When social studies teacher Alli Cota began teaching around 30 years ago, grading was different – throughout the year grades she would meticulously log in a physical book and student’s individual grades would be sent to them through the Postal Service at the end of each semester. During the year, she’d hand back assignments with grades on them and a student would have a sense of how they were doing in the class from the assignments they’d receive. If a student wanted to know their letter grade during the year, they would go and have a conversation with Ms. Cota to ask. Now, for most teachers, students, and parents, Schoology is ever present and constantly updating. Now a student’s grade is always known or calculable and because of this their relationships with their grades have changed.
“I think the biggest change with Schoology is that it’s honestly pretty unhealthy. I feel like having 24/7 access to one’s exact average, like grade to the decimal, focuses students and their parents on grades, not learning,” Cota said.
Cota said she feels student anxiety has increased now that student’s have constant knowledge of what their grades are in every class.
“[When I was in high school] we didn’t know our grades until they came in the mail,” Cota said. “I actually think that that was better, because it meant that I felt more pressure or more motivated to just always do my best.”
There has been a loss of learning to learn Cota said, and an increase of student’s focus on the actual points they earn throughout the year. Cota said she has seen an increase in requests for rounding grades at the end of grading periods and student’s micro-focusing on the differences between points that contribute to their grade percentage.
“ I feel like almost any teacher and almost any parent would say the purpose, ideally, of school is to foster intrinsic love of learning, curiosity, and desire to build one’s skills and knowledge–but I feel like [the Schoology gradebook] made it much more transactional,” Cota said.
However, some student’s views about their relationship with their grades differ from Cota’s.
Senior Logan Watral said he uses the Google Chrome extension Schoology Plus to see exactly how much an assignment will affect his grade. In contrast to Cota’s beliefs, Watral has found it has decreased anxiety in relation to his grades.
“It decreases stress because I actually know what’s going on. If I wasn’t able to see my grades full time, then I’d probably be kind of freaking out about what my grades are and trying to calculate them manually,” Watral said.
Senior Annika Hattan-Kutter said she also uses Schoology Plus to calculate how a big test will affect her grade.
“I would say it helps, because I’d rather know my grade than not know it. Because if I did know it, if it was too low, I would know how to change it to get it to where I want to be,” Hattan-Kutter said.
Hattan-Kutter said she checks her grades after every two days or after a big assignment. In contrast, Watral said he does believe he checks his grades too often, and even considers himself “addicted” to checking his grades.
“[I check my grades] like, minimum six, seven [times a day]. Sometimes, there have been days where I’ve checked my grades up to 20 times and nothing changes. Nothing changes, but I reload it every half an hour or so,”
Watral said he believes his level of stress would be the same whether or not he checked his grades as often as he does now.
Freshman Zafar Majid said the amount he checks his grades increased after he entered high school as he felt his grades now mattered more than in middle school. However, Majid’s stress in relation to his grades is not constant and varies when he checks his grades.
“I think that my stress level, it’s definitely gone up a bit by checking my grades. But whenever a break comes and I know that I’m fine and my grades are solid, and I go to check my grades, it’s an essentially rewarding feeling,” Majid said.
PHS parent Jennifer Bretan said she checks her child’s grades in Schoology a few times a week and looks at the specific grades her student receives on assignments. Bretan said she uses Schoology as a resource to see what’s happening inside the classroom.
“[I use Schoology to] see what the work is that’s being given to just get a sense of the demands of the class, see what they’re learning. It’s just an all around resource,” Bretan said. “I don’t want to get the grade at the end of the year, never having looked at how things are progressing.”
“The problem is the nature of Bretan said that a parent knowing their student’s grades and Schoology having visibility is important. However, there is potential avoidable stress for both the student and their parents.
“I don’t think it’s healthy to be too inter semester focused [with] anxiety around every single grade that comes in. But I think it’s important information,” Bretan said.
For many students’, parents’, and teachers’ opinions, they seem to be at a crossroads. For students, numbers are a helpful tool to get the grade they want in a class. Even if they believe they are “addicted” to checking Schoology, for some it is a helpful addiction. For many teachers, they worry about their students’ stress and what students believe is important about school.
“There’s too much focus just on the numbers,” Cota said.
For some parents, they lie in the middle of the issue. They want their child to succeed and Schoology is a tool to help them understand how their child is doing in their classes. However, they also believe that Schoology is flawed and causes undue stress on students, parents, and teachers.i
“I don’t think it’s the healthiest relationship to learning, so I would be much happier if the main, number one focus was, I love my classes, I love my teachers, I’m really absorbing things,” Bretan said.
