After many requests from parents, teachers and administrators, the district has allowed parents and students online access to student grades and daily attendance. This feature launched Jan. 12.

“The benefits are just endless. (Parents) can keep closer tabs on what their students are doing and most importantly, how they are doing,” Hercules High School counselor Prudence Kent said. “They can communicate with the teachers (more easily), so there’s less frustration for the parents.”

Parents received a letter in mid-January that included their student’s password and identification number, which serve as login information. After the parents log in, they have an all-access pass to their child’s grades and attendance. The amount of information will depend on each teacher, who can input either the detailed grades for each assignment or just the overall grade for the quarter or semester.

Principal Guy Zakrevsky said he believes parent access to PowerSchool will increase their involvement in the school.

“It will help parents be (more) involved with their student’s academic achievement,” Zakrevsky said.

Bob Redlo, the School Site Council chairman and parent of two students, agrees.

“The key to our success at HMHS is parent involvement. If parents have easy access to grades and attendance, they can track their student performance more easily and respond to areas of need,” Redlo said. “Parent involvement with a real time tool (such as PowerSchool) will benefit our students’ performances and lead to improved student achievement overall.”

While some teachers are new to the online student-parent grading process, other teachers, including chemistry and physics teacher Ditas Faraon, already offer Web sites that regularly post their students’ grades for parents to see.

Faraon has been paying with her own money for a Web site that hosts her students’ grades (www.eclassinfo.com). She uploads her students’ grades and sends them by email to parents using the student’s identification number and a password, much like PowerSchool. Faraon believes this is important so that students can monitor their progress and correct mistakes Faraon may have made in their grades.

“I told the administration (that) I am only willing to switch (to PowerSchool) if parents and students have access to it,” Faraon said.

Teachers say that expanding PowerSchool access to students and parents will be positive.

“I think it’s a good thing because (parents) will monitor and help (their children) keep their grades up,” U.S. history teacher Joanne Whitlock said.

While many adults consider this change to be an improvement, students appear split. Some feel that it is their job to worry about their education, not their parents’, while others feel it is a good way to monitor their own grades without having to wait for report cards to come home.

Junior Jenny Sui said she likes access to grades online because “it lets me know when I have a bad grade so I can raise it or if I am missing any assignments.”

Students said they are concerned about parents being handed the tools to micromanage their children.

“I dislike it because what if I want to bring up the grade before report cards come out without (my parents) knowing about it being low?” freshman Natori Marshall said. “It’s just added trouble.”

Currently, use of the PowerSchool grading system isn’t widespread.

While all Hercules High teachers use PowerSchool to take attendance, Zakrevsky estimates only one-fourth to one-third of teachers use PowerSchool to regularly calculate grades. Those who do not use it use their own system on a computer or their grade book, and then add the final quarter and semester grades at the end. This means most of the grades accessible on PowerSchool are those of only previous quarters, as opposed to regular updates throughout the quarter.

“Hopefully all (teachers) will be using it, but for right now, some parents might be disappointed,”
Zakrevsky said.