Many around the school may have noticed the change in grading platforms, which went from Progressbook, to PowerSchool between the school years of 2023-2024 and 2024-2025. The Hybreeze is getting the scoop on what students and teachers think about this change.
Freshman, Taylor Hatherill believes that Progressbook is better, even saying, “Powerschool is 1000x worse.” He also says, “They can improve by making it so I see my actual weighted GPA.” Overall his opinion is that PowerSchool is “not very accessible.” He says for example, whenever you click on a teacher’s name, it shows you their Gmail rather than what makes up your grade. Hatherill adds, “You can see everything in there. It won’t break on you.” He also states, “I do not like change at all in any way or capacity.” When asked what features he would put on a grading website, he listed “Grades, Schedule, Locker Combo, Email, GPA.”
Language Arts Teacher, Sara Link says, “I feel like a lot of people are worried about PowerSchool because it’s so different from Progressbook.” She also adds, “I feel like over time we’re going to get used to it and it’ll be our new normal.” As time passes, interacting with PowerSchool will be easier. Regarding possible improvements PowerSchool can have, Link states “Make one page where all the options are available to click on and you don’t need to go back to a home page to access everything.” One thing she believes PowerSchool is good at is that it has more information.
Sophomore, Tay Anderson believes that Progressbook is better due to its accessibility and simplicity. He says, “[PowerSchool has] so many different things to log into.” He also doesn’t like how it shows grades from the previous quarter.
Junior, Addison Canter thinks PowerSchool needs many improvements. She states, “It marks me absent on days I’m not and sometimes I can’t see any of my classes on it.” She says Progressbook is “easier to navigate.” She is just used to it. She also liked how you could take tests straight from Progressbook. If she were to make her own grading website, it would allow you to see your graded test and which questions you got right or wrong.
Senior, Addison Johnson doesn’t like PowerSchool as much as she did Progressbook because it logs her out too often whenever she is doing other things. One feature she does like about PowerSchool though is that it uses different symbols. If she made her own grading website, she says, “I’d make it like Progressbook, but more user-friendly. She believes the school changed it’s grading program due to the fact that Powerschool is newer than Progressbook, but also states, “Old is reliable.”
