Starting in the 2023-24 school year, Pleasanton Unified District switched its grading platform from Q-connection to StudentVUE, also known as Synergy. It alters the way teachers and students access information for grades, attendance, and report cards.
“I think the major difference is the ability to see general information. So if a student has a specialized plan, like a 504 or IEP, it’s really hard to find that information. We have to go down a rabbit hole in order to find that information where it should be super easy and accessible,” said Chelsea Blea, AV English Teacher.
The new grading platform is making it challenging to access crucial information about specific students. So far, Synergy has been more difficult to adapt to than expected.
“For me, Synergy is just a little poorly made. I came in last year completely new to Q, but I adjusted to it fairly well. With Synergy, at the moment, I can’t activate the features I used to [activate] easily. It’s taking more time for me to figure it out,” said Rabia Marjan Akrami, AV Marketing/Business teacher.
Since teachers had not yet adapted to the new platform before officially applying it for their students, one of the many concerns about Synergy is its stability.
“I think Synergy looks a lot more modern and Q kind of looks old fashioned. The most difficult part of switching platforms is having to adapt to it. Since we’re working with the students’ grades here, It is kind of scary, because we don’t want to make any mistake about the weighting percentage. We don’t want the student to freak out on their end either,” said Nicole Louie, AV Math teacher.
While most teachers found it harder to use than Q-Connection, there’s still some ideas that teachers like about Synergy, such as how they submit assignments and the generation of pie chart data.
“The pro of synergy is the visuals. I liked that it actually generates pie charts, so I can see the students’ grade distribution. It also gives me a warning if a student has missing assignments or is in danger of failing,” said Louie.
Many teachers explain that they are looking forward to seeing possible improvements on Synergy.
“I think it still needs a lot of work. I’m not sure if they are still working on improving it or if this is it. It feels like they didn’t finish the platform. Maybe they are giving it out to see what can be fixed after we have been working with it for a while. It’s not there yet for a big school like Amador to be using this kind of platform,” said Marjan.
