Staff Editorial
You await anxiously at your computer, refreshing PowerSchool for the third time that day. Several of your classes have large spans of time with no grades yet entered, though some of the assignments were logged weeks ago. With little guidance in how your quarter grade may appear, you are stressed.
This aggravating process is not uncommon for students. Some teachers delay entering students’ grades until the mid-quarter Interim Progress Reports or the end of the quarter, giving students sporadic feedback throughout the grading period and leaving them uncertain about their quarter grades. Without a concrete policy as to how or when the teachers upload the grades, they lack consistency. Some have their students’ grades updated daily; others enter grades only twice a quarter.
It is understandable that certain assignments aren’t graded and put on Powerschool immediately. Written assignments, such as free responses or essays, are not expected to be graded the following day. Teachers must find balance in their personal and professional lives, so some latitude concerning timeliness of the grading of assignments is understandable.
However, students lead hectic lives as well; they must also find a balance between their academic work, extracurricular activities and their personal lives. They should be allowed the comfort of knowing that when they check their grade, it will accurately reflect if they are succeeding or not in the class.
Multiple choice tests, particularly scantrons, should be posted on PowerSchool within three school days. Short answer assignments should be assessed and entered within one-to-eight school days. Essays and larger assignments should be entered within 10 school days. Students should receive immediate feedback so that the information is still relevant.
Giving teachers a time period as to when it would be appropriate to upload their grades would eliminate inconsistency and inaccuracy. The school board could tweak the timing of when grades should be entered; however, some some set of parameters for assessing and providing feedback on students’ work needs to be established to prevent students from the stress of upcoming assignments.