Timing Of Distribution Of School Report Cards

Discussion in 'Education and Academia' started by EvanJ, Sep 19, 2014.

  1. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I liked the way my schools did it, and I would support a law requiring all schools to do it this way. The students were given their report cards at the end of the school day (unless a student owed library books) and report cards were mailed home later. This gives students a chance to prepare an explanation for their parents if the student thinks the parent will be unhappy with the grades. I think this is much better than the parent(s) seeing the report card first and confronting the student when in some cases the student wouldn't even know how bad he or she did. On another message board, somebody once complained that his mom wouldn't let him see his own grades.
     
  2. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Meh. Here and where my extended family lives (multiple districts in both Utah and Virginia), grades are updated online daily or weekly depending upon the instructor, with corresponding real-time updates of the term grade. Students and parents have separate access mechanisms. And the only people who can be blocked are parents, if the student turns 18 and does not give permission for the parents to see (thanks to FERPA regulations).

    So: no surprises.
     
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  3. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I have things I don't like about that policy:

    1. Students need to learn how to use computers, but I think parents should have the option of seeing the student's grades in print. If the only way to access a student's grades was online, I think the school should be required to offer free in person training on using the computer to the parent(s) or guardian(s).
    2. Since I think the students should get to see the grades first, I would want the computer to be programmed so that whenever a grade was posted, the parent(s) or guardian(s) could not see the grades until the student had looked first or 24 hours had passed, whichever came first. That way the student could always see his or her grades first if he or she wanted to.
     
  4. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Step one sounds like a stunning waste of tax payer dollars. There is a tutorial on how to use the Family Access portal, but that presumes you know how to turn on a computer and google search for the school website first. Having a school district pay to train parents on basic computer fluency is not in their mandate. Fortunately, many local libraries provide these sort of classes.

    Step two: we'll agree to disagree. A minor does not retain this right, per the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act which gives parents rights vis-a-vis the educational records of their dependents until they reach age 18, at which time the rights transfer to the student. Drives the parents of college students batty.
     
  5. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I just think that if grades are only available online and 1 percent of parents cannot access their child's grades due to lack of computer knowledge, that's 1 percent too many. Be it with parents seeing their children's grades or something else, it could make an interesting court case over what type of communication the "right" to know something includes considering some laws about what people have the "right" to know are older than the internet. There's also the issue of people who may not own computers due to poverty.
    I wasn't suggesting that students currently have the legal right to see their grades before their parents, I was just saying it's what I want to happen. I just think it could help reduce family arguments if the student always saw the grades first.
    As for the last sentence, my mom said that parents of college students could give their children a choice between showing their parents their grades and having the parents refuse to pay tuition.
     
  6. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    They're not available only online. Kids get their homework back still, and final grades are distributed via paper copy still.
     
  7. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Does "final grades" refer to only at the end of the school year or more frequently like every quarter? If the grades are available in print at least once a quarter then it's fine with me for schools to not provide parents with computer training.
     
  8. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Trimester here, quarters elsewhere.
     
  9. Auriaprottu

    Auriaprottu Member+

    Atlanta Damn United
    Apr 1, 2002
    The back of the bus
    Club:
    Atlanta
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    This.

    I can't imagine allowing a student to have advanced notice of his or her grades so they could deceive their parents or guardians. If a student's grades are poor, parents need to know so they can get their act together enough to help the student improve.
     
  10. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #10 EvanJ, Sep 27, 2014
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2014
    I didn't mean to allow students to deceive their parents or guardians. I want parents or guardians to get notified by the school, but just after the students do. In that case if the parent or guardian asked the student how he or she did, the student could lie immediately, but it wouldn't help the student in the long run because the parent would find out the actual grades later. I think the marginal difference between parents or guardians finding out the student's grades immediately vs. a few days or one week later isn't much. What I don't want is when a parent yells at his or her child something like "how did you only get an 80 in History?" when the student thought he or she did better. Some students may calculate their own averages and know close to what their average is without a Report Card, but other students don't. If a student doesn't do well, I want the parent or guardian and student to have a productive discussion, not an argument. I could see schools encouraging parents or guardians and students to discuss in advance what grades the parent or guardian expects the student to get. This is a strange analogy to make, but in The Little Mermaid, Ariel forgot to attend an important event and her father yelled at her, which led to Ariel going to see a witch. In real life I think if a child feels like their parent(s) is/are impossible to please, the child could decide to do something like use illegal drugs or join a gang because the child feels like trying to behave doesn't help.
     
  11. Auriaprottu

    Auriaprottu Member+

    Atlanta Damn United
    Apr 1, 2002
    The back of the bus
    Club:
    Atlanta
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    That's what they'd do.

    IMO, by then, whatever punishment the parent had intended to hand down as a result of the poor grades might come too late. A student whose favorite musician or singer or rapper is having a concert the day after grades are given out would still be able to attend.

    Making sure the student is aware of his or her progress, and aware of the weight given to different assessments and assignments is a teacher's responsibility. Keeping track of the grades is a student's responsibility. The ones that don't keep track need to be strongly encouraged by parents to do so.

    It's a fine idea, but good parents already do this, and the poor ones might see schools doing this sort of encouragement as an intrusion on their jobs as parents.

    The witch should have told Ariel to take her butt back home and remember what her dad told her to do next time. What happened in the film?
     
  12. Ismitje

    Ismitje Super Moderator

    Dec 30, 2000
    The Palouse
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Here's a story from one of the "Marketplace" shows from American Public Media last week. It's called "When the Digital Classroom Meets the Parents," about three minutes long and focused on checking grades online etc.
     
  13. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid_(1989_film) doesn't match my memory about why Ariel went to see Ursula. Its says:

    "Ursula makes a deal with Ariel to transform her into a human for three days in exchange for Ariel's voice, which Ursula puts in a nautilus shell. Within these three days, Ariel must receive the "kiss of true love" from Eric; otherwise, she will transform back into a mermaid and belong to Ursula."
     
  14. Waliatiger

    Waliatiger Member+

    Jul 1, 2013
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Dude your living in pre-historic times. Most schools districts nationwide and all in California have an online grade database were students can constantly check there grades, email their teachers and see exactly what they are missing in terms of assignments. It Also allows them to track their performance by graphs and constantly check due dates, store their work and download assignments if they are absent. http://www.schoolloop.com

    Problem solved.
     
  15. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    http://www.bellmore-merrick.k12.ny.us/schools/john_kennedy_high_school is the website for my high school. I graduated in 2003. My high school had smart students. I did not see anything about accessing grades online.

    I acknowledge that some school districts have grades online, but you have to provide a source to convince me that "most schools districts nationwide... have an online grade database...," and considering education is done at a state level it could be hard to get a count of how many school districts the country has. Even if all districts in California do this, you shouldn't assume that the rest of the country is like California without evidence.

    You need to learn grammar. You typed "your" instead of "you're" and "there" instead of "their."
     
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  16. Waliatiger

    Waliatiger Member+

    Jul 1, 2013
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    I am on a message board I could give two shits about grammar on here .I am not at work so who cares. But if grammar is what you jerk off to on a message board buy some lotion and troll forum wide for grammar mistakes.
     
  17. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Missing punctuation in the middle of sentence one (or at the end, depending on which puntuation mark you decide to use). Missing question mark at the end of the next sentence. Missing comma and a missing dash in the final sentence.

    May I recommend...
    [​IMG]

    ...?
     
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  18. Waliatiger

    Waliatiger Member+

    Jul 1, 2013
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Don't care broski....
     
  19. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Fragment.
    Omitted comma.
    As to the ellipses at the end of the sentence, however: notably discharged.
     
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  20. Val1

    Val1 Member+

    Arsenal
    Mar 12, 2004
    MD's Eastern Shore
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Good.

    When my daughter was in high school, daily posted, on-line grade reporting did her a world of good. She used the daily feedback to be much more proactive about chasing down missing assignments. But I stayed off the system completely, my wife would maybe look once a month. And Mary, I think, has learned how to do for herself and hold herself accountable now that she's in college. My son is every bit as conscientious but not as good a student and I suppose I should be checking in more often online, but I still feel that he's going to have to survive on his own in three years. He ought to learn it now while his teachers are still supporting him in a way that I imagine most college professors and TAs are disinclined to do.

    Funny story reported back to me by my daughter about a parent who is still over-involved in his son's education. The son had a project in class, he turned it in on September 18th, or 9/18 as the date was formatted. This parent still had access to the kid's grade and called to excoriate him, and withdraw $100 from his checking account for only getting a 9 out of 18 on the assignment. It took the kid the better part of a week to explain to this parent that he had turned in the assignment early and it hadn't even been graded yet...

    I'll make my daughter sit down and show me her grades when she "visits" us for the Christmas break, so I'll get the grades maybe 2-3 weeks early. But that's as far as I'll go...
     
  21. TheJoeGreene

    TheJoeGreene Member+

    Aug 19, 2012
    The Lubbock Texas
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    You're discussing education while making unfounded assertions about the nature of grade distribution to parents and students nationwide. This is exactly the place where grammar would come into play. Instead, you've behaved like the stereotypical internet tough guy and shown yourself incapable of making a valid contribution.
     
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  22. Waliatiger

    Waliatiger Member+

    Jul 1, 2013
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    *Silent clap* nice response I could care less about your drivel or fake outrage. I was right you were wrong. If your school district doesn't have a sort of program that I described and linked to then your district is living in the Stone Age.
     
  23. Auriaprottu

    Auriaprottu Member+

    Atlanta Damn United
    Apr 1, 2002
    The back of the bus
    Club:
    Atlanta
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    ...couldn't.

    Couldn't care less.
     
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  24. Waliatiger

    Waliatiger Member+

    Jul 1, 2013
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
  25. Dr. Wankler

    Dr. Wankler Member+

    May 2, 2001
    The Electric City
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Except that isn't a question of grammar. It's a question of logic. By saying "I could care less," you imply that you are actually in the process of caring at least a little. It's only one of several ways each of your posts say, "I'm muddleheaded, yet I have a high opinion for what passes as an idea in that vacuum behind my eyes and between my ears...".
     
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