Troubling Grades | Teen Ink

Troubling Grades

May 6, 2019
By Anonymous

How wonderful would it be to not have to spend valuable time manually tracking and calculating your grade in each class? Receiving a report card can be very stressful, especially when one cannot see their grades at all times during the school year. At Mount Carmel, students are not allowed to see their grade point averages in each class. If one would like to know their grade point average in every class, they would have to calculate the grade themselves because the teachers are not allowed to tell a student her grade throughout the year. The grade calculation for each class can be different; therefore, it makes it harder to keep track of your grades manually amidst all the stress of school. With seven different classes, a different scale for each class, and some teachers not returning grades on time, it is very hard for a student to calculate her exact grade in her class. I once received a C on my report card, and once I went back and calculated all my grades, I missed a B by one point. This makes students like me extremely frustrated. If one would know what grade they have in each class at all times of the school year, grades would be likely to improve due to students working harder to achieve a better grade. Teachers also sometimes fail to put all test and quizzes on the progress report or report card, and then return a grade back the day after. With this grade not being added to one’s progress report or report card, now the student has to go through the trouble of calculating their grade over again. Also, the teachers grade participation differently from what one might think,  it makes calculating a grade harder than what it should be. This is because students do not know what the participation grade is. These issues can be solved with a very simple solution to make teachers, students, and parents lives easier.

Many teachers commonly tell students that in order to know where they stand in a class, they should be manually tracking and calculating their grade themselves. An easy solution to this problem for parents, teachers, and students is to have grades and grade point averages published on a website. The website will run just like canvas where each student has her own account that both she and her parents can access. Teachers will then go in and submit all the grades made by the student. The program will then automatically calculate the class grade as well as the overall student grade point average. Teachers will be required to update this daily. By doing this, students and parents are able to log into this account at any time and be fully aware of the grades and grade point average the student has. The software will also make it easier for teachers to put grades into the system. As far as approval goes, Ms. Simno will need to approve the solution, and once she approves this grade tracker website, the  Internet Technology department will be able to make the website and account for all students. The solution should not need funding because it should simply be achievable with the help of the current school’s staff.

With the solution of having a website that publishes all grades earned by the student and their grade point average for each class, there will be less stress on students, teachers, and parents. This website will help parents, teachers, and students to see where the student has done poorly and help them to know what to do to improve their grade point average before the semester ends. When a student can see her grade, she is more likely to be motivated to strive harder in school and will not have to stress about what is on her report card when sent out. This will make report card conferences less stressful because parents are more involved with the grades, and students can timely see their averages in each class. Teachers will also have less meetings with frustrated parents because they are now aware of the student's grades and averages and can better understand their child’s grade in the class. In order to be efficient and to help reduce stress on teachers, parents, and students, Mount Carmel should publicly post grades, grade calculations, and grade point averages on an internet website.



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