Starting this school year, first-semester report cards will no longer include written comments from teachers. Instead, teacher comments will only be included in second-semester report cards. Until then, teachers are supposed to consistently post student updates on the MyGDS website.
A student update is a notification sent to a student along with their advisor and parents in the “official notes” section of MyGDS. In the past, student updates tended to have been used to notify a student’s family of poor behavior or a low test grade. Now, the administration has asked teachers to post both positive and negative feedback via student updates.
“The spirit of staying in better contact is great,” English teacher Nadia Mahdi said. However, she added that she believes the change will result in a lost opportunity to provide meaningful student feedback. “I find writing to be meaningful both as a way of communicating my impressions and a way of organizing my own thoughts,” she said. “I will be sad to lose the opportunity to write more about my students’ work.”
Students and families were not updated on the change. Assistant Principal for Academics Khalid Bashir declined a request for an interview.
Last year, a committee consisting of both faculty and administrators—overseen by Bashir— gathered feedback from faculty, students and parents to gauge perspectives on the teacher-parent communication system at GDS.
According to history teacher Anthony Belber, there were discussion groups at a faculty meeting and a survey was sent out among the faculty. The committee met throughout the year and the surveys went out in late fall last year. The survey results and discussion groups suggested that teachers thought that the two sets of written comments were not productive.
History teacher Sue Ikenberry said that in her experience, involving parents in grades on a regular basis is something most students do not want, regardless of how they perform on an exam. “Student updates are more of an alert, and always a jumpscare for both the advisor, parent and student.”
She added that students normally associate student updates with being in trouble. “The students I sent them to were annoyed with me,” she said. “Kids don’t like feedback when it’s out of the blue. There is too much culture already embedded in the student updates, and it’s not easy to overcome that culture.”
“I’m not a fan,” said senior Paige Young of the change. “ I see I’ve gotten an update and I completely freak out. Student updates have such bad juju attached to the name.” Young also noted that she had not noticed an uptick in student updates and was unaware the policy had changed.
“Because of the negative connotation of student updates, when my parents initially see it they freak out—and I do the same thing,” junior Benji Gold said.
Math department chair Glen Russell said he supports the change as a means of increased communication. “Sending a student update is more immediate than waiting until later in the semester,” he said.
Russell said that some teachers view writing multiple student updates instead of one report card comment as more burdensome. However, he said that he believes sending student updates more frequently could in fact lighten the load for teachers. “Shifting student feedback so it is more equal throughout the semester is more manageable.”
Physics teacher Joe Boltri is a fan of encouraging more frequent communication. “I’ve found the invitation to be on the lookout for opportunities to communicate both student successes and opportunities for growth to be a helpful reminder,” he said.
According to Mahdi, in a recent faculty meeting, administrators provided an allotted time at the end of the meeting for teachers to write and send out student updates.
Russell said sending student updates instead of one comment at the end of the semester allows students to get consistent feedback about how they can grow throughout the semester. He added that most of the student updates he has sent so far have been positive comments about students’ work in class and not negative comments about students’ grades.
Junior Mimi Silla said that despite the supposed increase in student updates, she had not received a student update all year. “Only certain students get feedback, and not all students have equal access to feedback from their teachers; it is not guaranteed. ”
Silla said that she does not want to wait until the second semester for a comprehensive explanation of her grades. “Why wouldn’t they just give us comments at the beginning of the semester and give us the whole semester to apply feedback?” she asked.
Junior Julian Turim said it does not matter whether feedback comes in the form of a student update or report card. “As you get the feedback one way or another, it’s fine,” he said. “People are overreacting because there are other ways to get feedback besides a report card.”
The first semester will end on Friday, Jan. 24, and report cards will likely come out in the following weeks.