Emily Brand
News Editor
Q: What do you like most/least about the open portal?
“The thing I like most is being able to see my test and quiz grades before my teacher returns them so I am prepared for what grade I’m going to get. The thing I like the least is the stress it brings when you see you have a low grade.” -Senior Bridget Falcone
“I like that I can see everything so I feel in control, but it’s a double edged sword because then I freak out about things that are unnecessary.” -Junior Allie Bel Bruno
“I like it because it lets me check where my grades are, actually since the powerschool open portal my grades have gone up a lot. On the other hand, my parents flip out when they see I do badly on a quiz or something.” -Junior Connor Gress
Q: Does seeing your grades stress you out or encourage you and make you work harder?
“It’s definitely made me work harder because my parents can see my grades at all times, so I need to keep them up especially [because of that].” -Sophomore Sarah Lovejoy
“Sometimes seeing my grades helps me out, but at other times it’s really stressful. It’s easy to become obsessed and get freaked out over one really small bad grade that isn’t necessarily a huge deal.” -Senior Liza Swindell
“Seeing my grades encourages me to do better, but at the same time it stresses me, if you do poorly on a test your grades can be low and it can stress you, but, it will also make you work harder in that class.” -Freshman Sam Havens
Q: Do you feel that being able to see your grades online has changed your work ethic in school?
“I do believe that it has changed my work ethic because now that I can see how my grades are it will make me strive to improve them if they’re bad and continue if they’re good.” -Junior Azadeh Amir-Aslani
“No [it doesn’t change my work ethic]it just makes me more upset when I see bad grades.” -Junior Jack Robey
“Seeing my grades online has definitely made my more conscious on how I am doing, but I don’t think it has changed my level of work.” -Freshman Caroline Gordon
“I think we all need to remember, though, that it’s the student’s responsibility- they’re the ones who are ultimately responsible for the grade and whether or not they’re driven to do the work necessary to be successful.” -Math teacher Regina Thompson
Q: Has the open portal changed the dynamic (about school) between you and your parents?
“It hasn’t changed very much because I would tell my parents my grades even before we started using the portal.” -Senior Bridget Falcone
“My mom and dad now know if I am doing well or not, if I am not doing well, they will talk with me and tell me to work harder, our communication has gotten much better between school work.” -Freshman Sam Havens
“I feel like your parents get on you about every little bad thing you do when in the end, one quiz is not going to affect your grade overall but your parents are going to get on your back about it and it just makes more tension between parents and children.” -Junior Allie Bel Bruno
Q: Would you rather go back to the old way of viewing grades?
“I would go back to the old way because I think with the portal now it puts too much pressure on kids because they can always see their grades and I think they’re worrying about it too much.” -Junior Henry Greer
“I think it’s good because if you’re having trouble in a class you get immediate results and you know to fix it. I understand that it makes people kind of crazy because you see every single assignment- you think you’re doing worse than you are.” -Junior Mike Dunn-Weiss
“I would not go back to the old way of seeing grades because this way you see them right away and its easy to ask a teacher if you have a question on a grade or an assignment.” -Freshman Caroline Gordon
