WOODBURY— The past few years Nonnewaug High School has eliminated the midterm exam from the yearly schedule.
Students not having midterms gives the teachers the choice to either give students a test for the whole year, or from the start of the second half.
¨I actually think it [not having mid terms] helps them because we have more instructional time,¨ says Spanish teacher Karen Sandor. ¨And I think most teachers are doing some kind of assessment or project for mid-year the only thing that hurts is it was kind of nice having half days.¨
Along with Sandor, many students feel that not having these exams relieves a large amount of stress.
¨I feel like having no midterms could be a good thing because it reduces a lot of stress on the students but there are some downsides to not having it such as having to memorize the entire year for finals.¨
However, abolishing midterms gives teachers the choice to give an exam on either the whole year’s material or the second half of the year’s curriculum.
Some teachers tie in some first semester material, but mostly focus on the second half like Sandor
¨The final will probably be more than what a midterm would have because it’s always cumulative,¨ says Sandor. ¨And it will probably have a little bit more content that we have recycled throughout the year.¨
¨I think we got rid of midterms to reduce stress on the students,¨ says senior Jade Rinaldi. ¨Especially for seniors and juniors who are dealing with college and preparing for SAT.¨
However, the real reason that midterms are not included in the NHS schedule is because it causes chaos between all of the tests.
With many strong opinions about having midterms, the decision ultimately lands with NHS principal Mykal Kuslis.
¨The real reason we have no midterms is we took a look at the schedule and that time of year obviously is a really busy time,¨ says NHS Principal Kuslis. ¨So we realize that having just come back from winter break and then you start going into all the other exams whether it’s SAT, PSAT, NWEA, AP exams, or NGSS. We realize that it was just it was too disruptive to the school setting to come back and in within two weeks take the exams.¨
Some teachers see not having exams as a disadvantage, midterms give some teachers the opportunity to prepare their students for bigger tests like the AP tests.
¨I think it does take away an opportunity for preparation,¨ says one of many AP teachers Michael Sturges. ¨Midterms were an opportunity to give a big practice exam, I wouldn’t otherwise have time to give.¨
Neighboring districts like Pomperaug, Lakeview, and New Milford all utilize midterms, giving students more experience in a college- like environment.
From the Connecticut Report Card, those same schools performed comparably to Nonnewaug in their Next Generation Accountability (NGA) index reading and post secondary readiness.
Nonnewaug had a NGA reading of 78.4 while Pomperaug had a 80.6 however region 15 was higher than Nonnewaug schools like New Milford (67.6) and Lakeview (66.0) still having midterms still scored lower than NHS.
Some can see not having midterms as a set back and taking away the opportunity for another college like experience; however, the NGA reading shows NHS is not set behind neighboring schools by much.
