With our previous system we had the functionality for a teacher to "Notify parent" and "Notify student" from inside the grade entry interface about either a comment added or the grade on the assignment itself. This was a huge feature that we used a great deal So much handier to have the functionality right in the grade book interface rather than having to go out to communication and create a new message. The notification pulled specific data into the notification template.
The present system is cumbersome and opaque.
This is a must for teachers who are wanting to inform students about their work. A notification upon login on the student end will lead them to the progress area w/o having to dig around for it.