Every year at Tampa Prep we have a period of time dedicated to teachers writing comments and to get our midterm grades. While comments can help to show where a student is halfway through the semester, the amount of time spent on making report cards that do not influence anything is excessive. We miss days of school while teachers spend entire days holding conferences with their students when we could all be doing something more productive. 

While the comments and midterm report cards can keep students on their toes, it is just a funnel of repeated information that can be found on the Blackbaud site at literally any time during the school year. Teachers are forced to meet with parents for hours on end and hold virtually the same conversation with each parent while having to maintain a happy disposition and try to fully immerse themselves into a student’s life in a 30 minute period. Parents also take midterm comments way too seriously and it can lead to higher stress levels in students that are already stressed out during class. Comments can be beneficial in some ways but in the end they are mostly a waste of time and do not allow anyone to benefit. 

       By the time teachers finish writing each and everyone of their student’s comments, students have missed at least half a week of school and productivity, for  something that can be figured out solely by looking at a grade book. Not only that mid-semester comments are practically identical to the end of semester comments,  as not much changes from the middle of the semester to the end. Comments and midterm report cards are honestly not helpful at all and waste time that could be better spent on learning the curriculum and allowing us to finish school a couple of days earlier. 

Tampa Prep can improve this by adding easier access or directions for parents to view their child’s grades or by sending notifications if a child’s grades start to drop rapidly or if assignments are not turned in. Whatever the solution may be, it is clear that the comment system at Tampa Prep should change to benefit both the teachers and students.