Due to the variation in course offerings and expectations across the Sidwell curriculum, it is imperative that teachers retain their freedom to choose exam formats in a manner that best reflects their specific course structure. By mandating that all teachers, even just teachers within the same department, format their exams the same, the school would infringe on students’ ability to demonstrate their knowledge in the way their teacher determines would be most suitable.
While some argue that this leads to unfairness in grading between classes, practices could be implemented to ensure that all students are assessed appropriately. For example, all exams must be graded, so if students have a nontraditional exam format, ensuring their exam is graded reasonably will level the playing field for students. As such, teachers could maintain their creativity and ability to construct curriculums as they wish.
Additionally, traditional exams are not feasible in many classes, and field trips better display students’ understanding of a particular topic. For example, many Chinese classes have completed reports on field trips to museums displaying Chinese art and architecture. Rather than simply requiring students to mindlessly memorize terms and definitions, students are able to contextualize their learning and see real-world examples of how their in-class learning could be applied outside of the classroom. However, their assessments on the field trip were still graded similar to traditional exams for other languages.
Many history classes also use field trips instead of traditional assessments. This is particularly helpful for students, as seeing artifacts from specific time periods can help students connect with their studies. Thus, it would be damaging to students to prevent them from this beneficial opportunity.
Current regulations also require all semester exams to be worth at least 10% of semester grades. So, allowing teachers to choose the format of these exams would not disadvantage students in other classes. However, exams for every course should be graded justly to facilitate the same experience across classes. Overall, teachers should be allowed to decide how to conduct exams without assistance from the administration.
