Students stress over exam patchwork Some divisions jettison finals, putting other seniors at disadvantage and turning up volume on already-amplified pandemic-era Grade 12 pressures By: Maggie Macintosh Posted: 7:00 PM CST Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021 Last Modified: 8:54 AM CST Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021 Updates

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This article was published 27/01/2021 (1497 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Kalsoom Amin is trying to muster up motivation to study for her Grade 12 math exam — which is worth 20 per cent of her final grade, but she has other things on her mind.

With four siblings who leave the house to go to school or work daily, Amin is well aware of how many close contacts her family has.

“(This year) has been a little stressful. It’s Grade 12, so everything is about marks, marks, marks, because you have to apply to everywhere you want to go,” said Amin, a senior at Dakota Collegiate in the Louis Riel School Division.

“COVID just adds on to the stress.”

Were the 17-year-old in another class, school or division, exam season might have been one less thing to worry about during the pandemic.

While some school districts — including Louis Riel, Seven Oaks and Pembina Trails — have left final assessments up to teachers, as is the usual school-year practice, others have explicitly called off weighty tests.

Winnipeg, River East Transcona, Seine River, St. James Assiniboia and the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine have cancelled high-stakes evaluations for 2020-21.

The lack of uniformity feels unfair, Amin said, noting her friends who don’t have exams will likely score higher averages and have a better chance at getting into their top choices.

“(This year) has been a little stressful. It’s Grade 12, so everything is about marks, marks, marks, because you have to apply to everywhere you want to go. COVID just adds on to the stress.”
— Kalsoom Amin, a senior at Dakota Collegiate

“Because after an exam, you don’t know if your average is going to go up or down,” she said.

Last week, Manitoba cancelled spring provincial exams for seniors, citing student and teacher mental well-being this year. Winter exams were called off in autumn.

The latest announcement came weeks after St. James Assiniboia administration decided its teachers would not host any other 2020-21 school exams, which typically represent a portion of a student’s final grade, to provide consistency.

“Leveraging the in-class time we have with students for the entire semester is important,” a division spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Free Press, which also cited student mental health as a deciding factor.

Following exam cancellations across the province, some parents have raised concerns their kids won’t be prepared for post-secondary studies. Other critics fear the patchwork approach could disadvantage those who still have to take the tests, with program admission and scholarships on the line.

Calls from both camps have prompted the Manitoba Association of Parent Councils to put the subject on this weekend’s meeting agenda.

“Until things get resolved with remote learning, with COVID and everything, this is the new thing: how do we deal with (grading)?”
— Manitoba Association of Parent Councils Executive director Brenda Brazeau

Executive director Brenda Brazeau said she doesn’t envy teachers who are navigating end-of-term assessment right now.

“Until things get resolved with remote learning, with COVID and everything, this is the new thing: how do we deal with (grading)?” Brazeau said.

Grade 12 teacher Terri Willard said assessment practices were changing long before COVID-19, but pandemic disruptions appear to be accelerating the move away from standardized tests.

“We talk a lot about work-life balance as adults, but for some reason, we downplay a school-life balance for younger people,” said Willard, adding it’s no secret the pandemic has affected family livelihoods, which affects student mental health and academic success.

Exams, particularly memorization-based tests, add stress on students, whose minds are focused on countless other things right now, she said.

At Seven Oaks Met School, where Willard is a teacher-adviser, there are no finals; marks instead reflect teachers’ ongoing observations and a student’s progress in working towards the goals they have set for themselves.

Students prepare term-end presentations about their learning through inquiry projects and internships, and write self-reflections that accompany report cards.

The setup has been a success both before and during the pandemic, Willard said, noting it also allows for consideration about how students are doing real-world learning at home (for example, building resilience and conflict-resolution skills) this year.

Grade 12 student Brody McQueen said he was relieved after Manitoba cancelled provincial exams, but his excitement was tempered once his teachers at Maples Collegiate indicated there would still be tests.

Citing the inability to be in-class daily, McQueen said his math marks have suffered this year, so he isn’t looking forward to writing a test worth 15 per cent of his final grade.

“We talk a lot about work-life balance as adults, but for some reason, we downplay a school-life balance for younger people.”
— Grade 12 teacher Terri Willard

“Just because I can puke up some knowledge of what I’ve studied doesn’t mean I have a full understanding of it,” said McQueen, who prefers projects that allow for self-expression over timed tests.

Seven Oaks Superintendent Brian O’Leary said most teachers are doing in-class assessments and final projects this year, with instructional days leading up to the very last day of the semester.

As far as O’Leary is concerned, exams are less valuable in preparing students for post-secondary than in-person instruction time is.

Senior administration at Louis Riel echoed those sentiments: “Pandemic or no pandemic, my belief is we really need to move away from these high-stakes summative assessments and exams that come at the end of the semester,” said superintendent Christian Michalik.

High-stakes timed exams held in gymnasiums are associated with rigour, but Michalik said there are much better ways to do authentic assessment. He added the division plans to provide more explicit communication surrounding finals at the end of the year.

The academic year may be atypical, but Willard said students need to be assured a Class of 2021 diploma won’t be of any less value than usual.

No matter how students are assessed, they will have had to meet curricular outcomes to earn it, the Grade 12 teacher said.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie

Maggie Macintosh
Reporter

Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Winnipeg Free Press. Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.

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