ROGERS -- Final exams are a thing of the past for high school students heading back to school in Bentonville and Rogers.
School boards in both districts voted earlier this year to end semester exams.
At A Glance (w/logo)
What Changed?
Bentonville and Rogers changed final exams policies. Bentonville changed its grading structure to one using 100 percent semester work. Rogers eliminated a policy exempted seniors from a final exam schedule. Teachers will be responsible for testing their students during class and not during a separate schedule.
Source: Staff Report
Teachers still will give tests, said Charles Lee, principal at Rogers High School. Grades will be recorded by quarter and the traditional semester exam is gone, Lee said. With the change in the exam schedule students will not be able check out of school early either.
Eliminating several days of reviews and tests will allow more class time with students, said administrators from both districts.
Administrators for both districts argue colleges test less and high schools should follow their examples.
That isn't necessarily true, said some college administrators.
Students have exams in college, especially in undergraduate classes, said Gary Ritter, director of the Office for Educational Policy at the University of Arkansas. A student pursuing a master's or a doctorate is more likely to get an assignment for a final paper or project instead of a test, he said.
"Some classes lend themselves to final exams," Ritter said.
A final paper in algebra doesn't make sense anymore than a fill-in-the-bubble paper exam in ceramics, Ritter said. An essay in English class might make better sense than an exam.
Part of the argument for Bentonville's policy change came from a blog post by Chris Goering, associate professor of English education curriculum and instruction at the University of Arkansas.
A test shouldn't be the end of the learning conversation, Goering said. Final exams can tend to survey a semester of knowledge in 100 questions easy for teachers to grade and the exams are mandatory for students to take.
"If that's the kind of exams that we're giving then we should stop giving them," he said.
There are two ways teachers check what students know, Goering said. There are checks that form what they teach and checks that sum up what students have learned.
Teachers need student feedback, he said. It can be as simple as listening to what students say or a project such as a video or a work of art that gives students a chance to prove what they have learned.
Not every college professor uses a final exam, Goering said. He polled colleagues, and some said they used final papers or presentations instead of a sit-down test.
Required high-stakes tests are enough, Goering said. How many more tests do students need to prove their college readiness, he asked.
"I don't feel like that kind of pressure cooker is needed to get ready for college," Goering said.
Final exams have value because they determine if a students has in-depth knowledge, said Ricky Thompson, vice president for learning at NorthWest Arkansas Community College.
Final scores in a college setting can decide if a student is ready for the next course, the next degree, Thompson said.
Study skills, time management and personal goals also play into how ready a student is for college. Motivation is the biggest factor, he said.
Some students have to be taught test-taking skills when they arrive at college. Scores from the ACT or Compass tests are required for enrollment. Test-taking skills are learned and have to be practiced, he said.
"Whether you are good at taking the test or not it's still nerve wracking," Thompson said.
The University of Arkansas has a final exam schedule and professors are encouraged to use it, said Charlie Alison, university spokesman.
Before this year, Bentonville used 20 percent of a student's semester test exam to determine his or her final grade.
Rogers had a similar practice, but policy technically called for senior exemptions to the exams, not the exams themselves. December 2013 exams were canceled in Rogers because of weather. This spring Rogers used semester exams as 10 percent of the student's final grade instead of 20 percent.
Students don't lack for exams in high school, according to a Bentonville summary of the policy change written by Chad Scott, Bentonville High School principal.
During the 2014-2015 year a sophomore will have six exams required by the school and state, Scott wrote. That same student might have a number of Advanced Placement exams and Career and Technical Education exams. They might be taking the PSAT to qualify for National Merit Scholarships. They might be taking English language tests.
Those tests stay. Semester exams were in addition to other high-stakes tests.
Deleting the test policy won't change scores for above average students, Scott wrote. Struggling students tend to score low on exams and when those test scores are weighted their grades plummet.
Exams keep students honest about reading the book or doing the work an instructor requested, Ritter said.
He likes the idea of teachers testing as they go along to use that feedback for future lessons.
The mandatory comprehensive exam schedule can go, Ritter said. However, students should have big tests in high school because they will encounter them in college. A college freshman in a 300-seat class isn't going to have a college professor checking weekly work, he said.
"In college they probably won't have the good fortune of having professors who test often," he said. "It's a fine line that high school teachers have to walk."
NW News on 08/17/2014