Is it 3.5 or 3.475? We no longer know. As of this semester the GPA has disappeared from powerschool. Well, not disappeared really, it is still there, it is just that we students can no longer see it.
What? How can this be? Can we no longer obsessively refresh powerschool to see if our GPA has moved down by 0.001? Sadly, or gladly if you really think about it, the answer is plain and simple. Obsessing over GPA is no longer a thing.
During the first assembly this year, Dean of Academics, Mr. Philip Rogers gave a presentation and spoke about how there are more important things in life than GPA, about how GPA is does not define you, etc. But according to an anonymous source, “if you consider the fact that GPA plays a part in getting into college and college pretty much determines your life, GPA does [to a certain extent] define you.”
Mr. Rogers admitted that GPA is in fact important “but only in the sense that it is important as a cumulative piece and at the end of a semester it is important to be able to say, ok, this is my GPA for this semester.” It is however, “not as as important to know what [your] GPA is everyday.”
An anonymous source had a different approach on it and mentioned that they “will have to spend the whole semester guessing whether [they] will make it on the honor roll or not.” Mr. Rogers however countered that argument by explaining that “if a student really wants to work out their GPA… it is pretty easy to do that.”
Another student believes that hiding the GPA “has just become an inconvenience in our daily lives” since many “students like [them] are still checking their GPAs daily through online GPA calculators.”
However, a third student explained that “not being able to see [their] GPA is actually pretty awesome because the GPA is just a number that tells you nothing about what you need to do to improve.” They are happy and believe that “without the GPA [they] will be much less stressed.”
Mr. Rogers added that “it is more important to focus on improving in a particular subject than to worry about having a 3.62 compared to a 3.64.” Ultimately, grades are important at the end of the semester. But during the semester its “how can I keep improving” that is the most important. Besides, the GPA has not been taken off the semester reports or transcripts.
But what were the roots behind the school making the decision to hide the GPA? First of all it is important to realize that powerschool tracks how many times a student goes on it. The school can see this number and according to Mr. Rogers they “have found that some students are almost obsessed with their GPA.” Apparently, “during the last week of last semester when the exams were being put on, some students went on powerschool up to 600 times” which is not very mentally healthy.
An anonymous source supported that and added that last semester, “many students were more concerned about the grade and how it changes their GPA, and did not focus on the learning or the feedback.”
The idea that the school has begun to put into practice this semester is the idea of having grade periods. Friday the 27 of February marked the end of a grade period, which is why the school opened up the GPA for the week of March 2 – March 7. Then they closed it again and according to Mr. Rogers “it will remain closed for another six weeks, another grade period.” This allows students to see their GPA once in a while so they know how they are doing overall.
Mr. Rogers concluded that “It is all about being healthy emotionally and mentally and far too many students get very stressed out about their GPA.” But what about the idea that what we do not know only scares us more?
In the end, some students will continue to have valid reasons against the GPA being removed from powerschool. However, the school hopes that most students will eventually learn to see this change as a positive one that can decrease the amount of stress in their lives. If not, then after all it only takes a few seconds to Google “GPA Calculator.”
Tosia Lekawska
