Dual-enrolled students take classes (and receive grades) in 2 different systems. For most of their first 2 years at CCCC, most of their classes will show up on PowerSchool, just as they have for the rest of their career as a student.

However, once they start taking college classes at CCCC, things become more complicated. As a student taking a college class, they are considered an adult under FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privileges Act (yes, even though they’re still in high school). This means only they have access to their grades,  until they’re added to PowerSchool at the end of the semester. We are striving for a balance of support and accountability here, which means we keep a close eye on students who are struggling. However, they need to build the independence and skills that will be necessary for them to succeed in college: organization, timeliness of assignments, reaching out when they need help, communicating with their instructors..

To support them in this process, here’s how you can check on their current grades:

1. Sit down with your student regularly (weekly is great!), and ask them to sign in to the CCCC Portal. This gives them access to all of the college’s online systems.

2. Once they’re in the Portal - have them click on Aviso, our advising software system. There’s a lot of information here: their transcript at the college, their student profile, their academic plan. But for right now, we want the ‘Courses’ tab.

3. Clicking on ‘Courses’ will show you an overview of how they’re doing this semester. Each class entry shows their instructor, when they last signed in, when they last submitted an assignment, their running grade, attendance, as well as the time and location of the class.

4. Say your student currently has a 68% in their HIS 131 (American History) class. Your student may offer you a number of reasons why this is so- but it’s good to check for missing assignments, as this is by far the most common reason a student is not succeeding in a class. Ask them to go back to the Portal, and click on Blackboard.

5.  Once in Blackboard, there’s a link for each class the student is taking. Click on HIS 131 to enter the class site. There will be modules or folders for each section of the class, but you don’t need to click through all of them for a progress check. Instead, have your student click on their Gradebook. This will show a list of the due dates for each assignment in the class and whether they’ve turned it in. See missing assignments, or some zeros instead of grades? Your student has missed some work.

6. What now? The student should check the late policy for that class, listed on the class syllabus (click Course Resources on the left margin in Blackboard). If the instructor accepts late work, and the student is still within the listed time frame, they should do it immediately, and turn it in. If they’re past the window of time, they need to put their energy into the remaining work- good quality scholarship will help make up for the missing assignment. 

7. Please note: students have access to tutoring, instructors’ office hours, and other supports for their college classes. The ability to reach out when they’re struggling is a skill they will REALLY need to learn- we’ll work on this throughout the time they are at CSSE. You can support this process by understanding that the relationship here is between the instructor and the student. If you have questions or concerns, you can reach out to me anytime at fgoodman@cccc.edu, but please do not contact individual college instructors yourself.