On Monday, Jan. 28, Principal John Dodig sent out an email notifying Staples faculty, parents, and students of the minor glitch in the eSchool Online Grading System that allows students to access recent grades at the click of a button.
The problem was a miscalculation of average quarter grades, since most teachers posted the grades for the midterm exams in the Report Card Run for the second marking period. Students’ midterm grades affected quarter grades when they should have been factored into the semester grade as a separate category.
In the email, Dodig posted an informational picture from the District Tech Department diagramming how to access the accurate quarter and semester grade by clicking on the “See All Averages” button below each course’s grade summary.
“I knew that Home Access Center’s averages for each ‘run’ may not be accurate, so I kind of use Home Access Center to get a general idea of where I stand in a class, but know it is not my exact grade,” Jill Rappaport ’13 said.
Although Rappaport was aware of eSchool’s shortcomings, many other students and parents did not have prior knowledge of these glitches.
“It caused my parents frustration when they couldn’t decide whether or not to punish me since they couldn’t view my accurate grade,” Lucas Jackson ’15 said.
While some students faced possibly unjust punishments, others were unaffected.
“I did not know about the glitch! I knew it was down on the 29th for a little, but I didn’t realize that grades had been messed up before,” Hannah Myers ’14 said.
However, the issue left some feeling less than secure about the online grading system. As Rappaport described, “These glitches are certainly tedious, since they leave me to calculate my grades on my own. Even then, there’s always a sense of uncertainty.”
