Carroll County Public Schools Snowed Out on Exam Day

Students and parents of Carroll County public schools were awaken at 6:30 AM on the morning of their last day of school before winter holiday break. They were awaken by an automated phone call from the school system. The call told students and parents that schools would be closed that day because the weather was calling for ten to sixteen inches of snow and it would not be safe to students to travel to school.

Everyone knew that this was the day that was scheduled for all final exams to be taken at the highschool. Many students were worried that they would have to go back an extra day during their winter holiday break. Later that day their worries were lifted. The school system delivered another automated phone call to the highschool students and parents. This call said that the students had an option about what they could do about taking their final exams. On the first day of school after the new year the students had the options of consulting with their previous teachers about taking their exams. They could take them the next day to improve their grade, or choose to not take their exam and take their grade as is. The exam would not count against the students that chose not to take it. Their grades would remain the same.

There are very few schools that would allow their students to choose whether they take their final exams or not. Carroll County public schools took a broad step in making this decision. Many parents are outraged at the schools. They fear that their childs grade is low and they will choose not to take the exam and fail that class.

Carroll County Highschool, where the exams were taking place runs on a four block schedule. This means that they have four classes each day for half the year, then the other half they take four different classes. This year many teachers chose to have their students do their final exams by presenting a slide show about what they learned throughout the year. The government and economics class had to present a slide show about community service. The internship class had to present a slide show about what they did at their work place. These slide shows were between sixteen and nineteen percent of the students grade. Many teachers knew that their students would choose not to present their slide shows and take their grade as is.