‘Fail mail’ delivers wrong message
A student receives a notification that she failed her last test. “Fail Mail” is an automatic alert that exposes a child’s missing and/or failing grade and is sent out each Friday at 4:00 p.m. from Infinite Campus. This notification often pushes parents to ensure their child focuses on school work instead of keeping a social life. Parents do not see that a missing or a smaller point assignment has less effect to final grades even though “fail mail” is sent.
December 7, 2016
Students with strict parents wait with anticipation for the “fail mail” that will be sent on Friday afternoons at 4 p.m. This mail determines whether the student will be able to hang out with friends or have the ability to leave the house in one piece without the parents’ wrath.
“Fail mail” is an effective way to notify parents if their student in high school has a failing and/or missing grade. While this may be effective, and parents can stay notified of their children’s assignments, students’ undergo the stress their parents put on them.
As a high school student, I am aware of the stress students endure through class work, which can take us hours to do after school.
Students carry the weight of excessive school work on their shoulders and maintaining a social life on their shoulders. Both are very important to the common teenager but can also be destructive to grades.
Parents are ignorant to the specifics of school assignments. As absences accrue, grades are entered as incomplete or failed until a student returns to class to receive and complete an assignment.
“Fail mail” reports zeros in the gradebook. Parents see these reported zeros and worry about their children’s work. The student is, more often than not, aware of their failing grades, and almost always know about any missing assignments, especially after absences. “Fail mail” causes parents to get worked up and students to get punished needlessly, because of parents receiving emails about grades that students already know about and may already have a plan about fixing.
In addition to missing assignments, teachers enter grades with a smaller point value while the failing percentage remains the same. A student could receive two points on a three point assignment, and while this may not be a bad grade in relation to the assignment, a two out of three goes into Infinite Campus as a 66.67%, a failing grade.
Superfluous “fail mail” causes parents to unnecessarily force their children to focus more on school, often when they don’t necessarily need to. Parents make their child forfeit a social life for their grades that may not necessarily be problematic. The intended purpose from “fail mail” is about as inconsequential as a weather notification for rain except the demanding pressure on students to excel at the highest level makes “fail mail” more like an oncoming tornado.
