More high schools ditching final exams

Marian
Tue, 29 May 2007 13:09:05 +0000

Omitting final exams is not always a good thing.

My daughter’s school recently implemented a policy that says that students who take an AP test are exempt from the second-semester final exam in that course. Many students welcomed this, but others were outraged. The reason: if there is no final in a course, then students are graded according to the “trend,” meaning that those who get a B in the first marking period of the semester and an A in the second get an A for the course, while those who get an A in the first marking period of the semester and a B in the second get a B for the course. Kids who had gone A,B in a course wanted the option of taking the final so that they could try for an A in the course, and the school agreed to do this. So now the teachers have to make up final exams for AP courses, but only a small number of students take them.