Grades — the reflection of all progress and work a student has made over a period of time. Students are living in a technological era where access to see their grades is available at all times. Before this year, students had to ask or turn in a grade check to find out what their grade was.

Now there is StudentVue.

StudentVue is a program directly linked to teachers’ grade books that can give students and parents access to see students’ schedules, attendance, and most importantly, grades.

However, not all grades are available. Some teachers, for one reason or another, do not post grades on Synergy which makes students unable to see them on StudentVue.

“I check my grades regularly to see what assignments I’m missing,” senior Derek Diep said. “Without it I don’t know if I’m doing bad or good.”

The program has become a valuable resource to students. Since the grades are available online, students can check their grades anytime and parents no longer have to wait on a progress report.

Also, they no longer have to wait for an assignment to be handed back to them as their scores will be posted as soon as teachers input them.

The system works by linking the teachers’ grade input program Synergy with StudentVue to put all of a student’s class grades in one place. The freshness of the grade is a reflection of the teacher and their tendency to input grades.

Some teachers are very supportive of the program.

“Knowing their grades makes students respond better and want to do better,” said Tara Hayes, social studies teacher.

By telling her students their grades she uses it for motivation.

“Students will think they are getting a better grade than they are so it gives them a message that they better get moving.”

The Math Department is having trouble with the system.

“The program was designed to put in straight forward grades,” said Math Department Chair Andrew Walter. “It doesn’t work because we grade on a weighted scale.” Math teachers have been able to get around this problem by using a different program to calculate scores and just putting in final grades when they are due.

The trouble with the system is that students aren’t able to view their math grades on the program until they are turned in and progress reports are in the mail.

“It’s really important to know about your grades,” Christine Rodriguez, sophomore, said. “You think you’re doing everything right then you actually see that you’re way behind.”

The Math Department is working with the district and the developers of the Synergy program to come up with a way to accommodate their system of grading but results are long overdue as this is the third year that the school has used the program.

“There was no chain of contact,” Walter said.

He and other math teachers only received one day of training at a workshop and it wasn’t until later that they found issues with putting in grades.

According to Jason Dingle of Edupoint, the company that manufactured the Synergy and StudentVue program, it is possible for teachers to weight their grades.

“We have several types of weighting available to teachers,” Dingle said in an email.

The system, he added, is designed to account for “assignment weighting, category weighting, and term weighting.”

There is a way to view one’s grades without the interference of technology. The old fashioned way, asking the teacher. However, some students may feel intimidated with this approach.

“I’m afraid to ask my teachers,” Diep said. “I feel like I’m annoying them.”

StudentVue has presented an option for the more timid students to find out their grades at the click of a button.

“If it wasn’t for StudentVue I wouldn’t be able to keep up with my classes at all,” Diep said.