Written by: Fiona MacBride Smith
This past January, grade nine and ten students from all across the WRDSB wrote formal exams for the first time since before the COVID-19 lockdown almost six years ago. There were many mixed opinions on the exams throughout the KCI community, so The Edge spoke with KCI staff and students for their perspectives on how these new evaluations went.
In an interview with Stella Dunning, a grade nine student at KCI, she said that despite being surprised by the change, she found that “most of [the exams] were easier than [she] expected.” She believes this because of the effort put into her preparation.
Stella explained that due to the amount of time and support given by her teachers, she was able to be fully prepared for her final exams and evaluations. She told The Edge that ”[She] felt pretty prepared, because the week before [her class] got so much time to prepare and [she] knew what was on it going into it.” Stella also shared with The Edge that she feels the support and clear expectations provided by her teachers is what made her comfortable and confident with her first set high school exams.
Additionally, Mr Smith, a KCI math teacher, spoke on these changes: “Before COVID, final exams were worth 30% of a student's final grade, but with this change the school board made a change to that rule. With grade nine and ten exams now, 20% of final grades are to be found in an exam and the remaining 10% must be evaluated in a non-test format.”
Mr. Smith revealed that the math department collectively decided that 10% of the grade nine and ten summatives would be gathered from in-class observations of small groups working on word problems, and the remaining 20% was taken from a formal exam. When asked for his opinion of the new format, Mr. Smith said that "sometimes, [he] feels like the changes they're asking us to make are just changes for change’s sake.” He explained how he believes the old exam system worked well, and the change was not necessary. Despite this, Mr. Smith has remained hopeful that this is a decision that will help KCI students going forward.
Ultimately, from student and staff perspectives, it is clear that exams can certainly create stress, but many students can also thrive with final assessments in this format.