Joidan Thomas
The change in PowerSchool is not an extreme one, but noticeable to the students and teachers of Germantown High.
“The new PowerSchool system was changed because the county system…was merged in to a larger system, and ours was not capable of handing the large volume that the city had to build,” Personal Finance teacher Kent Crenshaw stated.
With the school system change came the PowerSchool change, causing confusion when students tried to log in.
“On the new PowerSchool the grades don’t update until every twelve to twenty-four hours, so you can’t see exactly what your grade is the day your teacher put it in,” junior Tyler Blocker stated.
What most students don’t understand is that there is a technical reason why the student grades take a day to update.
“Our old system was live, meaning that when a teacher typed a grade in their local computer it immediately went to the server, and immediately could be seen by the students. So if a teacher put a grade in at lunch you could see it at lunch. The new system uses what’s called a batch file processing, which means that when a teacher submits a grade it is not processed and put on the server until the computer people down in the central office do a batch process which takes care of all the stuff at once. They usually do this at night. If we didn’t do that, we would sit and have to wait,” Crenshaw stated.
Despite this technical reasoning, students still have not been pleased with the new view of Powerschool.
“There are extra things you have to do to see your grades, that you didn’t have to do last year. This year’s system is confusing; last year’s was a lot easier. I really don’t like this new one,” junior Leza Peselas stated.
While most students have found difficulty maneuvering around the new system, some teachers have found some positives regarding the change.
“In some aspects it’s easier, better, and there is more information. It’s easier to find information on the kids we didn’t have access to before. It’s easier to find out the details we need. The worst part of it was having to wait for everything to get programmed and access to it. So it’s a good program, but if you have to wait a month and a half before it fully works then it’s not that good of a program,” U. S. History teacher Matt Sugg stated.
Another positive regards efficiency.
“When it comes to preferences, I prefer not to have to sit and wait ten minutes for it to process and bring up grades, so I prefer the new system,” Crenshaw stated.
The change in PowerSchool is not an extreme one, but noticeable to the students and teachers of Germantown High.
“The new PowerSchool system was changed because the county system…was merged in to a larger system, and ours was not capable of handing the large volume that the city had to build,” Personal Finance teacher Kent Crenshaw stated.
With the school system change came the PowerSchool change, causing confusion when students tried to log in.
“On the new PowerSchool the grades don’t update until every twelve to twenty-four hours, so you can’t see exactly what your grade is the day your teacher put it in,” junior Tyler Blocker stated.
What most students don’t understand is that there is a technical reason why the student grades take a day to update.
“Our old system was live, meaning that when a teacher typed a grade in their local computer it immediately went to the server, and immediately could be seen by the students. So if a teacher put a grade in at lunch you could see it at lunch. The new system uses what’s called a batch file processing, which means that when a teacher submits a grade it is not processed and put on the server until the computer people down in the central office do a batch process which takes care of all the stuff at once. They usually do this at night. If we didn’t do that, we would sit and have to wait,” Crenshaw stated.
Despite this technical reasoning, students still have not been pleased with the new view of Powerschool.
“There are extra things you have to do to see your grades, that you didn’t have to do last year. This year’s system is confusing; last year’s was a lot easier. I really don’t like this new one,” junior Leza Peselas stated.
While most students have found difficulty maneuvering around the new system, some teachers have found some positives regarding the change.
“In some aspects it’s easier, better, and there is more information. It’s easier to find information on the kids we didn’t have access to before. It’s easier to find out the details we need. The worst part of it was having to wait for everything to get programmed and access to it. So it’s a good program, but if you have to wait a month and a half before it fully works then it’s not that good of a program,” U. S. History teacher Matt Sugg stated.
Another positive regards efficiency.
“When it comes to preferences, I prefer not to have to sit and wait ten minutes for it to process and bring up grades, so I prefer the new system,” Crenshaw stated.