8 minute read
THE SWITCH TO SEMESTERS
by Lainey Harvey and Grace Erwin
design by Ramzey Douedari
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Students, teachers and administrators discuss the recent district wide change from the quarter system to the semester system.
In 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.
”AJ Andersen This year, the district is striving to combine South and Central curriculum to be as identical as possible. The committee members noticed that at Hinsdale South, final exams were worth 10- 20 percent depending on the class, while at Hinsdale Central, it was always 20 percent, no matter what year or class the students were in. People started to raise questions as to why this was the case and whether or not it should be changed to encourage more equality between both schools. Since district administrators were in the process of assigning teachers to travel in between buildings and also work on aligning the curriculums of the school, they decided it would be best to try to align the grading scales. “We started realizing that our two buildings were different in terms of how students’ grades were made up, and that was a little concerning,” Hurt said. According to Hurt, the grading scales were another difference throughout the district that impacted students final grades. There are more than 30 different grading scales in the district as a whole. This means, the letter grade of an A might be 90 percent in one class, while in another class an A letter grade is an 82 percent. This can make it difficult for students when calculating grades and trying to keep track of what percentage goes with what letter grade in each class. Hurt also said that students were reporting some finals to be extremely easy, while others were difficult. “Teachers were making [the final exams] easy because they felt bad it was 20 percent,” Hurt said. The district decided to give the decision to each department, on whether they make a student’s grade using the final exam as 10 percent or as 20 percent. According to Hurt, how the following 80 percent is calculated is decided by the departments. “Some departments do total points, some departments do categories, that’s a lot of stuff that we are working on as a district when it comes to grading. It’s a pretty cool time in the education world because we are using a bunch of research and some new ideas,” Hurt said. According to Hurt, the committee also looked into the social-emotional aspects of the two systems, which played a significant role in their final decision. Lesley Nagle, English teacher, said with the quarter system she noticed students getting anxiety when a quarter was ending. She noticed students rushing to finish assignments, looking for extra credit, and overworking themselves in an attempt to have a higher grade at the end of the quarter. “[With semesters] there isn’t the pressure in the middle to try to get to the grade that they really want,” Nagle said. According to Hurt, many teachers and administrators also started to notice the increased stress on students around the middle of the semester, when the first quarter was ending. “We put safeguards in place for finals so there were only three exams Nagle said she likes semesters more because it gives students time to work on and improve their writing, which is an important part of her English classes. Since writing is a crucial part of many English classes, this was important to the English department. “[Students] need time to develop writing skills and sometimes it’s not until the end of the semesters where [the students] are able to really accomplish a writing task or a reading task,” Nagle said. Although Hurt said most teachers prefer the semester system, she also mentioned one challenge. With the removal of the quarter system, teachers have to become more flexible. One goal Hurt had with the change was fewer tests piling up on week nine of the semester, which was due to quarters ending. According to Hurt, this goal was not fully reached because of teachers’ set schedules. “So many teachers are programmed to always have a midterm on week nine, if they don’t move that midterm to week eight, week seven, or week eleven, we’re perpetuating the same thing,” Hurt said. This is one part of the system that could make the year more difficult for teachers, especially in terms of planning. They have to switch around the regular schedule and order of lessons, tests, projects, etc in order to support the new system and the advantages it provides for students in terms of stress levels and social emotional health. According to the Devils’ Advocate survey, 19.5 percent like quarters more than semesters. One main reason for this is the new start that students get when the new quarter is commencing. Since a grade has already been finalized for the first quarter, the students start back at 100 percent for the second quarter. “If [students] are starting behind it does give [them] a little bit of a boost,” Hurt said. AJ Andersen, junior, said he finds semesters to be more challenging because students don’t get the fresh start at the beginning of the second quarter. “I like [quarters] better because having quarters allows me to mentally reset more often, with the semester system it’s one long grind,” Andersen said. According to Hurt, the school is always open to change. There are no plans as of now to make further changes, but Hurt encourages students and staff to express any concerns so they can be taken into consideration in future years. on each day,” Hurt said. “But yet, at the quarters sometimes students reported to us that they would have six tests on one day and all of these projects due.” According to a survey of 87 students, 63.2 percent like semesters more than quarters. “I like semesters better because we have more time in each half of the year. Students are not scrambling as much and I feel as though we are more level-headed or finals,” said an anonymous respondent. Hurt also said having two quarters worth 40 percent each can be unfair at times. “There would be way more points in the second or fourth quarter and all of a sudden those are being averaged with first and third and it seemed like those carry the same weight…” Hurt said.
