Online Grade Access - Pros and Cons?

As you know, Walker's Middle and Upper Schools have made student grades available for students and parents to view online.

In my completely unscientific polling, student reactions have been (understandably!) mixed. I fully expected the upset side:

• Worries about increasing parent pressure on them to be perfect on every assignment. ("When they can see every little homework grade, there is no wiggle room. My parents will be on me all the time now," said one 8th grader)
• Of parents knowing test grades before the students even do, and jumping on them when they get in the car!
• Of more "micromanagement" when the students were trying to expand their freedoms and responsibilities.
• Of an even more formidable parent-teacher alliance to force higher student performance!

However, many weren't worried about it, and even welcomed it:

• "I already do my best on all my assignments, so I'm not worried about whether or not my parents see them."
• "It will force me to work harder on my assignments."
• "It will help me remember missed assignments if I've been sick or something."
• "I like that I'll be able to keep up with my grades all the time. It'll let me see how a good or bad grade affects my average, and if I've got to work or study really hard to get my grade up."

I believe that this decision is one of the more important policy developments at Walker in recent years, and I am very interested to see how it turns out. As a parent myself, I know that I would be tempted to check my child's grades every day, but I don't know if that is a healthy dynamic. Here are a few questions I would love to know:

1. What are your thoughts about online grade access? What are its pros and cons?
2. What are your student's thoughts on this feature?
3. Have you talked about this feature with your student and and how you plan to use it?

This could generate a lively conversation!