SRHS To Change Final Exam Structure

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This year, Sanborn Regional High School will cease using a special "final exam schedule" with two-hour blocks of time for students to take final exams in each fo their classes. With the change over to a competency-based grading and reporting system over the last few years, the purpose and structure of a "final exam" has evolved. 
 
Here is how things will operate this year:


Quarter 2 (semester 1) ends on Friday, January 11, 2013. For courses that are coming to a close, students may be required to complete a final summative exam or a final summative project at the discretion of the teacher. There will not be a specific "final exam bell schedule" that extends classroom periods as there has been in years past. Instead, classes will meet at their regularly scheduled times and all students are expected to attend all of their classes just like any other regular school day. For teachers who will be administering in-class final summative assessments to students, the following schedule will be used to ensure that students do not have the potential for too many exams all in one day:
  • Thursday January 10: Exams for block 1 classes
  • Friday January 11: Exams for block 2 and 6 classes

A quality final summative assessment or project is one final way for a teacher to collect evidence on a student's ability to demonstrate the concepts, skills, and knowledge embedded within a course competency. Examples of summative final assessments and projects may include, but are not limited to:

  • Performance tasks / authentic learning tasks
  • Enrichment activities that support the demonstration of competency proficiency
  • Tests
  • Projects
  • Writings (term papers, position papers, essays, stories, lab reports, summaries, etc.)
  • Presentations
  • Problem-based inquiry tasks
  • Student reflections
  • Other comprehensive / cumulative assignments not listed above

A teacher may, at their discretion, exempt a student from taking all or part of a final summative assessment or project if they already have enough evidence collected to determine if a student is proficient in the various competencies that are linked to the course. In that event, the student may be asked to complete a self-reflection or other assignment during the final summative assessment class period.

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