Grading deadline should be required of teachers
By Catherine Brown, Photo Editor and Business Editor

As a student with many teachers who don’t always keep their gradebook updated, I often feel stuck in my classes. Although many teachers will help out their students or prioritize communication with them, other teachers do not.

There are multiple teachers in our school who focus more on their extracurricular activities than on the core classes they teach. My question is this: why does the school allow a teacher to continue to focus more on activities other than their core class, when it is a known concern that a majority of students are having troubles with the teacher updating their gradebook?

For months, I have had to deal with missing assignments that I have already turned in.
After addressing the issue with my teachers not through several emails as well as face to face, they continued to fail to update my gradebook. It was clear to me that other students were experiencing this same issue, so I sought out a counselor and asked for their help.

During the meeting, I was informed that the staff and faculty were highly aware of the situation because multiple students had complained before me. Still, nothing had happened.
Instead of blaming students for not turning in assignments, teachers should have all of their assignments graded and up to date, so they know the truth of the situation.

As a high school student, I often worry about my grades. When there is an assignment missing in Skyward, the standard procedure for a student should be to make sure they have turned it in, and if it is, then they should send their teacher an email highlighting their concern. The next step would be to let the teacher know face to face that the assignment is completed in a respectful manner. The teacher should then go to the student’s assignment, see that it’s completed, and continue to grade it.

Unfortunately, these are not the steps that have been taken in recent events. A student will send a respectful email and talk to their teacher to let them know an assignment has been completed, and then they will wait a few days before sending another email. One thing will lead to another, and soon months will have passed. Your previously completed assignment will still be missing in the gradebook. At this point, it is out of the students’ hands.

Here’s the real kicker. Without updated grades, I have no idea how I’m doing in a class, meaning I can neither move forward nor can I do anything about the past. I am stuck in a rut with no help from the school, whatsoever.

I’ve heard the argument before: “They have to grade the whole grade level’s work, and maybe more.” If a teacher doesn’t want to grade homework, they shouldn’t assign it
.Our school always talks about how, now that we are high school students, we need to take responsibility for ourselves and make sure our grades are where we want them. However, it is difficult to take responsibility for myself when my teacher cannot be held accountable.

If teachers were given deadlines — such as having grades due every first Monday of the month — and not just a grading period like a semester, then teachers would be held accountable.