This year Colorado Academy’s Upper School faculty are fully committed to having an open gradebook system for their students. After three years of deliberation, and following significant upgrades from our educational website provider, we decided the time was right to give all students access to the published information on their teachers’ gradebooks. Many upper school teachers had already piloted this approach to their classes, and their satisfaction with the results was pivotal to our full adoption.

 

First and foremost, students can much more easily keep track of their assessments and assignments in an up-to-date fashion. There is much less guesswork for students about where they stand in a particular class, or how much an assignment is worth, or whether or not something has been turned in. This last point has been especially helpful, along with the rise of electronic assignment submissions, in eliminating the work flow problems that plague some students, especially in the early years of high school. Simply put, it is quite clear now when a student has (or has not) turned in an assignment, as the electronic gradebook registers that quite clearly. We have seen tremendous improvement in students’ ability to complete work on time and turn it in. Similarly, we have seen an increased ability and willingness to give students "real-time" feedback and be as transparent as possible in their grading practices and policies. The iPad and electronic gradebook are two key technological features that have helped bring about these improvements.

 

As a result there are very few “surprises” anymore about missing assignments that translated into “zeros” in the student’s cumulative average. When I piloted the system in my electives last year, I also received an added benefit: I learned that students were helpful to me in reminding me I had not posted a grade for something (it was still showing blank in the student’s view). I never took offense to this reminder, but appreciated the opportunity to explain why the grade was delayed or perhaps correct an error in my own bookkeeping or in the way the online gradebook was translating the information. So, in short, the system provides a helpful, transparent means for both student and faculty to keep track of the assessment data in the class.

 

In a competitive school environment such as CA, where motivated students typically want to do very well, the concern has always been that open gradebooks will promote grade obsession. Several of our teachers have maintained that if students want to know how they’re doing in the class, they should simply ask the teacher. After all, we have always prided ourselves on our communication and personal touch. There was some worry that we might lose that personal touch.

 

Meanwhile, Madeline Levine, one of our SPEAK guests last year, is one of many psychologists and educators who worry that “these systems undermine what teachers and parents ultimately value” and encourage a “singular focus on grades.” Along those lines, I read with horror an article in which a student proclaimed: “School isn’t about learning. It’s about doing well.” Certainly we don’t want students to become hyper-focused on grades or scores or any of the quantitative measures of school life that only tell part of the story of their progress.

 

Both of these concerns are legitimate and have certainly generated plenty of discussion on our end. We absolutely do not want an open gradebook to interefere or replace the crucial teacher-student relationship that is at the heart of what we do at Colorado Academy. Students and teachers need to communicate regularly in many different ways, with direct interpersonal contact being the obvious starting point. Open gradebooks simply provide an additional point of communication between teacher and student and a way to potentially start a conversation, not preclude one.

 

We have not seen an increase in grade “obsession” in the trimesters since many teachers tried opening their gradebooks. Students who are overly focused on grades will be that way with or without open gradebook systems; our practice is to counsel them when we notice this tendency and try to get to the root cause of the issue. Often kids who exhibit perfectionism get too caught up in the pursuit of achievement for achievement’s sake or in the misguided notion that a flawless high school record is their only pathway to a good college. So these behaviors will spark a conversation with an advisor, dean, trusted teacher, or our school counselor.

 

Parents might also ask why we have not opened gradebooks for their viewing, as many schools do. We are maintaining that the benefit of having parents receive this level of information will not serve their students well. We worry about parental reactions that could be based on limited information. Rather, we continue to ask that parents talk to their students about their classes, and if necessary ask their students to show them the progress reports online and have a discussion together about what is there. From there, a parent should feel free to call or e-mail a teacher with questions or clarifications.

 

We believe the way we are doing open gradebook strikes a nice balance. Yes, students can see their grades and chart their progress anytime they want to, but for the most part the feedback has been that this transparency reduces student stress and worry rather than heightens it. What often kept them up at night was wondering and worrying how they were really doing. Conversely, we also have had the problem of some students being overly optimistic about their progress based on an incomplete sense of the whole picture. With the gradebook “mystique” gone, students can deal better with the reality of their performance.

 

 

--Teachers can still opt to keep some gradebook information private; for example, teachers can write comments/notes to themselves in the gradebook that are for their use only.

--Some teachers will periodically “close” their gradebooks for certain periods of time as they are grading ongoing projects or other long-term assignments. This allows them a little extra time to complete the grading, especially if different components are coming in over time. Again, a student (or parent) should always feel free to discuss the matter directly with the teacher if they have questions or concerns.