By Brian Yoffe
South Senate proposed a resolution in May to the faculty council requesting that more teachers use Engrade, a free online grading program that allows teachers to post students’ assignments and grades for them to see regularly.
The resolution was formed after a Senate press conference with students on March 6, and has sparked controversy among students and teachers.
Several students requested that the Senate create a bill mandating that more teachers use Engrade, while others argued in favor of other online grading tools.
The proposal, however, is solely a resolution stating that the Senate is willing to collaborate with the Faculty Council sometime in the future in order to form an official bill to increase the use of Engrade by teachers. The Senate hopes that by next school year more than half of the core classes (math, science, history, world language, and English) teachers will use Engrade.
“[The resolution] isn’t the same thing as a bill, so it isn’t established as a policy, but I still think it’s an effective tool for getting the word out at Newton South,” Senate President Jack Lovett said. “My hope with this is that it will spread around the faculty council and word will get out that…more students want Engrade.”
The resolution states that Engrade provides students with an easy way to see their grades, missing assignments, and opportunities for grade enhancement. According to those in favor of this particular program, Engrade reduces much of the stress that students face when they are unaware of their grades and do not know the individual importance of each assignment.
The resolution states that “by providing a convenient place where students can see all the factors that go into their grade, students can find out what assignments they are missing, determine other ways to improve their grade, and see prior test scores with the ease of simply having Internet access.”
When the Senate met with the Faculty Council to discuss the resolution, the two groups discussed the major reasons that teachers would not want to use Engrade, one of which was that teachers who already have grading systems may not want to use a new system.
“The teachers may not have been using it…because they have a grading system that they already like,” faculty council facilitator Alan Reinstein said. “If you already have a grading system…moving to a different system involves so many different headaches.”
History teacher Robert Parlin, a member of the Faculty Council, said he does not use Engrade but has a grading system that has been effective in his years at South.
“I have a very simple grading system [and] students can calculate their own grade at any time,” Parlin said. “Homework counts once, quizzes count twice, and tests count seven times and then you divide by the number [of total points].”
Many teachers said they believe that the main reason not to use Engrade is to prevent students from becoming obsessed with their grades and stressing themselves out more.
“Teachers talk about the over-emphasis on grades and this one of those ways of actually increasing the emphasis on grades instead of decreasing it,” Reinstein said.
Parlin echoed these concerns.
“My concern is that we already place a huge amount of emphasis on grades,” Parlin said. “I worry that any system that increases the attention given to grades will only add to stress and anxiety.”
Some students said they agree that having too many teachers using Engrade can create anxiety.
“I think it puts too much pressure on students because they worry about every single grade…that barely affects [their] final grade,” freshman Liza Hochberg said.
Parlin said he also thinks that student’s obsessions with Engrade can hinder their learning.
“I am worried that if students check their grades every day, it would become obsessive,” Parlin said. “Too many people would focus only on the grades…rather than the class and what they’re learning.”
Another common concern among teachers is that if parents gain access to students’ Engrade accounts, they will put more pressure on their children.
“If parents have that access too, you have parents who are habitually checking to see how students’ grades are,” Reinstein said.
Others said they believe that the only way to convince teachers to embrace the use of Engrade is by demonstrating both its benefits to the student body and its possible benefits over previously established grading systems.
“Teachers aren’t going to adopt Engrade unless they can see a benefit for them beyond simply the good-will effort of making grades clearer to students,” Reinstein said.
Despite all of the concerns regarding the use of Engrade, some teachers said they do see how it is beneficial to the students, agreeing with the Senate in that Engrade enables students to keep track of their missing assignments.
“I know for some students it’s very useful to them to see what assignments they’re missing,” Reinstein said.
Students also said they find Engrade to be a very quick and convenient way to keep track of their grades.
“Engrade allows me to find out my grades without having to go see a teacher,” freshman Philip Batler said.
Teachers also agreed that Engrade does an effective job in conveying to students the importance, pointwise, of individual assignments.
Some said that Engrade gives students ownership of their grades, keeping them involved with their performance in each class.
“I do think that students should feel in control of their own learning and their own success,” Parlin said. “If Engrade helps students to do better and if it shows them their missing work…then that’s a really positive thing.”
Despite heavy discussion over the resolution, faculty members said they are still skeptical that a bill requiring the use of Engrade will ever pass.
“I don’t sense a readiness right now for teachers to use Engrade unless they can see its value,” Reinstein said.
“The faculty council would have to approve it and send it to the faculty for a vote and I don’t see that happening,” Parlin said.
Students said that although they appreciate some teachers’ decisions to use Engrade, they do not want a bill to be passed that would mandate all their teachers to use Engrade.
“All my core class teachers already use Engrade,” Hochberg said, “but I feel it would be better to not have an Engrade bill.”
Batler agreed.
“Once you have more than half of your teachers on Engrade, it would be more stressful than beneficial,” Batler said. “I check [Engrade] a lot and if I was checking it every single day for every class, I would get way too stressed out.”
However, there has also been some deliberation over whether Principal Joel Stembridge will mandate that teachers must use Engrade.
“If it’s a request from students, I don’t think that’s enough for teachers to feel as though they’re compelled to [use Engrade],” Reinstein said. “But if it comes from my principal I have to.”
Some teachers and students said they have also discussed using an alternative to Engrade such as more progress reports or clearer grading systems.
“If you’re not going to use Engrade you still have to be transparent with your grades,” Lovett said. “Teachers need to meet halfway, but if they are so attached to their grading system, they at least need to find a way to be transparent to the student body.”
“We have to figure out ways that students can have a sense of control over their grades,” Parlin said. “Rather than mandate that everyone use Engrade, mandate that everyone has a [grading] process that’s transparent.”
Throughout all the controversy over the Engrade resolution, the Senate members said they have remained optimistic and feel that the resolution has achieved its goal.
“I’m glad…teachers took the time to hear out students,” Lovett said. “The resolution makes the statement official and it’s a way of speaking on behalf of the student body and embracing the legislative spirit.”
