Grade with Engrade.com

We learned about a new product called Engrade.com - which I love!
http://www.engrade.com

Engrade among other things allows for a much higher level of parent/teacher involvement and also parent/teacher/student involvement. Engrade is a online program that allows the teacher to post student grades from all assignments (tests, quizzes, homework, portfolios, etc) and to assign weighting to whatever assignments are entered. Meaning the teacher can make the tests worth 25% of the overall grade - quizzes 25%, portfolios 25% and homework 25% (this is how I allocated my grades).

By assigning each student a unique ID number the student/parent can create an account on Engrade to access their grades from this class plus any other classes that the teacher uses this product for.

The teacher can also use an attendance feature to keep track of daily attendance, tardiness and excused absences.

The overview feature allows for the teacher to posts comments/notes on how the student is doing in the class.

Oh, yeah and there is also a calendar feature that allows the teacher to post upcoming assignments, test, etc., So there are no surprises. The parent and the student at all times will know exactly what is upcoming.

The program automatically calculates the grade percentage from the maximum number of points the teacher enters per assignment. It also gives a class average for that assignment.

There are so many features for this very friendly to use program. I think this is brilliance at its best! Kudos to those who designed this program. Did I mention it is FREE!!! Major kudos for allowing access to everyone for free. Ultimately, I think this type of program would help the teacher not only organize their grade-books but also their time. The program is so easy to use it only takes a few minutes to figure it out. And the 10 minute video prior to even signing up allows that much more hands on help.

I also think this product would encourage kids to do better, hold them accountable and be organized. I know for myself that when I see my grades listed out in front of me I know what areas I have to concentrate on to improve. When the student knows the parent can keep track of the assignments (via the calendar) all through the semester they are now held accountable. The excuse "the dog ate my homework" would no longer be valid. This approach will encourage the parents to become more involved with the students assignments as well.

I used all the features on this program and really find it to be a helpful tool. The only downside that I can see is all students (and parents) in the class would have to have access to not only a computer but also the internet. In poorer districts this might not be the case for everyone. I think if a teacher is going to implement this type of program for one student he/she would have to make sure it was available to all. However, the program does allow the teacher to print everything out for an individual student. So I guess that would allow fairness if it was mailed home.

Another downside that maybe engrade could think about is that this does allow for Parent involvement. Not all parents speak English. I wonder if they would also have this product available so the teacher could enter everything in English but then have it automatically translated to other languages. Just a thought.