Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS schools for many decades exempted seniors with A averages from taking finals. For the past 10 to 15 years, during the final three weeks of school following AP / IB exams, APS seniors at W-L and Yorktown do Senior Experience (a professional internship, travel, a paid job, finding yourself, other activity, etc.). Wakefield seniors have Senior Project, the culmination of a year of independent study. I’m not sure if Wakefield seniors have finals, but they remain on campus unlike at W-L and Yorktown.

A lot of those things are heavily slanted towards UMC+ students. "Professional internships" as a high school student are mostly attainable if you have "connected" parents whose friends find something for you. "Travel" requires money.
"Paid job" takes a while to onboard--it just took my kid nearly a month to onboard for a job at a major big box store.
I don't even know what to say about "finding yourself..."

Anonymous wrote:APS schools for many decades exempted seniors with A averages from taking finals. For the past 10 to 15 years, during the final three weeks of school following AP / IB exams, APS seniors at W-L and Yorktown do Senior Experience (a professional internship, travel, a paid job, finding yourself, other activity, etc.). Wakefield seniors have Senior Project, the culmination of a year of independent study. I’m not sure if Wakefield seniors have finals, but they remain on campus unlike at W-L and Yorktown.

Anonymous wrote:Feedback from FCPS educated DS who just finished his freshman year of college:
He said that he wished he had final exams in high school as not having them was a significant disadvantage this past year in college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS schools for many decades exempted seniors with A averages from taking finals. For the past 10 to 15 years, during the final three weeks of school following AP / IB exams, APS seniors at W-L and Yorktown do Senior Experience (a professional internship, travel, a paid job, finding yourself, other activity, etc.). Wakefield seniors have Senior Project, the culmination of a year of independent study. I’m not sure if Wakefield seniors have finals, but they remain on campus unlike at W-L and Yorktown.

It’s different when it comes to seniors. But I think it’s a terrible idea to mix final exams for grades 9-11. I guess building “grit” is no longer the educational fad of the moment.

Schools in the States are moving in the opposite direction of schools in Finland or other European countries that are often lauded for their schools. But we do have unique problems like overcoming the cycle of poverty and the achievement gap which equity measures claim to solve once and for all.

I guess we’ll know in a few years if these measures are successful or not. School systems are implementing these measures unevenly and to varying degrees. Due to parent and teacher criticism, APS will likely implement some compromise or hybrid approach that retains a fair amount of academic rigor and high expectations for all students. I’m not sure about FCCPS apart from what’s been mentioned. It’s sad however that some school districts now have almost no expectations for student achievement and attendance. Yet students graduate into the real world.

Well said.

Anonymous wrote:APS schools for many decades exempted seniors with A averages from taking finals. For the past 10 to 15 years, during the final three weeks of school following AP / IB exams, APS seniors at W-L and Yorktown do Senior Experience (a professional internship, travel, a paid job, finding yourself, other activity, etc.). Wakefield seniors have Senior Project, the culmination of a year of independent study. I’m not sure if Wakefield seniors have finals, but they remain on campus unlike at W-L and Yorktown.