Less Testing: A Good Idea for Prince William Schools

A recent InsideNova article reported that Prince William high schools will be removing their midterm exams, which usually take place in January.  The reason for the removal being that students are already being over-worked when it comes to exams whether it be Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOLs), Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), or Cambridge Programme.  Students just do not need to be overdosing on exams.

All eleven of the Prince William high school principals sent a letter to school officials requesting the mid-term exams be thrown into the waste basket.  The principals were able to avoid the School Board’s approval by classifying the move away from mid-terms as a “pilot program”.

This is absolutely fantastic news.  The time spent focusing on the mid-term exams can now hopefully be spent on preparing students with critical thinking skills, rather than spending a full week memorizing for a fill-in-the-blank exam that the student will forget the minute after they have completed the exam.

Teachers will have more time to explain concepts and address questions students may have with the content.  They will not be rushing to prepare their students for an exam, or potentially incentivizing them to create easy exams or even in some cases giving the answers to students while they are taking their exams!  They will have more time to educate their students and even spend time on certain topics needing a tighter focus.

I fondly remember taking an IB Chemistry course my junior year at Stonewall Jackson High School, we happened to be experimenting with alkaline metals and their chemical reaction with water.  This was a really interesting subject, because what high school boy does not somewhat enjoy a good explosion?  More time could have been spent performing classroom experiments and hands-on work rather than having full day review classes for mid-term exams.

To conclude this short piece I applaud the principals of the Prince William high schools to remove the mid-term exams.  Teachers will be able to more creative with their lesson plans and will have more time to focus on certain issues their students may find interesting or need further guidance on understanding.  Hopefully this will be the result, although there is the potential for some teachers to fill this time with fluff, such as a movie day.  I am optimistic about this change and look forward to the results of the “pilot program”.