Many students’ lives revolve around Powerschool; the instant access to grades shifts the focus to grade grabbing instead of actually learning material in class, which should be the focus of class. However, Powerschool is simply a tool which students decide to use, whether for bad or for good. It’s in their hands.
There are many advantages that Powerschool gives students. The first is the fact that since students always know what their grades are, they can focus on the classes where they are borderline instead of focusing more on a class where they have, say, a 98 percent. “I feel like I don’t have to work as hard in every class because I know that my grades in certain classes are secure where they are,” asserted sophomore Katie Xu.
Along those lines, junior Lucy Zeng likes Powerschool because she can also calculate the exact grades she needs during finals week in order to keep her grade or move it up. This is very advantageous as students know which subjects to focus their intense studying on and which subjects they could get away with simply reviewing a couple days before the test.
In addition, the ease of access allows students to check their grade virtually anywhere, as long as they have an Internet connection.
“I think they [students] like Powerschool because their grades are accessible. I mean, it’s got an app and everybody has that app on their phone,” stated AP European History teacher Mr. Kevin O’Neill.
Once students get on to check their grades, they can look at specific assignments to see what made their grades go up or down. If students don’t turn an assignment in due to being sick, they can see that in Powerschool and make sure to turn it in when they return and rectify the zero that a teacher might have put into the gradebook.
Conversely, though, Powerschool has some disadvantages. The smallest complaint is the fact that it doesn’t show GPA for the students, which juniors and seniors need to know when applying to college.
With the immediate access to grades, stress becomes a factor when students wait for a teacher to put a difficult or crucial test in, going to the extremes of continually refreshing the page until their grade appears on their screen.
Adding on to the stress is the fact that students get stressed and upset by recurring bad grades and it could have negative consequences on their health, and it could cause the student to start focusing more on the grade than on learning.
Mr. John Mortillaro, a counselor for the Q-Z LST, corroborated this, stating, “I think if a student is constantly seeing lower grades than they expected then the focus is on bringing up that grade and not necessarily listening to what’s happening and understanding the material…I just think in this age of GPAs and ACT scores, students focus a lot on the number or the letter grade and sometimes they miss out on the content in the classroom and what it really means and how to apply it in their everyday life.”
If that’s not enough, all of the teachers, parents, counselors, and any other advisory staff can see a student’s grades for their entire high school career, making the whole idea of keeping a student’s grades private a bigger issue.
Powerschool has both advantages and disadvantages just like anything else. Mortillaro believes that “it’s a great tool and like a lot of things in this world, if you abuse it, it can become a negative, but if it’s used in the way it was intended, it can be very, very effective.”
