At the start of this school year, the School District of the Chathams implemented a policy of not allowing students or their parents access to the Gradebook portion of Genesis. This was implemented to prevent students from obsessively monitoring their grades, along with their parents who also cannot view them during the school day. This way, students can be more focused on learning in school and be less worried about how they are doing overall.
However, this change was not run by students before it was implemented. What do they think of this new change? Do they feel any less stressed or distracted by their grades during the school day? To answer this question, I asked CHS students what their opinions on this change were to see how it was affecting them.
Overall, 70% of the students I surveyed did not agree with this new policy involving not having access to the gradebook during the school day. “I find it annoying especially since I don’t think I ever checked it obsessively,” says one student, “so I don’t feel like I’m feeling a lot less stressed or anything which I feel was the intention. I’m not any less focused on grades, I’m just more inconvenienced and annoyed”. Even if trying to reduce anxiety by blocking access to the portal during the school day, it creates unnecessary stress on students waiting until the end of the school day to check their grades. On the other hand, students might forget to check Genesis once they get home, which could lead to issues in the long run. One student replied, “I always forget to check Genesis when I get home from school, so if I have a missing assignment I won’t see it. It’s happened already [this year]”. Student’s grade averages can go down without them knowing, just because they did not view Genesis and see the assignments they were missing soon enough, causing extra stress and workloads for students.
But what about the other 30% who support this new change? Did they find this change as annoying as those who did not support the change? When asked why they liked the new change in the gradebook, one student responded, “I think my peers and I are now more focused on current assignments while in class instead of constantly obsessing over how we did on an assignment or test in another”. Since students cannot look at their grades during the day, they can now fully focus on what they are learning in their classes and gain a deeper understanding of the material overall. This type of response seems to be common among students who appreciate the change, as they are no longer constantly checking the gradebook throughout the school day.
As a student myself, while I do believe it is nice to not be constantly looking at my grades during the day, even if it is by force, I do share many of the same struggles as my peers who do not support this change. I become very busy when I get home from school through homework and extracurriculars, so checking Genesis is not at the top of my to-do list. I tend to forget to look at it for days on end now, which can be nice until you have missing assignments that you haven’t seen, since you cannot. As time goes on, I appreciate the change more, but there are some disadvantages to it.
Genesis being closed during school hours is a blessing and a curse. While it has definitely for some decreased their obsessive natures of viewing the gradebook constantly and monitoring their grades, anxiety surrounding assignments being put into Genesis can increase since students have to wait to view them until the end of the day. Forgetting to view Genesis whilst out of school is also common, which can lead to, for example, missing assignments not being seen, which might cause problems with students and teachers in the long run. What do you think about this change? Do you think it benefits the student population, or is it making things worse overall?