The New York Times reports on the trend of some school systems to post student grades online for parents to view.
I have no problem with this. Pretty much anything that can get parents more involved with their children’s education, not to mention talking to them about it, is a good thing.
But this may be taking the concept too far.
With some programs, not only is a student’s grade recalculated with every quiz, but parents can monitor the daily fluctuations of their child’s class ranking. The availability of so much up-to-the-minute information about a naturally evasive teenager can be intoxicating: one Kansas parent compared watching PowerSchool to tracking the stock market.
Following the education of a teenager is like tracking the stock market?
Most economists (at least those not being paid by a talking head channel) will tell you that the day-to-day moves of the market mean very little. You’ve got to invest for the long term.
The same should be true of children and their education.