Aspen is an online gradebook used by many middle schools and high schools. Parents can set alerts to be notified of grades on tests and assignments below a specified threshold. My son in 11th grade is smart but sometimes forgets to do an assignment. When I see a zero on Aspen (indicating a missed assignment) I ask him what happened.
I assume college professors post grades on tests and assignments on an online system. Is there a common one many colleges use, or has each college use its own system? I assume that if your college student gives his parents his login and password that they can check on his progress from home. Do any of you do this?
Some would say that college students are adults and that parents should back off. I have some sympathy for this argument, but arguably adulthood comes with self-sufficiency, financial and otherwise, and we will be paying for his college expenses. Our younger children are more responsible, and we may be more hands-off with them.
I think that’s gong to vary by school, just like there are a million different systems high schools use (hate Aspen, btw!!).
My son’s college has Blackboard, but not everyone posts grades. Some do, some don’t. Sometimes he only sees a grade when it’s final posted on the portal. I do have my son’s user names and passwords, more because that’s also how the bill comes and I know he wouldn’t check things frequently enough. I purposely stay off his grades and let him deal with his classes.
My son was one who we had to hound constantly in high school about grades and submitting work. I was on PowerSchool (the Aspen of his school) constantly! I’ve taken a step back in college. We had the talk long before he left that we were willing to pay for college, but it was his job to keep up the grades and get the work done. He’s finishing up sophomore year and so far so good. Some bumps in the road, but he made Dean’s List last semester and I know he’s working hard.
A lot of colleges use BlackBoard. Professors are not required to post grades on the system. A separate system is used for the course grade at the end of the semester. We never monitored our kids’ grades when they were in college.
My daughter’s college uses Blackboard but I absolutely do not have her log in information. According to her, profs are hit or miss about posting grades and some don’t use it for anything but posting final grades, so it would be useless anyway. There is separate authorization/account for us for bill paying.
Personally, I would start slowing backing off from checking now. Your son needs to take accountability for his own work and be responsible for assignments (and take the consequences if he doesn’t follow through). You are simply not going to be able to have the same level of oversight you have now, no matter how assignments are posted. He still has another year of HS to learn those skills and be more responsible.
If he can’t manage his senior year appropriately, then IMO, he’s not going to be ready for college and that should be a conversation you have now. He could start off proving himself in community college and then transfer.
My current college junior was a bit of a nightmare in HS regarding turning in assignments and projects, ADHD and executive functioning issues. I’ve had 5 high school students, and he’s the only one I made appointments to talk to his guidance counselor and teachers. I checked the parent portal almost daily.
When he went away to college, I did not have access to his grades. It was so freeing! He did great (I think, lol).
I’ve used Moodle, Blackboard and Canvas and I don’t think parents have access unless their kids give them their own login information, which would be the same information that would get into the kids’ email, etc.
I only have third-party access to my daughter’s final grades as well as the bill. I use my own account info and she had to grant me permission. She did not want to give me full access to her gradebook, which I respected. She’s a junior on the autism spectrum and so far, she’s managed quite well. Like @Mjkacmom I checked the parent portal all the time in high school to make sure she was keeping up with assignments. It has been quite the relief not to have to do that anymore!
I don’t agree with this. S had problems thru high school. At college he still had issues the first semester, and I was monitoring as best I could (he lived on campus, so it was limited) but he managed to do reasonably well. Second semester he kind of took off and has done it all on his own since then. I certainly would not have held him back from going to college because of it.
You will have to convince your adult child to sign the appropriate paperwork that will allow you access to their grades – colleges take take their FERPA responsibilities very seriously. But it is extremely unlikely that you will be granted access to the Course Management System (e.g. Canvas, Blackboard, etc…) where professors might post grades on individual assignments – I just don’t think these systems are set up for “parental” access. Rather you will get to see your student’s final course grades in whatever portal system the Registrar’s Office uses to posts the students grades.
If our son were to give us (or anyone) access to his login, he’d be separated from the academy for an egregious security breach. Parents are not welcome on the military ride.
I would assume professors would not post, and even if they did, you likely will not have access. We never did in high school or college-you will get used to it.
Every kid develops at a different rate, has different needs, and requires different parenting styles… so if you need to check for a semester or two in order to make sure your student is swimming, not sinking, do it. I don’t check DD’s homework assignments or grades now except when the high school sends an email that progress reports are available, so I don’t expect that will happen in college. DH & I will, however, be paying her tuition (likely to be full tuition at that), and tuition checks will only be sent out if final semester report cards are sent in.
The two main course management systems used by colleges are Canvas and Blackboard. There is no separate parental access to grades, so if you want to see them, you will need to get your son’s username and password. Then when you log in you will see everything he sees — syllabi, assignments, discussion posts, announcements, grades, etc. Some profs can get really far behind in grading (in a couple of my son’s classes this semester, there are still assignments from January that haven’t been graded yet) and in classes where assignments are submitted in person/on paper, profs may or may not bother entering those grades online, even if they grade the work in a timely manner. So there’s no guarantee you’ll see grades even if you’re logged into the account.
And I totally disagree with the idea mentioned up thread that if a student can’t manage their coursework totally on their own by senior year of HS, then they’re not ready for college. Some students are more than ready for college level work before their time management skills have caught up to their academic level. And some kids have LDs/EF issues that mean they may always need some help to stay on track. They can still be very successful in college.
I would be appalled if my students were allowing access to our Canvas site to their parents. Of course I cant’ control it, but I would hate to think that anyone is inputting there but them. It’s not just grades–it’s my comments on their drafts, it’s their comments back, it’s announcements to the class, discussion boards, class files, etc. I can’t keep that access from happening, but i think it would be egregiously inappropriate.
I have access to my daughter’s college log in that is used for many things…but I do not look at her grades particularly…I usually only use it when she wants me to help her with something.
We had login for very detailed online grading system in middle school and high school and didn’t use it for any of our students. They were responsible for their work, something they learned in grade school. They learned and knew what was expected, then made the choice to follow through for themselves. I would not consider tracking their progress then, and certainly not in college.
Each kid is different. I think you should do what is best for your situation. Some kids need that kind of help others don’t. There is no one sizes fits all with stuff like this.