The West Windsor Plainsboro Regional School District purchased a new student information system that is being used extensively during the 2008-2009 school year. Teachers at the district’s high schools are required to enter marking period grades into the system. Many teachers also utilize the system’s electronic gradebook to record scores for individual assignments.
The district enabled a feature that, by default, allows middle school and high school students to view each of their scores through a website. Parents can view the same information. By default, scores are available immediately after they have been entered.
Several of my students have asked whether I believe that the benefits of such a system outweigh the issues. As may be evident from my research paper on web based assessment, I see believe that making better use of readily available data can offers benefits. What follows is not a research paper and so will neither attempt to identify all potential issues and benefits, nor attempt to comprehensively address the issues and benefits presented.
Selected issues
Constant access to live scores may encourage students and parents to increase focus on grades at the expense of more significant educational goals. It may facilitate disputes about trivial scoring issues among students, parents, and teachers that would not otherwise have occurred.
Selected benefits
Allowing students and parents to access scores electronically is substantially more time and cost efficient than mailing paper report cards and distributing paper progress reports. Postage for 1,200 letters costs more than $500. The value of the prep time that teachers spend printing progress reports and the value of the class time they spend distributing them is significant.
I’ve emailed progress reports to students and parents with detailed scoring information for several years prior to the availability of the new web based system. From my perspective as a teacher, frequent student and parent access to scores is beneficial because it spreads scoring issues out over an entire marking period instead of concentrating them at the end. Resolving scoring issues soon after they arise is not only easier, but also reduces animosity among students, teachers, and parents. Many parents have expressed their appreciation for the frequent updates and I have experienced few trivial scoring disputes.
The transparency enforced by live availability of gradebooks may encourage teachers to score assignments fairly, in a timely manner, and in accordance with educationally sound practices. (This statement is not meant to imply that most teachers do not already score assignments in such a manner, but merely that transparency encourages quality.) Teachers may also be encouraged to comment meaningfully on individual assignments if they are aware that students and parents will actually read their comments.
Conclusion
From an administrative perspective, I believe that the time and cost savings alone justify such a system. From a teaching perspective, I’ve found the system easier than the alternative. From a student perspective (I am a student at Rider University where a similar system is in place) I find that the transparency is to my benefit. I am unable to comment on whether the system is beneficial to parents, though I have difficulty conceiving of significant objections.
Comments from students, parents, teachers, and others on student and parent access to grades are welcome.
