of the year, so I missed out on any training that took place. I have always been one to keep up on my grading, so it isn't a problem for me. I would think a week for normal assignments and a bit longer for projects is reasonable.

[page017]

My kids are already out of college and went to a top rated public school system that has done this for at least the last 12 years.

We loved it and so did the kids. The teachers did an excellent job keeping it updated. The students and parents had their own login and passwords so they could check too.

Our kids used it for planning their studies around due dates as well as checking their progress. They even had direct links to the teachers email to ask questions for they parents.

From what we could tell and heard it did not reduce face to face communications but enhanced knowing what was going on and coming up.

We saw nothing negative in it and the teachers we knew in the district all thought it was very positive as well.

We aren't doing this to reduce face time with the parents, but we are going to be eliminating weekly reports that something like 10-15% of the parents get. Basically we used to allow parents to sign up and recieve what is essentially an interim report, but on a weekly basis. Doing this was relatively time consuming, but we felt like it really didn't improve the students grades at all. So I guess the best case scenerio is that it takes less time than all the communicating we did before, but raises the grades. A good outcome would be if this takes more time, but does raise students grades. Worst case scenerio would be it takes lots of extra time explaining the grades to parents and fielding phone calls, but doesn't raise the grades at all.

[page017]

The other story we just heard is about a neighboring district, that had one parent reloading the page upwards of 200 times a day. And was averaging about 10 e-mails a day to the school and teachers.

I guess my point is, sometimes I worry about HS becoming the new middle school, college becoming the new high school... The local tourist area hires college students from Europe to come and work over the summer rather than hiring the local kids. They just have a higher level of maturity and responsibility at the same age as our kids. With all this NCLB and holding teachers accountable, I sometimes worry that we spend too much time basically forcing the kids to pass, and not enough making them responsible for their own outcomes. More important than the actual information learned is for the kids to learn how to learn, to be responsible, to desire to do well for themselves. Between lowering the bar and forcing the kids over it, the HS diploma has come to mean a lot less than it used to. I like this computer program for the middle school grades, where kids are just learning how to budget their time for homework, and if the kid is doing poorly, some sort of communication from the teacher is expected. But I'm not entirely comfortable using it with HS seniors. To have to have mommy and daddy checking in on the kid every day to make sure he did his homework. I don't think it teaches them to be responsible adults.

One of the biggest issues I've seen with the kids the past few years is, they don't have the drive to be successful. At least, they haven't internalized it. Most of them at least want to get a 65%, they know what it means if they don't. But they really don't see a 75% as being worth more than a 65, they think it's just ten extra points of wasted effort that didn't get them any farther along than they would have gotten working less, and getting the 65%. They need to learn how to set goals, since it's everyone else who is setting goals for them, either their parents, a teacher or a coach, or maybe it's their friends who are telling them what to do, or some sort of advertising or marketing that is setting the kids agenda, but they are getting less independant every year. And I worry that this computer program is going to facilitate that.

[JenyEliza]

We have it at middle school and high school level. It's called iParent.

I used it to keep an eye on things....and to scare the kids straight when they start slacking off. I show them their grades and their average, and that's usually enough to remind them to stop goofing off and get back to work.

As they are starting high school in the fall, I suspect I will do this less and less, and let *them* take the password and monitor their own grades. I suspect that might be a good way to start holding them more accountable.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone?

[page017]

We have it at middle school and high school level. It's called iParent.

I used it to keep an eye on things....and to scare the kids straight when they start slacking off. I show them their grades and their average, and that's usually enough to remind them to stop goofing off and get back to work.

As they are starting high school in the fall, I suspect I will do this less and less, and let *them* take the password and monitor their own grades. I suspect that might be a good way to start holding them more accountable.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone?

I do like doing that a lot. Our old gradebook software used to let me print out a grade summary for the entire class with their subtotal in each catergory and overall average pretty easily. So once or twice a week I would be able to post their grades (via ID number) next to the door, and the kids would always run over to check it right away. With our new software, I haven't been able to find a way to easily do that yet. But I do call kids up once or twice a week during lab to show them their own grade and talk about it.

Now I'm just waiting for the next great system of rewards and punishments that actually seems to make a difference in student motivation. Our school has tried a variety of academic eliigibility policies that have never seemed to make any difference in the number of kids wh have who are failing. I personally offer the kids some pretty nice rewards on my tests, but it doesn't seem to make them any more likely to actually study or prepare for them.

During my last test, I had a girl who has a 64% average for the year rush through and finish the test in about 20 minutes. This is a test that could either make or break her for the year. And she knows she has a 64% too. So I asked her if she had tried the bonus questions yet. Her answer was a whiny "Do I have to?"

[rosto67]

Does the system provide teachers with a little less responsibility at the end of the year? I teach a subject to mostly seniors and invariably I get hassled by parents of kids who are not going to graduate. The typical excuse is that I didn't let them know enough in advance. IF the grades are online then the parents should be responsible for checking up on their kids.

[page017]

Does the system provide teachers with a little less responsibility at the end of the year? I teach a subject to mostly seniors and invariably I get hassled by parents of kids who are not going to graduate. The typical excuse is that I didn't let them know enough in advance. IF the grades are online then the parents should be responsible for checking up on their kids.

Ideally it needs to be the kid who is responsible, especially a senior. A parent shouldn't have to be forcing a 17 or 18 year old to do their work so they can graduate. They need to be learning some responsibility before then. I have one parent who asks me to e-mail her the homework every night. I do it because I was told by my boss to do it, but I see that as only a temporary solution. If a parent is going to make sure that a kid completes every assignment, they have taken that responsibility from the kid, he's no longer learning responsibility, he's learning how to do what he's made to do by mom. The kid can't even be responsible for writing down his own homework assignments. But who gets the diploma, the parent or the kid? I've never been in a school where there weren't interim and quarterly notices sent to parents. So at the very least, parents are getting grades every 5 weeks. That really should be enough for a parent to determine whether the kid is doing well, doing ok, borderline passing, or failing.

I'm not saying this system won't make my job easier. I think it will. You'll still have the parents who won't bother enough to check the grades, you'll still have the parents who will check, but not do anything or not know what to do. And sure, it takes away from parents being able to argue with the teachers over not knowing. But I'd rather have something that required a bit more work and actually taught the kids responsibility.

[Apatriot]

Does the system provide teachers with a little less responsibility at the end of the year? I teach a subject to mostly seniors and invariably I get hassled by parents of kids who are not going to graduate. The typical excuse is that I didn't let them know enough in advance. IF the grades are online then the parents should be responsible for checking up on their kids.


I doubt that it will stop that for graduating seniors. It probably will ease you with earlier grades. The good thing is that once you start using a gradebook program, it's very simple to give the kids progress reports (or at the least, the failing kids progress reports).

[sandgal]

We have it at middle school and high school level. It's called iParent.

I used it to keep an eye on things....and to scare the kids straight when they start slacking off. I show them their grades and their average, and that's usually enough to remind them to stop goofing off and get back to work.

As they are starting high school in the fall, I suspect I will do this less and less, and let *them* take the password and monitor their own grades. I suspect that might be a good way to start holding them more accountable.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone?

I check my middle schooler's grades, but my high schooler checks her own. She checks at least once a week. She was averaging grades the other night to see what she has to get on the final to have a 95 on her report card at the end of the year in one of her courses.

[pubschteacher]

We have it at middle school and high school level. It's called iParent.

I used it to keep an eye on things....and to scare the kids straight when they start slacking off. I show them their grades and their average, and that's usually enough to remind them to stop goofing off and get back to work.

As they are starting high school in the fall, I suspect I will do this less and less, and let *them* take the password and monitor their own grades. I suspect that might be a good way to start holding them more accountable.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone?


Most of our parents follow the model you are talking about and students, for the most part, are the ones you hear from first when there is a grade issue. I think it is the way to go, you still have the opportunity to check in, but it is "their" grade.

[MrShotShot]

I think this is a pretty good idea, but there is a fine line between being a concerned and involved parent and being the helicoptor parent from hell.