Students think that an assignment has been completed when it says "graded", but sometimes the grade is a Zero because they did not complete it or turn it in. Teachers do not always use the "missing" check box to let student and parents know that the assignment is actually missing, because they have to actually open the field in the gradebook to click on "missing, late, exempt, etc."
Also it would be nice for students to be able to see their grade from the Assignments page instead of having to go to the Gradebook on the Progress page.