Parents: How do you feel about grade-monitoring programs?

I think when dealing with kids and education, the more parents know, the better. Kids can hide their grades or may not tell their parents that there is a problem until it’s too late.

I guess one drawback is the helicopter moms who might call every time junior gets an A- instead of an A+ and demand answers. But those moms usually already know their kids’ grades every day anyway.

As it is right now, I’m not exactly sure why I’m sending my son to school at all.

Every day he comes home with a coloring page, not colored in, with drawings in the margins and on the back. He hates to color.

The teacher has a calendar stapled to a folder, on which she places a star sticker if the child isn’t to disruptive. That is all the parent/teacher communication we have so far. Not once has my child come home excited about having learned something new.

So… I’m all for anything that promotes communication between parents and teachers.

Because seriously, if I find out they’re coloring all day, I’m going to be pissed, and then I’m going to be a homeschooling parent.

It’s worked great for me and my kids. Our high school uses SchoolLoop, and I get an email every day with up to date assignments and any grades that have been assigned. That way I know if the kids have something big coming up, or if they are falling behind in a subject.

It sounds like a great tool to help the parents see where the kids need help.

I always hated grades, because that means the kids get to choose to fail rather than learn. In homeschooling, we had no such thing as grades. They worked on a a subject until they learned it, period.

Thanks for the responses so far. I definitely wanted to gain some further perspectives on this issue.

One concern that I have is for children in abusive households. I know a teenager whose parents respond unfavourably (to say the least) to poor academic performance. While this teen usually keeps their grades up, they are not doing so well right now and I genuinely worry for how the parents might respond.

But I do think that something needs to be done about the communication between teachers, students, and parents. Do these systems permit the teacher to also provide comments and insight into why the student’s grades are where they are? Or does it just display a number? Is it still accompanied with encouragement for alternatives such as tutoring, make up work, or possibly a parent-teacher conference?

For those parents that have utilized it, do you discuss it with your kids, or keep it to yourself? (Though @Seek_Kolinahr, I understand this may not be a major issue for your son since he’s just a tot right now!)

I discuss it with the kids if I see anything change or a new pattern develop. They know I see it every afternoon.

I think your concern about kids whose parents respond unfavorably to poor grades is misplaced. With SchoolLoop or Aeries, the kids and the parents know how things are going so it is not a sudden surprise at progress report time.

Absolutely, and I see it as a useful tool as a progress tracker. However, when a student’s grades falter for a specific reason—which the parents might not be informed about if all they see is a letter grade on the progress tracking system—they might get in hot water before they have a chance to keep working on the grade. If that makes sense? I know when I was in high school, my grades fluctuated quite often.

This could be used as a way to get parents to understand those grade fluctuations and for students to discuss the issues they are having more openly, though. I find myself battling with the pros and cons. I guess I’m looking for ways that these systems could be put to an even better use.

He is quite young, but I have worked with him from day one to encourage learning daily. So yes, I am thoroughly concerned that the time my child spends by decree of law with perfect strangers actually profit him in some way beyond being invited to a few birthday parties.

Our school system has used Pinnacle for several years, and it has been very helpful to our family. Students and parents can access their grades online. While it doesn’t have a place for teachers to add comments (possible reasons for a bad grade or something), the schools my children attend(ed) have encouraged parent/teacher communication, and make it easy to email or call teachers.

We check on the grades every week or so; it’s not a daily thing. If we notice a downward trend we talk to our child and find out what’s up. Sometimes we talk to the teacher(s) involved, too, depending on the situation. Depending on the reasons for the bad grades, the kid might need extra help, or might need a serious talking to and their electronic privileges removed until they bring their grades up. Catching it quickly, while there’s still time to turn it around, is far preferable to having no clue until halfway through the term, when interim reports are issued.

I see your point about parents who obsess and go crazy over a single bad grade, and it is troublesome. I feel like those parents would probably know anyway, though…they’d just use some other method to find out. I’ve known parents in the pre-Pinnacle days who made a sort of ‘contract’ with the teacher(s), so that they’d be informed of every assignment and could follow up with their kids, insisting on seeing completed work/grades. Some of these deals even required signatures. Sadly, where there’s a will to be an ass, there’s a way!

That’s a good point @augustlan. I hadn’t considered that teachers could just as easily require a signed document or even make a phone call. Communication of this sort is not necessarily new.

What I would like to see schools looking toward is giving the students more agency or at least more involvement in discussing their academic standing. Do teachers who contact the parents about grades (in any medium) go to the student first? Do parents find out at the same time as the student so they can discuss it together in a non-confrontational manner?

Should agency and involvement change depending on where the student is developmentally? Should it be more about parent-teacher communication when the child is younger, but involve the student more directly as they grow older?

I never had to consider these issues when I was a student because I generally did well. Now that I am mentoring a young teen, however, these issues concern me and I find myself wondering how the system could be improved.

I am glad to hear that we have so many involved parents here though :) Good job guys.

In our experience, whether or not the teacher has already talked to the student depended on how good a teacher it was. The good, involved ones invariably had already been talking to our kid(s) about their grades by the time we were in contact with the teacher ourselves. We’re talking middle/high school, here, and self-agency does become more and more important. If one of our kids was struggling with a subject because they found it difficult, we encouraged them to talk to their teachers on their own and ask for additional help – before we’d get involved. Knowing that the minute they’re in college, we’re out of the loop and they have to stand on their own.

Mostly, though, they weren’t finding the work too difficult…they just weren’t doing it, heh.

I love the system my son’s school uses. I can set the parsmeters for email alert, such as a grade below _____ or if he is marked absent. My son knows all about it. I am set up to get alerts anytime he gets below a B. This is so I can know when he may be stuggling, so I can help him sooner than waiting for a report card. He doesn’t get in trouble for grades unless it’s something like just refusing to do the work.

Looking at it from a kid’s point of view (I am still a kid at heart), it seems a bit intrusive. Students should have at least a little bit of distance from their parents. If a student gets a bad grade on a test, he should be able to adjust on his own to do better on the next one. I really dislike the whole system of getting grades. The home schooling approach mentioned above is so much friendlier. You should work at something until you master it. I could see informing parents about how far along the student is in completing the material.

Interesting discussion. My first reaction was I thought the system sounded great. Then after reading @Seek_Kolinahr‘s answer, it made me think, the system would mean teachers need to be more on their toes, because parents are more aware of assignments. I also like the method @YARNLADY mentioned, but regular public and private school doesn’t really work that way. Some schools are better than others at having opportunities for children at different levels within a grade to move faster or slower through material, but if they get very stuck on one chapter, they just lose the chapter in the end.

The other point mentioned was allowing children to adjust themselves after a dissappointing grade. Give them some independence, responsibility, and privacy even.

I feel like in the younger grades it is a great system, but maybe by high school teens can be expected to monitor their own grades? Hopefully, the younger years establish a good communication line between parents and their children regarding education, and teaches the child how to study, and overcome challenges regarding school. I still like all grades online, at minimum so the student can at any time see their grades and how the term is rolling out for them. If the parents wants to demand to see the grades then the student can show them on the website.

Just so you know, I found out from a professor that parents want this for college, and they can’t do it. Once someone turns 18, things like their grades are considered confidential and it’s up to them to disclose. Private even to the folk footing the bill.

@keobooks I think that is as it should be. Do you? I don’t think parents should be able to see college grades.

I’m mixed. I think the financial backer of the person has a right to see their investment and whether or not it’s paying off. But I also think that parents need to back off at some point and college is as good as any other.

@keobooks I do understand your concern because I have had students whose parents were paying for their education… who definitely did not put that investment to good use. But there are plenty of students who are paying for their own college education, too. Or students who decided to go to college long after graduating high school (and kudos to them!); offering to send their parents their grades, even though though their days of being a minor long ago, would seem odd. I think it best to treat all college students (who are above the age of 18) the same.

@JLeslie We seem to have similar concerns. I still feel conflicted, but also understand that many high schoolers are not ready to have that agency or responsibility or realize how important their education can be. I’m not sure how to go about it.

@LostInParadise It’s nice to hear from a student’s perspective as well. Grades do seem to cause quite a stir. On the one hand, everyone wants to be able to gauge how the student is doing, but it also puts an added pressure on students. One of my college professors noted that if he did not have to grade his students, he would probably teach for the rest of his life. But the stress and responsibility of it, on the instructor’s end, will probably lead him to retirement within the next decade.

I would hope that online systems would encourage the teachers not to reveal less about what goes on in their classes, but more. To be more open about the types of assignments that they have and the expectations placed on their students. The more everyone knows about what is going on, the better, no?

@muppetish I agree the high schooler may not understand the responsibility or impact of their grades on their future, but they don’t need a constantly doting parent I don’t think. When kids are very young, parents are involved with homework, keep children on task, and basically run their child’s day. By high school most children know how to do it all if they bother. My mom couldn’t help me much with math or some of my AP courses. She has a college degree, but her major and abilities were so far from my interests. So, what is a parent really doing by high school? Just making sure the kid is applying himself? I don’t know if constantly having online access is really necessary for that. However, I am not completely against it in high school, I just know for sure in primary school I think it is a great idea. What I do think is a great idea is for the high school teachers to have a syllabus posted online for high school children so parents and kids can always refer to it. A parent would be able to look at that and at least check in with their child about assignments and how they are progressing. Grades are after the fact. I don’t know if that is done already? I don’t have kids, I’m not up to date.

For an idea of what can be accomplished without teachers or parents

I encourage you to view at least one of the videos. It will definitely make you think.