Stress is a part of life, leads to good and bad things, the choice is personal. Rather than pretend stress is a negative, how about teaching students how to deal with stress and the challenges of life?

The problem isn't the test itself, but that the grade on one exam represents 10% of the overall grade for the class, and that for some reason, midterm grades have always been notoriously and consistently lower than all other grades. Perhaps the BOE should look at the statistics on that, and make sure that the tests are not inconsistent with other measures of student performance, in evaluating whether or not to keep midterms.

1. A student could have an A all the way until midterms, which means he is doing well on tests, quizzes and homework assignments. And then along comes a mid-term, and often the student's average drops to a B. If the midterm is exactly the same for all students across different teachers, this could be an issue.

2. There is a lot of cheating on midterms, especially since there are essay-type questions which are easier to pass on, and students take the same test at different times/days. Unfortunately it is often the brightest students who are involved in this, as the stakes are much higher for them.

3. Now that the school is allowing smart phones in the class, imagine how much more this will facilitate cheating.

Thank you Gilda. For kids going on to college, mid terms and finals will be a way of life. Homework will not count, grade will pretty much depend on those two tests, possibly with a term paper thrown in. Why do we want to postpone dealing with this to a time when students are under enough pressure being away from home, making new friends, etc? In addition, the reason why a students grade is higher is mainly due to the weight of homework on a grade. Prior to the rigidity of HAC, this was not the case, but now it seems that homework can actually inflate a grade significantly as well as the opposite. A student who shows mastery of material on tests can actually receive a lower grade than a student who performs poorly simply by missing homework. As far as cheating - how do we know who is doing the homework? For those students who "don't test well", perhaps we should be finding out why and helping them figure out how to perform better on tests since this will be how the next four years of their life will be. And Lori, essays are far harder to cheat on. And in college, kids will face the same issues of knowing kids in different sections taking the same tests - be assured, professors are smarter than the kids. I really think we need to prepare our students - we're not doing our children any favors by "shielding" them.

Actually I am FOR midterms, just against the manner in which they are administered. As far as cheating goes, the consequences are serious in college, but unfortunately not so in school.

I am also for essays versus multiple choice, however unless we realize how rampant the cheating is, and find a way to clamp down , as well as to administer the same subject exam to all at the same time, it is easier to remember and share 3 essay questions with someone who is testing the next day. (than 50 m.c. questions)

H.W. is weighted very slightly, just like college assignments that one can potentially do in a group setting. I don't believe that H.W. alone can significantly impact a grade--I think the way it is weighted, it cannot even pull you from a B- to a B.?

If you cannot handle stress in H.S. you are not going to succeed in college. If you cannot be tested on 20 chapters versus 1 at a time, then we are only allowing our kids to further dilute their skills, drive and brain power.

Lori,
Agreed on cheating, and something should be done, particularly as you stated with the consequences. Agreed on the essay part to some degree as well. As far as HW - I have had a much different experience with my son - one small example from many - he got a C as a grade in AP Gov & Econ due to missing homework (test grades much higher) and got a 5 on his AP exam. So pretty much he would have gotten an A in a college course, but because of homework (yes, his choice not to do it knowing the consequences) he got a C in high school. If you go through the point system on HAC, homework generally counts for well more than the 10% of the grade, in many cases upwards of 25% to 30% of a grade. In my opinion, there is no way homework should receive a greater weight than a mid term or final. When HW exceeds 10% of the grade, I see that as grade inflation.

Is it true that mid-terms have been eliminated starting next year? And why? And how do a handful of peopel get to make decisions like these?

Lori -- I would file your input with school officials and the Board of Education regarding mid-terms.