By: Maddy Choi

Media Productions

The end of the semester brings about an overwhelming amount of stress for students. While they are anxiously awaiting final exams they often don’t consider the plethora of ungraded assignments looming in their Canvas. Then, a week before the semester ends, students’ grades abruptly plummet to an entirely new letter grade, leaving them dependent on their final exam to compensate for any grade deficits. This poses an innate flaw within the education system: late grading. Teachers expect students to comply with established due dates for assignments and projects but don’t show the same level of urgency in grading said assignments. If students don’t adhere to these deadlines, they are held accountable, primarily through partial or entire point deductions. By instituting inflexible due dates, teachers at LGHS should also remain responsible for punctually entering grades in for assignments, tests, and projects.

Through implementing and enforcing systemic grading deadlines, LGHS can combat delays in grading. In doing so, students can consistently gauge and monitor their academic performance throughout the duration of the semester. Furthermore, routinely entering grades permits students more time to process and methodically apply educational feedback they receive. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), an expansive compilation of 435 studies conducted on the impacts of feedback, researchers found a medium to positive result, denoting a positive relationship between feedback and cognitive function. After a few weeks or months, past assignments become obsolete as more pressing educational matters take precedence, essentially rendering belated feedback null.

The tendency of teachers to delay inputting grades can impose negative consequences on the basis of student grades. Grades may not accurately reflect a student’s performance within the class because the short timeframe between entering assignment and finalizing scores inhibits opportunities to make content revisions. Ultimately, late grading undermines a student’s capacity to revise content, improve their grade, and sufficiently absorb feedback to the extent they might have had their grades simply been updated more frequently.

If LGHS enforces grading deadlines, the school can operate more proactively in reducing student stress, anxiety, and tension. Students are already overwhelmed by tons of schoolwork, extracurriculars, and other obligations, and sudden preventable fluctuations in grades only exacerbate school-related stress. The introduction of a schoolwide policy to establish grading deadlines will procure increases in student productivity, cognitive skills, and overall well-being.

(Source: NIH)