Emily Brand
News Editor
Starting in September of this coming school year, a new method of entering grades and assignments will be put into place at NCHS. In hopes of diminishing problems that come up between teachers, parents and students, this new form of Powerschool will let students and parents view assignments that teachers put in their grade books online.
According to Scheduling Coordinator Paul Gallo, Powerschool has always had the ability to show viewers all grades. “The old program is designed to be an all online, web-based scheduling program, so we’ve been doing something that it’s not designed for,” Mr. Gallo said. “Now we’re going to do it the other way.”
According to Principal Dr. Bryan Luizzi the ‘new’ Powerschool will benefit students in regards to their work ethic and performance level. “There is significant research that shows that students do better when they are aware of their grade in a class,” he said. “They perform better and do better in school when they know what their grades are. So, I think in that sense this will help our students to know where they stand. I think that we’ve learned that feedback to students on their work is so important.”
English Department Head Heidi D’Acosta said that students will be able to use the program to help motivate them to do better in school because they will always have an idea of what they grade is in a certain class. “The whole point is so that students can check and parents can check on progress,” she said. “And it can increase communications, that’s really the underlying purpose.”
Sophomore Michael Donnelly believes he will see an improvement in his grades with this change. “I think it will make me think twice about missing an assignment and definitely motivate me in my school work, and I think a lot of kids’ grades will improve,” he said.
Mr. Gallo explained the different use of the system for a parent and a student, emphasizing the students ability to check for missing assignments. “As a parent you will be able to see whether [your child]handed in their work, or hadn’t turned it in,” he said. “And for [the student]it’s a big check to see that [you]turned it in. You can keep track of everything and what you’re getting on your grades and if there’s a mistake, you’ll be able to take care of it early.”
Instead of only being able to review a single grade on report cards, students can go back and breakdown their grade for the quarter. “I think that more than anything else what it does is it de-mystifies a little bit, it gives people the information they need to understand what’s happening in the classes,” Dr. Luizzi said. a
Junior Emma Fichtner saw both pros and cons regarding the change in Powerschool’s application. “At first I thought it would be awful because now my parents will see all my bad grades and I’ll just get in trouble,” she said. “But thinking about it I realized having them see everything will just make me try harder.”
