This year, Principal Dan Twomey proposed making grades visible on PowerSchool to give students the ability to monitor their class grades at any time. The possibility of grades being visible to students at all times could be implemented as early as the next school year, although, one of the biggest issues in the shift towards PowerSchool is the overall use of Google Classroom in grading. However, once the whole school is linked on one platform with all of the grades in one place for students and parents alike, the process will be easier to use for all.
With this change, along with grades being viewable at all times, there would be no use for progress reports anymore. The only official document that would be released for grades would be report cards, and they would still be on PowerSchool like normal.
Twomey shared that even though it would be a beneficial change, it could be hard to work with.
“Ideally, there would be more transparency for students, parents, and teachers, but it would be a shift,” Twomey said.
Some teachers in WA use Google Classroom more than PowerSchool to display grades to their students, so the process of teachers learning how to use PowerSchool on a daily basis for grading would come with challenges. However, most teachers use PowerSchool for progress reports and report cards, so it has become a new priority to make everyone more comfortable using this program all of the time.
Another roadblock is that many teachers use Google Classroom for grading, and even though Google Classroom and PowerSchool are connected through school roster systems, they are not intertwined with grading.
“There is a way for the two systems to talk to each other but it’s not as smooth as you might think,” Twomey said. “It would be ideal if there was a smoother technological fix but it hasn’t happened yet.”
With future hurdles of new technology coming to WA, it could be a rocky process in the coming year. However, shifting teachers to using PowerSchool for making grades available for students at all times will remain a priority.
