Why We Should be Able to See the Canvas Class Grades

Why We Should be Able to See the Canvas Class Grades

As all students who use Canvas know, there is an option for you to see information on class grades. Specifically, you can know the mean, median, the lower & higher quartiles, and the high & low. 

Prior to this school year, it sounds like teachers were ordered to make this feature unavailable to students. But I believe this should be reversed and class grade data should be made available to students.

To begin, think about it like a job. We’re all workers in the same position, but we receive different salaries (grades) - some receive higher grades than others, just like some workers may receive higher pay than others. 

Why shouldn’t we be able to see everyone else’s salaries (grades)? There is no good reason as to why we shouldn’t be able to see how the rest of the class does on any given assignment.

I suppose an argument against seeing class grades would be “it makes the person who gets the low feel badly about themself.” If anything, seeing your grade being the low should only show you that you have to do more and that you need to make improvements.

Also, if you see that your grade is low but it sits well within the class or is close to the mean and median, you know that it’s not your fault, but it’s likely the fault of the teacher who may not have properly taught the material.  Seeing this data could alleviate any confusion as to why the specific grade was so bad.

Overall, there is basically just no reason as to why we shouldn’t be able to see how we stack up against the rest of the class.