In December, Principal Josh Haug announced that semester finals would be making a return for the Spring semester. However, students with an 80 or above in their class and who have less than five unexcused absences will have the opportunity to exempt their final.
Teachers have been told that finals can take many different forms: exams, projects, presentations, showcases, etc.
“I hope students start asking their teachers,” Dean of Instruction Mandy Moore said. “Like, ‘Hey, what are you thinking for the final?’ Because I think teachers are thinking about it and making decisions, but it would kind of be cool to have student input too. Because maybe y’all have ideas on how you could best demonstrate that you have held onto the stuff you’ve learned this semester. Sometimes y’all are more creative with it than a teacher would be and they’ll take your idea.”
Exemptions will also be offered to those taking AP exams, a STAAR test, or industry based certification that are connected to their course. There is no limit for the number of exemptions each student gets, as long as they qualify for them students can exempt as many finals as needed.
“I like how they gave exemptions,” senior Niyathi Mattapalli said. “Because if you’re getting ready for an AP exam, giving a final may not be the best idea.”
While many students will be exempted from their finals, attendance policies will still be in place for exam days.
“Now, I want to be clear with students that attendance is still expected and we actually had a talk about how in years past, like the way the district used to do it when it was a district process, you had to show up to claim your exemption,” Moore said. “So that’s kind of the mentality of it, that you’ve got to come here and say I’m going to be exempt. Now we’re not making that as harsh of a process this year, because normally what would happen is that if you didn’t show up you got a zero for that exam. We don’t think that that’s fair right now. If that’s something we need to change, you know when we move on, then maybe.”
The main goals of bringing back these finals are to ensure student retention rates, stabilize attendance numbers and keep students engaged with material through the end of the year.
“I think the pros is that people actually have to know what they’re learning,” senior Aislynn Ambrose said. “They can’t just do it for a second, and then throw it away the next month. So it’s good to actually retain things. I think the cons are some people just don’t want to retain, so I’m not sure those scores are going to look great.”
For upperclassmen, this will be a big change from previous years. Many students have voiced mixed opinions on the topic.
“I get why they’re bringing back finals, because they’re supposed to help us, in a sense, with what we’ve learned the whole year,” Mattapali said. “So I’m fine with it and I think it’s fair. But I think I would have rather had finals when I was earlier in high school because right now it doesn’t really matter for anything.”
As students prepare for this change and their upcoming exams they are encouraged to keep their stress levels low and stay on top of their absences and grades.
“I don’t want students to be worried about it,” Moore said. “I know in years past teachers would say things like ‘Well, you will have finals in college’- that’s a different level. Courses are taught differently at college, so sure, you need to be aware that that’s a thing, but I don’t know that anything that we do here is ever going to match the intensity level of what it is at college. So I don’t want to match that, I want it to still be fun and for people to still enjoy that. So I don’t want that to be a worry, I want it to be something people are paying attention to but not stressing out about.”