State mandates “common exams” for continued funding

By Justin Coye, Valerie Bakke, and Maggie Roth

Sweaty hands, sleepless nights, and blank minds tend to appear right before tests. Test anxiety affects many students, and mandatory tests could cause low test grades and bad results. Other students are clever test-takers. What could happen to grades if all exams are mandatory?

North Carolina’s school system received a grant called “Race to the Top.” This grant funds over 4.35 billion dollars into North Carolina Schools.  This grant has certain requirements that a school has to meet in order to receive the continuous grant money. The requirements are great teachers and leaders, state success factors, standards and assessments, general selection criteria, turning around the lowest-achievement schools, and data systems to support instruction. The rumor roaming around Brevard High School about mandatory exams may in fact be true.

The last policy for the final exams in classes that didn’t have an EOC (state mandated end of course exams) or VOCAT (vocational exam) was that if a student received a “B” or higher of a letter grade, they were considered opted out of the class exam. But now, to ensure student growth, state school officials have decided to create mandatory exams. These exams will show the student’s growth in that subject and ensure that the teacher is being effective. These tests are called Common Exams, or the Measure of Student Learning (MSLs).

Many people are concerned about the effect these new tests will have on the student body. Test anxiety affects up to 40% of students. Sophomore Michaella Shetters said, “Having these tests are very stressful if anyone has test anxiety. I don’t handle tests well under pressure.” These tests can badly affect students that have bad test anxiety.

These mandatory exams are challenging for certain teachers or classes. Kenneth Franklin, Brevard said that it would be hard to decide on a way to test the students enrolled in concert band, wind ensemble or percussion. The classes are primarily based on performance grades. For example, the band at Cary High School has a final exam containing a four octave chromatic scale and an organized concert binder. Franklin may have to change his entire lesson plans to fit in the requirements.

The verdict has so far been decided on starting in the spring semester of the 2012-2013 school year. However, this decision is subject to change.

Tommy Wakefield, BHS’s Student Body President, said that he doesn’t necessarily agree with the new exam policy. He said that teachers would change their style of teaching, so they could teach everything the students need to know to get a good grade on the exam.

Jeremy Gibbs, principal at Brevard High School, said that students shouldn’t look at this as a punishment. He said he understands why this stands as a controversial subject school-wide. He also said that it may not be in affective in all classes this semester. It may start in some classes and continue to grow for the years to come.

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