Things have changed a little bit at Wayne City High School with the new semester exam policy, and both students and faculty have mixed feelings about it. In recent years, students had the chance of being exempt from the exams by obtaining an A in the class and having five or less excused absences throughout the semester or having a B and having three or less excused absences. Ending the semester with any other grade, exceeding the limit of absences, or having even one unexcused absence would result in taking exams. In many students’ and teachers’ opinions this was a fair and reasonable policy. “I feel like students who have excellent grades and attendance for an entire semester have already proven themselves and deserve a break. A grade cannot be better than an A, so semester exams can only hurt students who have consistently worked hard. While semester exams are required in college, this is not college. Most students who are planning to go to college will take dual-credit courses anyway, so they will experience semester exams while in a high school setting,” commented Paula Beehn, a teacher at Wayne City High School. 

Regarding the semester exams this year, the exemption options are very limited. For the first semester everyone is required to take them, no matter what grade a student has maintained or how little absences they have. Then, in the second semester, a student can be exempt with an A and having less than 10 absences the entire year. While these requirements might be fine in some classes, they can cause quite a bit of chaos or harm in others. Not all classes are equal and this can lead to certain teachers, apart from the students, being put under severe amounts of stress. “Giving finals to all students presents the unique challenge of trying to find enough manpower to provide needed testing accommodations to all students in the special education program within a two-day time span rather than just students who did not meet the expected guidelines,” states teacher Kelli Keen.

Some students feel that, not only will teachers be unfairly affected, but so will students. “Some kids, including me, are just not good test takers or have test anxiety. I try hard all semester and it is not fair for all of my hard work to be discredited by one test,” says student Paige Greenwalt. It has not been established whether these new policies will be final, but for now they have caused major concern and discomfort among the student body and faculty.