How can a teacher view a student's grades for all courses (not just the teacher's own)?

[TravisChetock]

It's pretty much in the title.  To my knowledge, teachers can only view a specific student's grades in their own class, not other courses.  For example, an AVID teacher or support staff member might want to see a student's grades in Math, ELA, Science, etc.

Is it possible to view ALL grades of a student other than having the student pull up their grades from the Dashboard?  Teachers and staff can do it (view all grades) from our main gradebook (Synergy) but, unfortunately, our staff aren't always on top of the sync process.

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @TravisChetock,

The only way people could view grades in Canvas outside the context of courses they are enrolled in specifically would be if they were administrators.  As a Canvas admin for a higher-ed institution myself, I have heard of some scenarios where some schools do enroll their teachers as admins, but I think it's very rare and opens up a whole host of other issues.

We generally wouldn't want instructors to see students grades in other courses here, as it could be a potential FERPA violation for U.S. higher-ed schools.  Additionally when this has come up in the past, it's been mentioned that it could introduce unwanted bias.  For example, if a teacher sees a student god a D in some course last term, they may immediately start treating that student like a low achiever.  They could perhaps grade the student easier, trying to help them graduate, or do the opposite and grade them lower because they know the student has a history of low grades.  Either of those scenarios is undesirable.

We do have some faculty who are advisors and can see more grades through our advising system or through other means, but unlocking that ability for all teachers i Canvas would not be good for us.  Perhaps it could be some kind of option/permission, because I think it has been something K-12 has requested and may have a bigger need for, but I haven't seen Instructure put this on the roadmap as something they are planning to work on in the near future.

Hope this helps to answer your question and give a little background about the issue overall.

-Chris

[TravisChetock]

Thanks Chris. 

That definitely makes sense from a higher-ed standpoint. 

At our middle school, though, we have the need for staff (coaches, admin, behavior folks, advisory/homeroom teachers) to help walk students though the process of being accountable for their performance in school.  Having access to all grades would help eliminate barriers to support students who may not have that support elsewhere.  It is also nice for these staff to be able to call home and have accurate grades in front of them to discuss concerns/successes/plans for assistance/etc.

Of course, this would be a non-issue if staff regularly used the sync process to update the Synergy system where all staff can access student info.

Travis

[chriscas]

Hi @TravisChetock,

If you know who the Canvas administrator(s) are for your district/school, you could talk to them about the possibility of adding those staff members as limited administrators for your Canvas instance, as it sounds like that could be helpful for this situation.  As I mentioned previously, there are a host of other issues that could come along with going this route...  Even granting very limited permissions to an admin-level role will expose some functionality that your administration team may not be comfortable with.  It's something your team could explore and see if the benefits outweigh any potential risks.  I have definitely heard of this being done before throughout the years, so it's not like you'd be blazing a completely new trail.  If your team has questions about this, they could certainly reply back on this thread or make a new one of their own.

-Chris

[dhulsey]

@TravisChetock , there are some third party plugins for Canvas that do the sort of thing you are wanting, but they come with a cost. Dropout Detective comes to mind as a product you could look into though.