Engrade, the free software available online for grading, has much to offer. It was surprisingly easy to use, and was made even more so by the short tutorial offered on the opening page.
My first impression was that it was geared more toward the secondary grade levels, as the grades given were traditional letter (A-F) grades or percentages. This would need to be adapted in many elementary schools where students are rated on a 1-4 scale, or an alternate scale such as B for beginning , D for developing and M for mastery. The other initial difficulty I saw was that there did not seem to have an outlet for taking student behaviors into consideration. Things like effort, reasoning, and application of understanding are all considerations that can appear on an elementary report card. A last difficulty I saw in the actual setup of the grading system was that within a category, all items are weighted equally. You could not give more weight to one assessment than another.
However, I was able to overcome some of my objections by including general effort in a unit as one of the graded categories, as well as informal assessments. The other considerations could be part of the comment section, which is my favorite part of this system. Engrade makes giving students regular feedback an easy, intentional part of their learning. If the comment section is filled with instructive, positive and regular feedback, it can help students and parents see exactly where the student is improving and doing well, and what needs attention.
In addition, Engrade is a strong communication tool between classroom and home in that it not only provides quick information about the ongoing progress of the student, but also information concerning upcoming classroom due dates and attendance history. The privacy of individual information is also, of course, an important feature of the site.
Engrade gets an A- for communication. If used on a regular basis, as grades are given in class, it provides a more continuous, timely feedback of information to the learner and parents. It is another tool that can help us communicate with these other two parts of the learning equation. To complete the communication circle, the only thing I would add to the site is a quick link to the teacher's email.
