Why are midterms being reinstated?
Principal Charlie Little: “The feedback we got from some alumni is they felt like having more structured midterms would have helped them be better prepared for how they test in college. So that was [some] of the feedback that we got. Also making that last week or two purposeful, making it so that teachers could get assessment data from kids. That was meaningful for them.”
Why are some midterms cumulative, and others are not?
Dean of Instruction Christa Thompson-Martin: “Before COVID midterms stood alone, so the midterm actually was worth 1/7 of your semester [grade]. When midterms came back, we didn’t do that. And so with that, we just [gave] teachers that freedom [of doing] a cumulative exam, or something that [they] find meaningful in [their] last six weeks. We didn’t want it to be so high stakes that it would be very stressful to students, but we also wanted them to practice [for] that [testing] opportunity.”
If we are missing school, why can’t we take midterms beforehand?
Thompson-Martin: “If we give midterms before people leave, then there’s always this situation where students have seen the midterm before, [so] a teacher has to recreate a new one and test security becomes an issue. And by giving exams early, students would just check out [and] we want to complete the school semester, and we’re trying to keep things as consistent as possible through the 22nd.”
Why are there midterms for elective classes as well?
Thompson-Martin: “We want all students to be engaged in some learning component that last week. And so that was why the midterm was for all classes. And that midterm could be projects, it could be a speech, it can look so many different ways. Like for art, that cumulative exam might be showcasing a product that they made and then having the students grade it on a rubric. Even though it was for electives, we arranged it to where teachers can be pretty flexible with what that looks like.”
What will be going on during the time between midterms?
Thompson-Martin: The purpose would be [to complete] any catch-up [or] makeup redo that you need to do. I know many students are getting notes from their parents ahead of time, and if a student has a signed note from a parent [to] check out early during those days, [then] certainly they can go early and study at home and prepare for their midterm at home. So we’re giving students flexibility to use that time as they need to as long as they follow that process of getting that note from home.”
