In a typical 155-day school year at Hackley, students view their grades only six times: three progress reports and three final trimester grades. This number is shockingly low, as our grades are kept hidden the other 149 days of the year due to Hackley’s closed gradebook. While some students believe an open gradebook would be beneficial to the student body in order to limit anxiety between progress reports and trimesters, others feel it would only elevate the already high stress of Hackley students. 

With an open gradebook, students could see their grades 24/7 and never wonder how a test or quiz would affect their overall average. A lot of the time, students find themselves stressing over certain weighted assignments as they could largely affect their overall grade. Even if you know your average one day, it can change in the blink of an eye due to a single assignment, and you may have no idea. 

“I think we should have an open gradebook because personally, I came from a middle school with one and feel like it was beneficial because I could see all of my grades in one place and be aware of my standings, which helped me know how I could improve in the future”, said Junior Oren Wildstein. 

Many students find themselves with heightened anxiety around trimester and progress reports, as they have no clue what letters they will receive. 

“I think it would make people less stressed if they could check all the time because there wouldn’t be any surprises,” said freshman Heidi Chen. An open gradebook would eliminate this anxiety, and simultaneously cause students to stay on top of their work in order to maintain their grade point averages.

In addition, teachers have to constantly deal with students nagging them about their grade point averages. With an open gradebook, teachers wouldn’t have to spend time checking each of their students’ individual grades, as they could check them on their own.

 “I would like an open gradebook because it would help me understand where I am at and prevent me from having to chase a teacher down to check my grade, wasting both my time and theirs,” said sophomore Charlie Heim.

Some teachers, though, don’t care about giving their students their averages when they ask. They feel that the cons of an open gradebook outweigh the pros, so they would rather just provide the students with their grades whenever they ask.

“The cons outweigh the benefits. Students at Hackley are already stressed enough, so to get them to stress about their grades each day seems counterproductive,” said history teacher Stephen Fitzpatrick.

On the other hand, some students feel that an open gradebook would not reduce stress, but actually increase it as they would have to be constantly reminded of their grades. 

“I wouldn’t want an open gradebook, because I feel like every student would be checking it 24/7 and it would lead to a scenario where your exact grade defines your worth as a student,” said sophomore Owen Spencer. 

Hackley students are already constantly worrying about their grades, so being able to access them all the time may only fuel anxiety around grade point averages. Students are already put under so much stress every day, so why have another factor to worry about?

Parental opinions also come into play with this subject.

“I think that some parents can be very hard on their children about grades, so if they had the ability to see them at all times, it would lead to more anxiety for the adult and kid,” said sophomore Alex Aybar. Constant reminders of your grades coming from your parents could lead to way more anxiety, causing more harm than good.

While both sides of the argument have valid points, there could also be a compromise on the issue. Instead of having an open gradebook all four years of high school, we could have one for upperclassmen only. 

“I think that if a compromise was necessary, then upperclassmen should have open gradebooks so that freshman and sophomore year students can develop strong study habits without the constant anxiety of grades, then junior and senior year students could see their grades every day,” said senior Olivia Houck. 

Junior and senior years cause the most stress in students, as many are applying to college and focusing on the next steps they will be taking with their lives. Having an open gradebook would be beneficial to students during these times, as it would lower stress levels related to how they are performing during already extremely stressful times of their lives. Meanwhile, keeping a closed gradebook freshman and sophomore year would benefit the underclassmen, as they would have to learn effective study habits on their own before being able to view their grades. This compromise could help students in high school, and beyond, as it would teach them to adjust to different scenarios and force them to adapt in numerous academic situations.