No Parent Should Be Too Busy to Check Their Child’s Academic Progress
By: Jaydah Richard, Oakland Scholar
Following the pandemic, many students were challenged academically after returning to in-person learning. It became difficult to manage interacting with people, returning to a classroom daily, and balancing academics. During this transition, it was urgent for parents to take responsibility in supporting their student(s). Though many adults have busy work schedules, a simple way to assist students is by tracking their progress in school on parent portal apps to access assignments, grades and attendance, request reports, and exchange effective communication with teachers (email, text, call, in-person, etc).
Benefits of parents accessing grades online enables students to be more liable with making sure their grades are acceptable. Without the support of parents holding students accountable, students tend to lack self-motivation to prioritize their work and be responsible, resulting in them not meeting the A-G requirements. The failure to meet these requirements can possibly hurt students later in their journey if they want to achieve the goal of getting into a 4-year university.
Additionally, according to the article, To Check or Not to Check? The Pros and Cons of Checking Your Child’s Grades Online by Lara Neves, advantages of parents being in tune with online parent portal apps to check grades include:
- the alerts received when assignments are missing.
- the information needed to communicate with teachers.
- the details in subjects where students may struggle so parents can have an understanding of the areas that need improvement.
By doing so, online parent portals help parents closely monitor their child’s progress to keep them on track, and provide opportunities for parents to creatively praise their children when necessary, while teaching the child personal responsibility. These factors are vastly necessary in ensuring the foundation and success for young students for the future. With this, the cons included emphasizing performance over learning, and contributing to helicopter and/or over-parenting. Although these determinants are frequently abused, it can be avoided with the parents having a growth mindset and understanding that, “ having passing grades does not always mean your scholar mastered the standards taught or is growing academically.”
Consequently, when parents fail to log into parent portals or any form of monitoring academic growth, it leaves space and opportunity for students to fall behind with the school’s curriculum. Anecdotally, my parents check my grades academic growth once a week to confirm I’m on track. With access to school portals such as powerschool, they have the ability to see each assignment from every class as well as my scores. Due to them examining my evaluations, I demonstrate my own agency to attack my academics, and contact teachers on my own to aim for improvement to fix any unsatisfactory reports before my parents can confront me about them. As a result, I have developed a great relationship with my teachers and receive praise from my parents for my 4.0 GPA that I acquired with their support.
Overall, parents reviewing grades regularly can lead to immense advancements for students’ academics and the well-being of their promising futures.
