• Miles Meador (from April 2021)

With the school year quickly approaching its end, final exam schedules and senior week activities bring changes to the normal bell schedule.

Senior Finals are May 18-21, with underclass exams the following week, May 24-27.

Earlier in the year, the district informed parents that semester exams were designed so that teachers can accurately understand and report levels of achievement.  As a district, we are committed to empowering our teachers in developing the assessment experiences for students that most effectively and meaningfully measure a course’s most essential standards.

During the summative “exam” periods for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, students may see a variety in types of assessments, including cumulative projects, re-submission of work to show achievement gains, portfolio development, advance access to passages and exam artifacts, and open access to notes and other resources.

Additionally, our campus teams of teachers are working collaboratively to ensure consistency in assessment experiences within each course. And because students have been learning in both Face-to-Face and ConnectedLearning environments, teacher teams will review the exam administration environment expectations to ensure that all students have access to the same resources, whether at home or in school.

Along with exams, the 2021 senior class will also get an opportunity to get exemptions on exams. Exemption information (for seniors only) has been updated. The rules that allow seniors to be exempt are the following; they must have passed all previous STAAR tests, 80% (75 in AP) or above for all courses, fewer than 3 unexcused absences, no suspensions or alternative school during the spring semester, and the seniors must be present during the final week.

• Mayra Diaz (from May 2021)

Despite the challenges faced this school year due to the pandemic, DHS students and teachers proved that nothing is impossible. This past weekend, three students from the UIL Academic squad became state champions for the first time. 

“I am proud to say our Spelling and Vocabulary Team, consisting of Alyssa Trasporto, Madeline Ray and Declan Ayre, took first place and became state champions for all 5A schools,” UIL coach Seth Ross said.

The University Interscholastic League has Academic competitions in multiple events to provide the opportunity for students to learn more than what is in the classroom curriculum, and to compete against other schools in competitive academics. 

“In the spring semester, there are invitational meets, a District meet, a Regional Meet (you qualify by winning first place team or top 3 individuals at District), and a State Meet (you qualify by placing as 1st place team or top 3 individuals at Regional),” UIL Academic coordinator Fred Mueller said.

DHS fielded teams at the District meet in Current Issues and Events, Spelling and Vocabulary, Science, Mathematics, Number Sense, Calculator, Literary Criticism, and Social Studies. DHS usually fields in additional events, but due to the pandemic, there was limited participation.

At District, the UIL Academic squad teams placed first in Spelling and Vocabulary and Literary Criticism, and placed individually in Science and Current Issues and Events. These students advanced to Regionals.

“We were extremely pleased and excited with the excellent performance by these scholars,” Ross said.

Due to the pandemic, the UIL Academic squad was forced to prepare for competition virtually, 

“It was extremely difficult to prepare for competition. We improvised, adapted, and overcame and were able to get ready to compete,” Mueller said.

Despite this, their hard work and efforts were proven as they excelled in the Regional meet, advancing them to the State UIL Academic Meet.

“Regionals is an even greater challenge than District. Our Region contains some of the best academic teams in the state, so it is always a challenge to advance to the state championships,” Mueller said.

At State Championships, DHS secured its first state championship win at the UIL Academic meet, thanks to the Spelling and Vocabulary team. Junior Alyssa Trasporto also placed third individually against former National Spelling Bee finalists.

“We have gone to state for the last five years in Spelling and Vocabulary either as a team or individuals, but have never won the state championship. This was the culmination of years of work, and a team that has one of the strongest work ethics out there. It was extremely satisfying to win.” Ross said.

The DHS Academic UIL Squad will participate in the next school year’s UIL meets, “We are already thinking about the challenging competitors we will face.” Ross said.

• Catherine Grether (from May 2021)

The track team size has dwindled substantially this year. Whereas in most years there would be about 60 distance and 80 non-distance runners, those numbers are down to about 40 of each. The majority of those students are connected learners, which is very helpful for recovery according to varsity head coach Jennings Simmons. “You have a lot more wiggle room for how you’re doing your work,” Simmons said. “You can be lying down all day, which really comes into play for recovery. ” 

Because of COVID regulations, Junior Varsity (JV) and Varsity members cannot go to meets together. In the past, that would be a large part of the JV kids’ experience. “By the time you’re a varsity member in our program you have it all dialed in; you know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing and when, and you’re taking ownership of what you’re doing,” Simmons said. “Their race planning and execution has been mostly perfect, which is great for them, but now the younger kids don’t get to see that which presents a challenge, as a coach because I’m not able to show them that.” 

There are positive impacts of COVID regulations as well. “Racing less definitely helps, one of the biggest problems with high school runners is they race too much. One of the hidden benefits with COVID regulations is that there have been fewer meets so we can train harder and recover harder, going into the next meet.” Simmons said. “There has been some greater progress for that reason, and more personal records being broken every meet. For me, the good has outweighed the bad. That’s not necessarily because of regulations but I think that’s because of the kids and the way they positively responded to their challenges.”

On February 29, Sophomore Wyatt Athey broke a 37-year-old school record for 3200 meters (2 miles) with a time of 9:28. This is currently the top time in Texas in 5A for this distance. “I trained for that by listening to what my coach told me to do and running the workout he provided me. I was aiming for the school record, I was told to go out there and do it so I did.” Athey said. He also set a record for over 5000 meters at the Texas Distance Festival, clocking 15:24.

• Miles Meador (from May 2021)

Denton High has been known by many to have great pride in intellectuality from students. Ranging from spelling bee winners, to now National Merit finalists, the academic awards and scholarships usually flow in.

Schools all across the country are awarding students for their academic excellence, and senior Thomas Gumienny was selected as a finalist for the National Merit scholarship award. Along with Thomas, senior Jack Algood was selected for a smaller but significant award for scholarship. 

“I actually didn't know what the National Merit program was,” Gumienny said. “I just did as good as I could on the PSAT and got an email about the National Merit Scholarship a year after I took it.”

Being a finalist for the National Merit award is very limited and a big deal for schools across the country. Only a few thousand from all United States schools get selected, and upwards to $35 million go to scholarships. 

“Being a National Merit Finalist will strengthen my resume for both colleges and jobs,” Gumienny said. “It also got me a rather nice scholarship from A&M. They do have a great engineering program, and my parents were also Aggies, so I am planning on going there.”

There is always a ton of pressure being in the higher classes in high school, but having good preparation and academic skills can really help your case for being a National Merit student.

“Pay attention to every subject in a course,” Gumienny said. “The PSAT has a habit of bringing them up.”

Not many students who go to Denton High live outside of Denton and are eligible for this award, but since Jack Algood lives in Pilot Point, he was eligible and honored for the College Board “Rural and Small town scholar” award for having excellent PSAT scores. 

“Once they notified me that I qualified,” Algood said, 

“All I had to do was submit the application, and all of the hard work really paid off. I was very honored to get that type of recognition.”

Determination and effort is what Jack advises for students wanting to get more involved and receive opportunities for college credit and scholarships.

“My advice to students seeking an award from the College Board,” Algood said, “is to take time to research the many awards they offer and see which ones fit you. If you’re a student with the motivation and work ethic to study hard and score well on the PSAT or SAT, there's no limit on how many scholarships and recognitions you'll get. It all depends on how much effort you put into it.”

• Miles Meador (from Dec. 2020)

When schools were forced online due to Covid-19, teachers and students had to quickly adjust to the new normal, but it also forced many tests and other assignments to be taken online. With tests being online and students at home, it created easier ways to cheat by going to Google, or getting answers from others. Administrators and teachers alike have expressed concern about the increase in academic integrity violations.

There should be more enhanced enforcements and rules on cheating, without invading personal space and information. Students should be held accountable for their actions if caught cheating.

The amount of cheating going on so far during this school year has been out of control. Students who did nothing over the three month online school period are the ones who have been cheating the most, according to research done by the Washington Post. Many teachers during that time did not look over work submitted, and didn’t really pay attention to the amount of cheating on big tests like finals and second semester tests. For example; on essays, students would copy off of other students and even the internet, forgoing all of the plagiarism guidelines, and many teachers just skimmed over them and moved on. Although it was a hectic time for teachers, that still doesn’t excuse the fact of the matter.

Of course this is a very difficult time for all teachers around the country, but students have found many ways to search up the answers to questions.

 An idea that could help prevent mass cheating on exams and tests is the ability to lock the test, like Google Forms can do. There is no way, with the technology we have in this generation, that websites like Canvas and College Board can’t install the technology to lock the screen while testing. Many students can change tabs and look up the answers, even if they are in the class face to face. 

During the summer, most students lose a good chunk of their knowledge from the previous year. When the quarantine hit in the middle of March, during summer break, as well as in the two extra weeks in August before the start of school, almost all students who did no sort of school have lost a lot of knowledge. That would lead many to resort to cheating on tests and assignments because they forgot or simply don’t care. That also makes a point that kids should’ve been in school face to face to start the 2020-2021 school year. The amount of cheating by students has risen in significant numbers, and they should’ve had most kids back to face to face when the school year started. They can’t learn as well online at home in their bed as in person sitting in school chairs.

It has gotten easier and faster for students to cheat on all types of tests and assignments, and the fact that most of the programs don’t have anti-lock test systems and software to suspect cheating, is something that has to change for the future. Students will also continue to cheat on tests when the majority are online learners, mainly the ones who don’t put in any work leading up to the test dates. There has to be a change in student principles and assessments before the amount of cheating over-shadows actual learning.