Exam weight should not change

On Mar 24, Montgomery County will be making a huge mistake if it attempts to increase the weight of the semester exam from 25 to 30 percent.
Grades are supposed to be a reflection of a student's knowledge and effort in a certain subject. But the proposed change would make grades too much a measure of students' performance on one day, disregarding the amount of time they have spent studying and working during the semester.
The new proposal comes amidst accusations from students and teachers that math exams, especially, do not correspond with the curricula, and are therefore unfair and inaccurate (see story, page 1).
The Board of Education (BOE) appears to be interested only in testing students' natural intelligence and not their scholastic abilities. The proposed exam change will not improve students' grades or their educations.
In addition to adding stress for hardworking students, the exam value change would penalize students but offer no opportunity for reward. This shortcoming makes the proposal unreasonable. In a letter to the BOE, MCPS parent Rob Schilit wrote that the policy would not reward students' effort. "The proposed change is all stick and no carrot," Schilit wrote. "Excluding the situation of students averaging lower than a 1.0 [GPA], not a single student has a better chance for a higher grade. So the aggregate effect will be a downward pull on grades." The proposed policy uses fear of failing, not love of learning, to motivate already stressed students.
Junior Deena Thompson, for example, received an "A" and then a "B" in Precalculus with Analysis last semester, but she got an "E" on the exam. With the implementation of the BOE's new policy, Thompson's final grade would become a "C" rather than a "B." "I am so frustrated with this proposal," Thompson says. "I do not believe that the exams reflect the instructional learning I achieved during the semester."
The majority of Blair students agree. In an informal Silver Chips poll of 100 students taken on Feb 3, 82 percent opposed the exam change policy.
Furthermore, semester exams often have little connection to the actual instructional material. Because the county, not the teachers, creates many tests, a gap commonly occurs between the exam and the lessons taught in the class. According to an informal Silver Chips poll of 121 Blazers on Feb 25, 64 percent of students have observed that MCPS tests and in-class material correspond only somewhat.
This discrepancy is the cause of Blair's high math failure rates, as evidenced by AP Calculus classes in which almost 40 percent of students failed the exam and not a single student failed the class.
Social studies teacher James Mogge sees the proposal as an attempt by the BOE to standardize and limit the material learned in classes. "In Montgomery County's eyes, if something is not testable, then it is not worthwhile," Mogge says.
MCPS officials think that the change in policy will increase students' motivation to study for the semester exams. But for every student who studies harder because of the 5-percent increase in exam weight, another will lower his or her effort during the quarter, feeling that the work in class is becoming meaningless.
The proposed changes do not help the students who are slacking off or encourage them to work harder. The change will only punish those already struggling to succeed in school.

Submit a written comment by Mar 18 to:
Office of the Superintendent of Schools, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, MD 20850