April 10, 2018
Kids aren’t fans of them. Parents aren’t fans of them. Even educators find them frustrating. It isn’t the latest math curriculum or another dreaded science project; it’s the school parent portal system we’re all forced to use to monitor our children’s academic progress.
While technology has undeniably advanced education in many ways—making communication between parents and teachers smoother and enabling us to access homework online—there’s a darker side to these innovations. Enter the online academic parent portals, designed to track our child’s educational journey and house all their academic records. We’ve transitioned from paper report cards to their digital counterparts, and while we’re saving trees and ink, we’re also stepping into a precarious situation.
These portals provide instantaneous updates on our child’s performance, leading parents to obsess over every detail of their education. Just because we can check little Johnny’s spelling test score the moment it’s available doesn’t mean we should. This constant access encourages us to intervene in our children’s lives more than necessary. Whatever happened to waiting a few days to see how we did on a spelling test?
Teachers share similar frustrations. Instead of using their planning periods effectively, they often find themselves hurriedly inputting grades and behavior data into these systems to satisfy both parents and administration. When they fail to keep up with these rapid demands, parents frequently express their discontent through phone calls and emails, insisting they need more information about their child’s progress.
This environment creates anxiety for both educators and students. Recently, my son started pacing around our living room, clearly distressed because I forgot my login details for the portal. It wasn’t my high school senior worrying about college implications; it was my fifth grader, on the verge of tears, anxious to check his science grade. Let that sink in: a ten-year-old feeling overwhelmed because he couldn’t access his academic progress online.
And teachers? When you ask them, it’s likely they’ll tell you that the inconvenience far outweighs any perceived benefits. They’ve experienced the frustration of school networks going down, forcing them to spend evenings and weekends hand-writing lesson plans and grading papers, only to have to re-enter the same information into a digital platform later.
In the past, waiting to receive graded spelling tests was a significant event. We’d eagerly anticipate the return of our work, often adorned with cheerful stickers and encouraging comments from our teachers. Those tangible rewards have been replaced by cold, impersonal spreadsheets that no one is excited to print or display.
If only there were a way to simplify the grading portal experience while easing the burden on teachers and keeping parents informed about their child’s academic status. Until then, perhaps we should just bring back those colorful stickers and red pens.
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In summary, while digital education records and school portals have their benefits, they often create unnecessary stress for both parents and teachers, leading to an environment filled with anxiety rather than support.
Keyphrase: School portals and digital education records
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