Grade Reports From Teachers in the Busy

¶ … Grade Reports from Teachers In the busy world of academia, there never seems to be enough hours in the day. This creates a significant challenge for instructors who often fail to update and post student grades in a timely fashion. This is problematic. Grades matter to students and are the barometer by which students assess their skills and performance in a class. Students are entitled to know where they stand in a class at all times.

Therefore, instructors should take seriously their responsibility to provide on-going feedback in a timely fashion. In fact, it is my position that this should be mandatory. The most important reason there should be mandatory timelines for grade submission is because grades are a key indicator of performance for students and signal how well or poorly his/her performance truly is.

If grades are not updated regularly, students may have a false sense of security or spend unnecessary time stressing about their performance in a class when there may not be a reason to. Without adequate grades and feedback from instructors as a guide post, students are left to assume or guess how they are progressing in a course. This is unfair and can lead to frustrations which undermine how a student feels about the course material, subject area and the instructor's class.

Grade ambiguity can also lead to poor instructor/student relations where instructors are viewed as having a great deal of power and students are left wringing their hands hoping they are not failing. Without grades, students cannot self-identify areas of improvement. All instructors have a duty to not only teach, but coach and assist their pupils in areas where they may be falling short.

If that awareness comes to students too late, they do not have the time they need to solicit additional assistance in the form of tutors, study groups, extended personal study, or perhaps extra assistance from the instructor. Without a recent grade update, it is hard to determine whether or not such additional help is even warranted. With other major demands on a college student's time, additional study is often not a major concern unless it is clear there is a problem. In short, grades help signal academic challenges.

Instructor's therefore should be required to provide weekly updates on assignments that include both grades and periodic qualitative feedback about ways to improve or call out areas where a student might benefit from additional study time or reading. Students spend a great deal of money in tuition dollars. It is basic courtesy that if one is paying for their education, they should be guided through their course material and made aware of how they are performing.

A student may underestimate their understanding of the material and as a result overestimate their wonderful performance in a class. Grades offer a more reasonable gauge. In addition, there are often other factors that make up a final grade for a class such as participation points as determined by the instructor or points based on a project or team member's feedback. While the actual raw scores may never be seen by the student, if he/she knows that they have been factored into their grade it is helpful.

Many times, instructors wait until the last minute to update this detail and in some cases this can skew a grade up or down significantly. If the student does not know how they are excelling or failing in such areas they are operating without full knowledge of how successful they are in the class. As a result, they don't have time to improve. I contend that all instructors should have mandatory weekly responsibilities for updating the grade reports of their students.

It is only fair that students are afforded time and opportunity to improve if needed. Without timely acknowledgement.