The Switch to Semesters by Lainey Harvey and Grace Erwin design by Ramzey Douedari
Students, teachers and administrators discuss the recent district wide change from the quarter system to the semester system.
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n past years, as mid-October came around, students felt the stress of the end of the quarter. With the increase of tests, projects, and assignments due, students were left cramming and rushing to get the grade they wanted for first quarter. This year, in mid-October, students felt relief as they had nine more weeks to work on their final grade for the end of the semester. At the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year, an 18 member district committee made the decision to change from a quarter system to a semester system. According to Jessica Hurt, the Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Instruction at Hinsdale Central, the goal of the new semester system was to reduce stress among students, and increase consistency between departments and continuity between both schools in the district, Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South. With the previous grading system, there were four quarters, each nine weeks long. Students would receive a grade for each quarter. At the end of the semester, a student’s final grade was calculated using their two quarter grades, weighing 40 percent each, and a final exam grade weighing 20 percent. This grading system was used by all departments at Central. According to Hurt, teachers from all throughout the school asked and requested for the system to be changed for many reasons including stress among students. “We have had teachers asking us for probably over a decade, about quarters versus semesters…we have just noticed in our building that students reported to us, and we saw it, anecdotally, that at the quarters, students are actually way more stressed out than at the semesters,” Hurt said. A committee of parents, students, teachers, department chairs and administrators from all throughout the district started meeting roughly five years ago to discuss the possible change. During these committee meetings, different perspectives and opinions were given and taken into consideration. The different views were presented with data and research to support their argument.
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