Covid’s latest casualty: Fall semester exams cancelled to lighten student load

If a poll was taken of the student body to discover what they dread most near the end of the semester, final exams would be an almost unanimous answer. Rounding off the end of a long, demanding semester with a robust examination of content mastery is an event all too common for every high schooler, but the introduction of virtual learning to West has become a variable in radically altering the conclusion to a potentially difficult semester as semester exams have been cancelled at both high schools.

Oshkosh West High School cancels semester exams taken for high school credit after ongoing virtual discussion.

On October 22, a decisive school-wide email from Principal Erin Kohl assured students and parents that semester exams for high school credit would be eliminated for the fall semester. That being said, classes taken for Cooperative Academic Partnership Program (CAPP) and Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) credits may still occur as those are coordinated through the aforementioned institutions.

The effects of virtual learning, as well as the possible issues with taking high stakes tests, were apparent to Kohl and the district as the question of semester exams was proposed.

“There were a lot of factors in the decision making: there was concern about how you give a virtual exam and ensure test integrity,” she said. “There was also a concern that if we would be back in a hybrid model, like ‘A’ and ‘B’ days, we wouldn’t want to give up more days of instructional time to do semester exams. We would’ve had students having to take an exam for every single one of their classes all in the same day, which we don’t think is good or healthy for students to stress about.”

The decision strikes many as logical given the stress already accruing during this time of remote learning, such as junior Claire Garton, who believes that exams might not be in the best interest of students’ well-being.

“I know that a lot of people, even people that I know to be typically good students, are already struggling, and I think the exams would just make that even worse,” she said.

Students, including senior Hailey Kons, have found relief in the verdict, believing that the final exams may have been a push too far for some.

“I would feel overworked if there were semester exams in my classes because with trying to learn all of the subjects on my own, it can be difficult to understand a lot of the lessons and I feel like the classes aren't teaching me very much at all right now,” she said. “I think that getting rid of semester exams with COVID-19 is a good idea, because it helps to reduce the amount of stress that students already have with everything going on in the world and in their lives in general.”

Senior Andrew Engedal understands the difficult position that both students and the school are put in when considering the status of semester exams.

“I think there’s a lot of pressure and we’re going through changes very quickly, and it’s a lot for a lot of people,” he said. “We need to have that break to slow things down.”

Engedal also elaborated on the possibility of still having to undergo semester exams for CAPP and FVTC classes.

“I’m hoping that the colleges will say ‘hey we’re not going to require a final for this,’” he said. “That would be nice, but ultimately I don’t think it’s our school’s decision.”

The status of final exams for the second semester of this year has not been determined, according to Kohl.

“We’re going to wait until the second semester has started and we have no idea what model we’re going to be in at that time,” she said. “We’re going to make that decision at a later date.”

Despite the fact that semester exams are gone, it is completely possible that the end of the semester will remain hectic for some students.

“Teachers might have an end of the unit exam or something, but it won’t be considered a semester exam worth 10% of a student’s grade,” Kohl said.

Kohl believes that students deserve an education appropriate for virtual learning, and that adjusting what’s considered normal for high school is the first priority.

“We just felt like with the way learning is taking place it was more valuable to use that time to actually continue the learning rather than giving a high stakes test,” she said. “We just felt that at this time our students deserve to have a little bit of a break and to not have to worry.”

By Marty Bond

October 30th, 2020

Oshkosh West Index Volume 117 Issue 2