SNOW HILL – The Worcester County Board of Education approved with reluctance a policy increasing the weight of certain final exams for high school students.
The school board last week approved a change bringing local policy in line with a state requirement that biology and government final exams count for 20% of a student’s grade. Afterward, they voted unanimously to send the state board of education a letter highlighting their opposition to the policy.
“We passed it not because we agree with it but because the state forced our hand,” said school board member Katie Addis, who made the motion to send the letter. “I believe we should make that known to the state.”
Tom Hamill, the school system’s local accountability coordinator, told the school board last Wednesday that the state recently mandated that all students in high school take a state-developed final exam in biology and government. That exam must count for 20% of a student’s grade.
“As a result of this change we’ve had to suggest some changes to policy,” Hamill said, presenting the board with proposed changes.
The changes include adjusting language to say that final exams count for 10% of a student’s grade except for the classes of biology and government.
“We also added some language that these are the only final exams not developed locally,” Hamill said.
He said the tests would be required to be administered in four 40-minute sessions.
Annette Wallace, the school system’s chief safety and academic officer for grades 9-12, said the staff were seeking approval of the proposed changes because they had to be submitted to the state by Oct. 1.
School board member Elena McComas asked why the changes were being mandated by the state. Hamill said the impetus came from some of the larger school districts.
“Apparently graduation wasn’t enough skin in the game,” he said.
Wallace said staff had updated Worcester’s language as carefully as possible because they didn’t want to hinder participation in athletics.
“We needed to create something on this having the least amount of impact on a student,” she said. “We don’t want them to not be able to play their next sport.”
Several school board members voiced their frustration with the mandate.
“It’s absolutely absurd that the state is telling us how much a final exam counts for our students in Worcester County,” Andes said. “Our board of education should be making that decision not the state board of education.”
While the board voted unanimously to approve the policy changes, at the end of the meeting they also voted unanimously to send the state a letter expressing their concerns with the new mandate.
