Online grading is a fact in many schools, whether teachers and administrators like it or not. With the speed of technology development, it looks like we’ll be able to track and report everything students do all day long. There are certainly many positives for schools being able to give parents online access to their children’s grades. No longer are there problems such as students not bringing home test papers and report cards. Parents can see what’s what and team with teachers if help is needed.
I’m all for teachers having online grade books and for report cards being published for parents online, but I’m not so sure that parents should have immediate access to all tests, quiz, and essay grades before students can go home and explain the grades and show their work to their parents. For some parents, such access encourages “micromanagement” of their children’s work as they react to a number rather than the reasons why the grade was received. There has to be a happy medium here since online reporting of grades takes away any flexibility teachers may have in adjusting grades of students who had troubles at the beginning of the term, but have done much better work as the term progressed. Some teachers complain that their school’s reporting systems take time from their teaching because many have to post assignments and grades, sometimes in more than one administrative program. —And then, if grades are already online, does this mean that teachers will be less likely to call parents and less likely to request face-to-face conferences?
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