OPINION
First Semester Finals Schedule adds
Insult
I
to Injury
n a school year defined by confusion, stress and inconsistency, the first semester finals schedule was yet another punch. The organization of finals was harmful to students and cannot be repeated. Late last summer, the USD 497 Board of Education decided to delay the start of school until September 8 to allow for preparation for online learning. With this change, the first semester was about two weeks shorter. It was not made clear to students before early December–five months after the initial scheduling decision was made–finals would be pushed to January. Later, everything was pushed back two more days, causing finals to also be split up by Martin Luther King Day. On the surface, this may seem like a harmless change. High school students
28
are going to take finals either way, does it really matter when? As a student, it does. Especially now. This schedule was simply not practical. Expecting students to recall class material after a three-week break is unfair and unrealistic. This left students with two options: stress and study over break, or wing it when it comes time for their tests. Either way, this was problematic. Many students felt nervous and pressured to study, making their “break” just as stressful as school. Students who feel less motivated about school or have other priorities likely put the books away entirely during their break. Presumably, those students performed more poorly on their finals than they could have on a normal timeline. Even if students managed to get
