“Got Stress?” could be the slogan for every finals period at every high school, college, and university across the nation. Every semester, students are tasked with various assignments and assessments to demonstrate mastery of a semester or entire academic year’s worth of learning. Any student that tells you finals are no big deal is either taking classes that are far too easy or is in denial. Finals during a global pandemic that has fundamentally altered the entire educational system takes that stress to an entirely new level. That level of stress is where Parker’s Upper School students find themselves as the end of the first semester approaches. 

At the beginning of the school year, “The Weekly” published an article about grading during remote learning. In that article, Sven Carlsson, Middle and Upper School Director of Studies, stated that “the grading policy for remote learning is that we will be using standard letter grades.” As it was unknown whether the Upper School would return for in-person learning during the first semester, the grading policy for remote learning did not address final exams. With the end of the semester approaching, and Upper School Head Justin Brandon’s October 16 announcement that the entire semester would be completed remotely, Upper School students are left to wonder what it means to have a remote finals week and how these finals will impact semester grades. 

Just as the remote learning grading policy was unchanged from an in-person school year, the Administration does not intend to make changes to the final exam period for the virtual school year. Finals week will be the “same as in years past; exam week is a time for final assessments, presentations, reflections, or activities. The week before exam week should be a review week,” Carlsson said. “This decision did not come without serious discussions. A proposal to eliminate exam week was floated through various departments and ultimately revealed a diversity of faculty opinion rather than consensus,” Carlsson said. “As there are so many different things happening in classes during final exam week, introducing a new, blanket approach (no final assessment period for any projects, exams, reflections, or activities) did not seem in the best interests of teaching and learning.”

  While students may believe that “normal” finals conducted remotely during the first ever full semester of remote learning is not consistent with their always-changing school environment, “the final decision to leave exam week unchanged came from the US Office,” Carlsson said. This came “after hearing from department chairs about the diverse needs/desires of their faculty, and teachers are, as always, able to decide how they want to conclude the semester. Again, that means final exams may be exams, project presentations, reflections, simulations, or something else.”

Longtime Parker English teacher Mike Mahany shared that “there was not a departmental discussion, but we were sent surveys by both the department and the division about our preference for a traditional finals week or a “regular” week of school. I don’t know the specifics of the results, though I think that we landed on the traditional finals week,” Mahany said. For his various final assessments, Mahany does not intend to make any significant changes to what he would assign during in-person school. “I’m doing a few different things for finals.” Mahany said, “The ninth graders are doing one-on-one Write Club style debates about various first semester issues. The juniors in American Lit are probably going to do a debate of some kind; I’m in the process of coming up with the debate topics. The same might be true of the Science and Fiction class that I teach with Mr. Zhang, but we are still in the planning stages about that.”

French teacher and Department Co-Chair Cynthia Marker shared a similar view. “Teachers are very sensitive to the demands placed on learners in Zoom classes and appreciative of students’ overall amazing efforts to remain engaged and committed to daily lessons,” Marker said. “In the language department, we have tried to determine the best ways to highlight the semester’s achievements and build students’ confidence in speaking and writing via a variety of final projects. These may take the form of special presentations or, in some instances, more traditional written assessments according to your level of study.” When asked if she would be keeping her final assessments consistent with those in years past, Marker said she would be “designing presentations that exhibit conversational skills and decrease preparation involving screen time. “Normally, I would be more inclined to have you conduct research projects such as the Google Virtual Tours of France and Paris we did in French I and II last year… But now, I’m trying to be much more aware of the tricky balance students have to maintain in all classes with regard to screen time.” 

Despite the stress of remote learning during an ever worsening pandemic, the Administration is not taking any new or different steps to support students suffering from exam anxiety. When asked how Parker would help students suffering from extreme anxiety, Carlsson said Parker would try to ensure “that students know that their teachers are available (and when/how to talk with them about their learning, stress, preparations, etc.), leveraging advisory time and advisors to have conversations about stress and anxiety that allow for feelings to be shared openly and strategies discussed, and, as always, making sure Learning Resources and Counseling departments are equipped to do their work and share their expertise with students.” 

With little change coming to finals week, students are left to wonder why the dramatically altered school year has not resulted in a change in grading or finals. “With the pandemic, this year is different than any other year at Parker and around the world. Yet finals haven’t changed and are set to go ahead like everything is normal and the world hasn’t changed. We are in a global pandemic, so everyone has to adapt to the uniqueness of the circumstances, and that includes the administration altering finals week,” sophomore Wyatt Chatalas said. 

Senior Matthew Gordon’s view was similar. “I hope they don’t do finals. It will be bad for student’s mental health,” Gordon said. Freshman Sarah Matthews echoed a nearly identical stance to Gordon and Chatalas’ opinions. “I feel like having normal finals during a very un-normal time isn’t conducive to our learning. We had to cut so much out of the curriculum this year because of online learning, so having finals as if we had learned everything isn’t fair,” Matthews said. 

Despite the likely backlash from students, Carlsson made very clear that Parker remains dedicated to helping students succeed. “My faculty colleagues are very serious about their craft and their disciplines, to be sure, and they are arguably even more serious about the progressive principle of ‘the child and the needs of the child’,” Carlsson said. Marker shared a similar sentiment, recognizing that virtual school isn’t easy. She wanted to “extend a heartfelt thanks to all [students] for being the best student body ever! Your good humor, level-headedness, creativity, adaptability and genuine enthusiasm for learning continue to make one of the strangest years ever an enjoyable and productive experience.” Based on Carlsson’s statement that “your teachers care about your well-being and you as a whole person, not just your performance or the work you do in their classes,” Parker students will face the normal finals week, during a global pandemic, with the reassurance that Parker’s goal of student success has not changed.