By Anna Levinson
A new grading system has been piloted at Murrow.
Its grade: to be determined.
Since January 30th, the school has been experimenting with SyncGrades, a new online gradebook, with a few classes. The school hopes it could serve as a possible, more user-friendly alternative to GAMA.
“As a school we are still using the New York City DOE GAMA system,” said principal, Mr. Allen Barge. “It’s just that in the two years, year and a half we’ve been working with it, we thought this was an opportunity to explore some other options.”
SyncGrades is being used by approximately 20 teachers, with roughly two teachers using it per department.
The new grading system has also been integrated into other schools across the state.
It was also made by the same creators as PupilPath, also known as Skedula, a well-liked gradebook previously used by the NYC Department of Education until the system had a data breach in the 2021-2022 school year.
SyncGrades is an independent gradebook, unlike GAMA. As it’s not DOE owned it isn’t free.
If all goes well in the trial run, SyncGrades could potentially become the school’s grading system this Fall.
Assistant Principal of Computer Services, Mr. Martin McCormack, said SyncGrades is easy to use.
“It’s more interactive, whereas GAMA is very slow,” Mr. McCormack said. “It goes down a lot. It has a lot of the features that teachers are used to from Skedula/PupilPath because it’s made by the same people, so teachers are used to that and they like it.”
While similar to PupilPath, Mr. McCormack said he believes that SyncGrades is still growing and hasn’t reached its level of quality.
“It’s not exactly the same, it’s not as robust as PupilPath was, yet, they claim it’s going to get there,” Mr. McCormack said. “In a lot of ways it has a sort of look and feel that is similar to what PupilPath was.”
Speaking to the benefits of SyncGrades, math teacher Mr. Theodore Case, who works with the programming office, found it to be preferable to GAMA in many ways.
“Teachers found GAMA to be difficult to use and unreliable. It was a new program and it may not have been ready for prime time,” said Mr. Case. “So far, SyncGrades is relatively easy to use and responsive.”
Mr. Barge appreciated the efficiency of SyncGrades and its similarities to PupilPath compared to GAMA.
“It does remind teachers of PupilPath,” said Mr. Barge. “It’s not as many clicks. The GAMA system, there’s multiple layers and clicks, and I think it’s incredibly time consuming.”
Senior Dianara Cha, who currently uses SyncGrades, said she felt that SyncGrades is more straightforward and aesthetically pleasing than GAMA.
“SyncGrades is easier to navigate, which I like,” said Cha. “And the colors are appealing.”
Image: The home screen of SyncGrades’ mobile app.
Despite its many good qualities, SyncGrades isn’t without its faults.
Many teachers, like Mr. Case, are frustrated with the lack of alignment between SyncGrades and Google Classroom.
“Teachers would like to import their assignments directly into SyncGrades from Google Classroom. If this feature is not approved, it may be a deal breaker,” said the math teacher. “SyncGrades can and does integrate with Google Classroom in other school districts, but they are waiting for approval from NYC DOE.”
Mr. Case spoke to his specific issue with the new grading platform, and how his requests to remedy the problem have yet to be granted.
“Every assignment I post on Google Classroom has a PDF attached that students can download or mark-up for submission. Presently SyncGrades does not have this feature,” Mr. Case said. “We requested it and they said ‘great idea’ but no movement as of yet.”
Ms. Gayle Zeitlin, Assistant Principal of Communication Arts, heard from other teachers that it is more tedious to import grades with Sync Grades than with the DOE gradebook.
“Teachers can’t just automatically import from Google Classroom into it, and so that just means that they have to grade stuff in Google Classroom and then transfer the grades into it, which creates double the amount of work,” said Ms. Zeitlin. “Whereas in DOE grades right now, you can actually automatically import the grades.”
Mr. McCormack is likewise dissatisfied with the DOE’s Google Classroom not linking with SyncGrades, inevitably prolonging the grading process.
“The DOE has not approved them [SyncGrades] to connect, so it’s not a Murrow issue, it’s a DOE issue,” Mr. McCormack said. “As of now they haven’t allowed it, SyncGrades keeps telling us they’re going to allow it, but that’s what they’re supposed to do because they’re trying to sell their product.”
Ultimately, SyncGrades is awaiting feedback to see if it could potentially replace GAMA, a grading system that teachers, students, and parents have struggled to use.
Cha was disheartened because she was unable to use GAMA, and preferred the former gradebook.
“I think GAMA is very inefficient and a very bad replica of PupilPath,” said the senior. “I’m never able to access any of my grades and It’s made my life very difficult.”
Senior Robin Manitsky rarely used the D.O.E gradebook, and missed specific features Pupil Path offered.
“I don’t really use GAMA,” Manitsky said. “I miss being able to see upcoming events and certain averages of classes.”
Although GAMA is still present as the city’s system, according to Mr. McCormack, even the people in charge of GAMA have admitted its faults.
“I was in a meeting with a guy who said to me ‘if it’s not working for you, find something else.’ He told us to not use the system that he created,” Mr. McCormack said. “So, will it replace GAMA? It might.”
Mr. Case brought up how GAMA may have been released too soon, and many find it to be unequipped.
“Teachers found GAMA to be difficult to use and unreliable,” said Mr. Case. “It was a new program and it may not have been ready for prime time.”
After hearing about difficulties people had with checking their grades through GAMA, Ms. Zeitlin was optimistic that Murrowites can have an easier time as new developments are made.
“We’re always open to teacher and student feedback, and the reason we looked into it [SyncGrades] was there had not been the most positive feedback about DOE grades from teachers, students, and parents alike,” Ms. Zeitlin said, “and everybody was looking for a way that just made it easier for everyone to access students’ progress.”
Ultimately, Mr. Barge felt that the future of SyncGrades will be bright as complications are dealt with.
“I think it has a lot of potential,” the principal said, “but we’re noticing that there are some issues that we’ve been trying to get through, and I think that will only get better over time.”
Mr. McCormack sympathized with Murrowites’ struggles with GAMA, and is hopeful about what’s to come from SyncGrades, while acknowledging that Murrow is still awaiting feedback.
“We apologize for the confusion and the lack of responsiveness for GAMA, and we’re looking at an alternative,” Mr. McCormack said. “Early reports are that we think it’s better, we hope it’s better, but we can’t make promises that even if it is better we can use it because it is expensive. But hopefully it works and hopefully everybody’s using it next year.”
Image: Senior Penelope Day logs into Sync Grades.
The Murrow Network 