Review: Teacher Grade Reporting Programs

 In researching programs and applications for tracking assessments, I discovered a wealth of unexpected information.  I was anticipating programs for keeping track of students’ grades.  What amazes me are the programs, such as Socrato for assessing individual strengths and weaknesses in students; Nearpod, A+ Spelling Tests, Socrative, and others for creating assessments; My Class Talk for assessing student participation levels; Too Noisy, assesses classroom noise; Class Dojo and Teacher’s Class Behavior Pro for assessing classroom behavior; and Teacher Kit which tracks attendance, seating, behavior and grades.  There seems to be no end to the means of assessment tracking programs or apps.

 Programs for assessing student grades include programs for recording grades and programs for analyzing assessment data. Programs are available for school wide or individual teachers.  Things to consider in programs are compatibility with computer software and school requirements

Individual Teacher Grade Recording Systems:

·         Excel Elementary Gradebook

http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/excel-gradebook.html

Excel Elementary Gradebook is a free program for recording student grades.  What I like about this program is that it is free and it is in the familiar format of excel. 

·         Thinkwave

http://www.thinkwave.com/educator.html

Thinkwave offers a free, ad supported version on a premium version for $49.95. This software provides a method of collecting student homework online, blogging software to keep in touch with students and parents, access is available from anywhere, and the program will run with Windows or Mac interfaces. 

·         My Gradebook

http://www.mygradebook.com/

My Grade book provides service for a license fee of $29.95 after a 30 day free trial period.  This program offers optional student/parent access to grades, attendance chart tracking, a seating chart creator, accessibility from any computer, report generator, capability for multiple types of reports, and an online quiz generator; program runs from a web browser interface. 

It is difficult to determine which program would best serve the need of a classroom without knowing the dynamics, or needs and without knowing district or school requirements for grading procedures.  It would also make a better review if there was opportunity to actually try the programs to see how they work.  With that said I would have to say that my favorite program of the three is My Gradebook based on the value of the program versus the features.