Exam exemption policy for high school students

Q: How can you assure that the student has retained the information they learned if they are not required to take exams, based on their current grades and how many days they have missed? I understand students at Parkside are not required to take exams if they have a certain grade average and only a certain amount of days have been missed. Is this done to keep the schools' grade averages up?

A: We currently have the High School Exam Incentive Program (previously known as the "exam exemption pilot") in place in each of our high schools. The pilot was originally introduced to encourage ongoing academic success and student attendance. With this continued incentive program, scholarship, good attendance and good behavior are encouraged as students may earn an exemption from mid-term and final exams based on grades, days absent and suspensions. Included in the pilot program is the opportunity for students to choose to take the exams, and/or for parents to choose to have their students take the exams, even if exempt. Students may wish to take the exams in an effort to raise the semester average in a class.

Teachers continuously assess the students' understanding and retention of information and ideas through ongoing formal and informal assessments. This is one way in which teachers can measure the students' academic growth. In the situations where students are exempt from taking the final exams, the teachers have continued to monitor and evaluate the students' evidence of learning throughout the class sessions.