Infinite Campus, the district’s new grading software, has received a lot of attention lately as the district has begun using more of its capabilities. The program now sends an email every Friday to students who have failed or missed an assignment during the week.
The email reads: “IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE BEACHWOOD CITY SCHOOLS Please do not reply to this message. If you have any questions, please contact your child’s school or classroom teacher. Your child has severe or failing grades on the following assignments.”
The email then lists the child’s missing assignments.
“[The emails] are not meant to be a failure notice,” said BHS Principal Ed Klein, “[The system] is not setup to differentiate between big and little assignments.”
At first glance, the emails seem like a failure notice to many Beachwood parents. Worried by the onslaught of emails, many parents have been cracking down on their students. This caused a surge of complaints from many Beachwood students.
“[My parents] assume I’m failing because of the terminology,” said sophomore Michaela Miller.
“Parents have been calling me wondering about their child’s assignments,” said English teacher Nicole Majercak.
“It freaks out parents,” explained junior Samantha Tall.
“[Students] should also receive an email if our parents get one,” said senior Aaron Paley.
Klein explained that these emails were not meant for the student who only fails one assignment, but for a student who has many incomplete and failed assignments through a series
of classes.
“I think it’s terrible. It doesn’t encourage students to take responsibility for themselves. They’ll get so used to their parents yelling at them about their grades, but when they go to college they’ll be on their own,” warned senior Eric Novick.
Though many have a negative view on the new system, there have been a few suggestions on how to make it better.
“The system should be clearer and less panic-inducing,” said Majercak.
“There should be a point barrier, so if it’s a little assignment they don’t get it, but I do understand our parents being emailed for essays and big point tests,” said Paley.
In late Nov., many students received a message from Infinite Campus about a random calculation glitch. This is the same glitch from a few months ago.
“We can fix [the glitch], but we wanted the consortium to see it so they fix it. This way the glitch won’t affect the other schools who use it,” said Klein.
Director of Curriculum and Technology Ken Veon wrote in an email, “Some teachers and students have concerns about being notified if it was “only a small assignment”, but if the teacher assigns work, it is not small and it is assigned for a reason. Therefore, whether it is a 5 point response or a 100 point project, they are all important and students need to assume responsibility for completing or not completing them.”
What do you think about the new emails? Leave your comments below.
