Shelia V. McBride
Founder
smcbride@gradecheck.net

Shelia V. McBride is the founder and CEO of GradeCheck®, a company that was created with the vision of providing students and their parents the ability to understand the student’s current academic performance, set goals for improvement and monitor performance against those goals to ensure that each student has the opportunity to maximize their access to higher education and its rewards.

Like many great ideas, the basis for her business was borne out of necessity. In 1997, McBride’s son, Kevin Shorter, was a standout basketball player on his high school team and was determined to play at the college level. However, ensuring he met the academic eligibility requirements provided a much greater challenge than either of them imagined. While reviewing Kevin’s academic performance, McBride developed a clear understanding of the requirements and created a system for rapidly determining his academic eligibility standing that ultimately helped him receive a full scholarship to Ohio University. This understanding, coupled with her own educational background served as the origin of GradeCheck®.

GradeCheck® has since evolved to be a home base for students, parents and their academic advisors where data from a variety of sources shows them in what areas they are excelling and where they may need improvement. The system is a one-stop site for accessing information on resources, admissions criteria, scholarship application processes and much more! GradeCheck® provides academic support services to students through a “high-tech, high-touch” approach. It is a web-based application that gives students, parents and educators visibility to students’ academic status, accountability to map future academic plans and the empowerment to recognize the opportunities that are available to all students. With trained academic coaches in place, GradeCheck® assesses individual student results and provides feedback on key metrics surrounding core course requirements for high school graduation, test scores and eligibility status of employment readiness, vocational training or college acceptance. GradeCheck® is partnering with educators, students and their parents to ensure each child can reach their greatest level of academic success.

Shelia received a Bachelor of Science in Business from Columbia College in Missouri and a Master of Arts in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix. McBride is also a recent graduate of Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute. Shelia and GradeCheck were presented with an award recognizing her contribution to young people over the last 10 years by the City of Detroit. She is also a recognized presenter on how to take control and get the most from your education. She is the mother of three, along with her son Kevin, her daughter Briana is a freshman at Bethune Cookman University and her youngest Francesca is in the 2nd grade at Detroit Public Schools Bates Academy.