Some Montgomery County Board of Education members are eyeing a potential comeback of final exams for county students.
In 2015, the school system announced it would scrap final exams – historically given to assess how much information a student has retained from a semester of instruction – in an effort to reduce the amount of time teachers take administering tests.
The board at the time voted unanimously to eliminate the two-hour semester-end tests and replace them with shorter tests, essays and projects each quarter.
School officials believe the more frequent assessments provide real-time data about student progress and free up hours for instruction. Some scholars say final exams are more apt to show students who are sick or overwhelmed and those who are simply good at taking tests than students who have mastered the course’s content, while others maintain the tests are a necessary indicator of students’ retention of information.
Final exams were previously worth 25% of a student’s overall class grade.
During a discussion about the amount of time students spent taking mandatory state and local tests at last week’s school board meeting, some board members said they’d like the school system to create a work group to explore whether final exams should make a comeback.
At-large board member Jeanette Dixon said she is “disappointed” the school system is still using the more frequent assessment model, and said teachers argue the frequent “progress checks” take an “inordinate” amount of time to administer.
“I really do think it’s important at the high school level for students to have final exams,” Dixon said. “I hope that at some point we’re going to revisit that and talk with teachers about it, and do what I think is probably in the better interest of students.”
Further, Dixon said she wonders whether students are more apt to miss classes late in the school year if they are not preparing for tests. About a quarter of Montgomery high school students missed more than 20 days of school last year, according to state data.
School system staff said teachers “still have the ability to administer a final exam,” but most teachers choose to not.
School board vice president Pat O’Neill, a member of the board that voted in 2015 to get rid of final exams, said this week she has “mixed feelings” about whether to reinstate the tests.
She said she hasn’t received feedback from teachers about why they don’t administer finals now, but said many were previously concerned about lost instruction time to administer the exams, which sometimes lasted an entire week between reviewing materials and administering the tests.
Representatives from the county teachers’ union could not be reached for comment this week.
In spring 2017, the Maryland General Assembly passed the More Learning, Less Testing Act of 2017, setting a limit on the amount of time that may be devoted to locally mandated assessments. Under the act, 2.2% of students classroom time each school year – about 24 hours – is to be devoted to standardized testing.
District 5 board member Brenda Wolff, however, agreed with Dixon and said the lack of comprehensive exams does a disservice for students who will attend college, where finals – and weeks of intense studying to prepare – are commonplace.
“I’m a proponent of final exams,” Wolff said. “I don’t believe we’re preparing students for the real world or college if we don’t have final exams.”
Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz@moco360.media
