Now that we are three weeks into the school year, you likely have assignment grades and possibly even quiz and test grades posted in PowerSchool. Many of you have noticed that the current grade point average (GPA) display has disappeared. Was this on purpose? Will it ever reappear? Will colleges still see my GPA? The answer to all of these questions is YES.

So why did we disable this feature? The reasoning for this decision is complex. With the introduction of online grading systems, such as PowerSchool, adopted by schools for scheduling capabilities and the collection of student data - demographics, attendance and grades - all into one system; the ability to check grades by students and parents electronically became available. Now that many of us have devices in our possession at all times, the practice of checking grades has increased dramatically, especially checking every miniscule change in GPA. A grade point average is the reflection of many grades over time, not a one time snapshot measuring academic progress.

Teachers have witnessed how students lose focus in class to check a notification of a new grade posting. This can be even more distracting when the grade received is disappointing. Studies show a dramatic rise in student anxiety over the past few years and the habit of constantly checking GPA/grades is a known contributing factor to this increase. Mercy's Counseling office has seen this as well. Rather than focusing on learning and using an assignment, lab, quiz, test or essay grade as feedback to assess the level of mastery of a concept or skill and then make improvements or re-learn what was misunderstood; students often focus their attention on the impact of a specific grade on their overall GPA. This, in turn, affects motivation and student well being. We believe that continually posting the current GPA can distract students from the learning experience, the excitement of learning something new, the challenge of mastering a new skill, the pursuit of knowledge, learning how to fix or cope with a mistake or failure - or even more importantly, discovering more about themselves in becoming lifelong learners. For these reasons, we have decided to disable the GPA feature on PowerSchool.

Will the current GPA ever reappear? The plan is to enable the feature the week of Parent Teacher Conferences ( October 3), the last week in November (11/27) and once final grades are posted. If it is imperative you know your GPA, you are welcome to stop in to see your counselor or Ms. Rozman. Grade Point Average will be displayed on both your report card and transcript for college. This is your true GPA (an average of your final grades for each semester completed).

Keep in mind that at any specific point in time you can still assess your progress in a course by looking at the overall grade in that course along with the assignments that make up that grade.  What you won't be distracted by is the constant fluctuation of GPA every time a new grade is entered into Powerschool.

If you would like to read some research on how a focus on checking grades may impact student learning, please check out the articles below:

 

Student Obsession with Grades and Achievement by Michael Romanowski

How to get students to focus on learning, not grades by the Innovative Instructor

Focus on learning, not grades by Brad Kuntz

Why Online Gradebooks are Changing Education by Laura McKenna