I’m sure that most high school students have experienced the confusion of seeing a 0% in PowerSchool after being absent for a few days. I have recently experienced the issue of missing a 70 point math test and having my teacher enter it as a 0/70. I’m sure you can understand how that affected my overall grade.

There is a point of understanding as to why a teacher would do that; to make sure the assignment is completed. The issue is, some parents check grades, and if they see that their child’s grade has dropped an entire letter in the span of a day or two, they probably won’t be very happy. Just the act of seeing the dropped grade can send the feeling of failure into the minds of some students. Even though everyone knows that the zero isn’t your fault necessarily, raising the grade back up again falls on you.

If you try to approach your teacher about your grade, he or she won’t do anything to resolve the issue until you finish the test or homework. Sounds reasonable right? It’s reasonable until you try to schedule a time to make-up the test, but you can’t do it during class because then new lessons and information will be missed . And, you can’t do it before or after school because some teachers can’t stay late or you won’t have enough before school without missing part of your first hour class. Also, a lot of students take the bus because their parents cannot drive them early or pick them up because of work, so that makes it more difficult to complete a missed assessment.

Students tend to feel extra pressured coming back to school from an illness because not only do they have to worry about the work they missed, but also the work they still have to complete. Students should not have to worry and feel bad about being sick. If someone is so ill that they physically will not be able to perform well in class if they are there, then the student shouldn’t have to feel upset that they are missing a day of math or science.

It isn’t always best for the student, who is already worried about having to catch up on all of their schoolwork, to have to jump back in and immediately worry about raising their B in the class back up to the A they had before. Seeing the low grades online does not help with the stress that is taking over the minds of high school students. The act of entering grades in as zeros in PowerSchool because of illness is inconvenient for everyone involved: teachers, students, and parents.