Say good-bye to the daunting era of the anticipation of report cards. As of September 4th, 2023, Athens Academy Upper school shifted to open gradebooks. This platform is now easily accessible on the progress page on SpartanNet with an exact grade.
Prior to this change, Athens Academy had been releasing grades in the form of report cards at the midpoint and end of each semester. Now, students have access to their class grades at all times. Some students appreciate the new system, since it allows them to stay caught up and track their progress in class. Yet others share concerns about people obsessively checking their new gradebooks.
Open gradebooks create a baseline indicator for a students’ position in a class. Junior Caroline Fowler says, “It will allow students to recognize which classes they need to put more time into, so that people can budget their time well for each class when necessary.” Since students are increasingly busy with academics, athletics, and extracurriculars as the year progresses, the open gradebooks are convenient for the time management between classes.
The new grade books eliminate the suspense and anxiety surrounding the infamous reveal for the end of year grades.
“I’m often really stressed because I sometimes don’t know what to expect. So, this will allow me to always know how I’m doing, which will decrease my stress and make me feel more in control,” says Fowler when addressing the past form of releasing report cards.
Most students enjoy the new access to their grades, but they agree it can come at the cost of a potential obsession with checking the grade books.
“Open grade books will be temporarily beneficial, but people will be obsessed with checking it every moment to make sure their grades are where they want them to be,” says Siena Avolio, a Junior.
Although the open grade books hold students accountable for their missed work, some may develop an unhealthy obsession with checking their grades. Another student explained that the new gradebooks are extremely “toxic” for students, who put so much weight on their grades.
Additionally, students fear this new access will exacerbate the external pressures to receive higher grades in class. Ansley Davis and Emilee Stortz share that they “love open gradebooks, but they do not love them open for parents all the time.”
Evidently, the new open gradebooks present trade-offs for the Athens Academy community, but a majority of students interviewed agree that the benefits outweigh the costs.
“Colleges will have open grade books, so this will be helpful for those students to learn how to regulate their stress about always having access to their grades before college, just like kids at Oconee, North Oconee, and many other schools,” says Fowler.
Similar to other schools, the platform allows students to easily access their grades by going under the “Progress” page on SpartanNet and clicking “See Grade Detail.” This new grading adjustment prepares students for the next step outside the Athens Academy community and into college, where they run an analogous system.
