The Clarke Central High School main building is closed to teachers from Dec. 14 to Jan. 19, 2021. Students will return for in-person End of Course (EOC) tests in January and take final exams online. “I feel like the pacing of my classes this year has been unusually quick, I feel like we have almost no time to get the things we need to know into our brains,” CCHS freshman Beck Wolf-Hardy said. “I feel very scared and worried about finishing out classes in the next few weeks because I don’t know if I will do well on the final tests and EOC or if I will be able to get my grades up.” Photo by Audrey Enghauser
As the first semester of the 2020-21 academic year comes to an end, the Clarke Central High School administration plans to hold digital final exams the week of Jan. 11, 2021 and in-person End of Course (EOC) tests, state-mandated exams, the week of Jan. 18, 2021 in-person at CCHS.
From Dec. 14 to Jan. 19, 2021, faculty will not be allowed access to the CCHS building in order for a deep cleaning to take place.
“(Taking finals in-person is) mandatory by the (Georgia Department of Education). They haven’t figured out how to get that online yet,” Associate Principal in charge of instruction Dr. Linda Boza said. “If we could (administer finals online), we would. (College Board Advanced Placement exams) went online last year. That was amazing. But they haven’t figured it out with EOCs yet.”
Freshman Beck Wolf-Hardy is among those that have yet to take in-person classes at CCHS, so he will have to navigate a new environment in addition to concerns about his health and that of his family.
“I feel very scared about going into the school building to take the tests I need to do because I really don’t want to get sick and get my family members sick,” Wolf-Hardy said. “I don’t know what getting sick would do to my running and how it could affect my running career in the future, I have no clue where anything even is in the building (and) I don’t think I’m even ready to take the tests yet whether it’s at the school or at my house.”
According to an email sent to CCHS families on Dec. 11, Jan. 4 and 5, 2021 will be asynchronous learning days and Fridays Jan. 8 and 22, 2021 will be synchronous school days. On asynchronous days, teachers will assign work through Google Classroom to be completed independently, and synchronous days will follow the usual Zoom schedule.
Click on the right arrow key to view the January dates.
“While we considered various options to avoid asynchronous days, we had to work within certain constraints (such as) EOC requirements, building closures, etc. Should any of these constraints change, we will revisit this schedule to maximize instructional time,” the email stated.
According to Boza, the administration is still working to finalize more detailed plans.
“We know what date each test is being given, but the details of what’s happening, how that’s gonna look, we’re still working all of that out. We do know that rooms will be small, probably 10 or 11 students in a room spread out,” Boza said. “(We will need) all hands on deck, so we’re pretty much bringing all teachers into the building in order to make this happen.”
For Wolf-Hardy, the workload in his classes has felt overwhelming, which is impacting his outlook on his Coordinate Algebra EOC.
“I feel like I am very unprepared (for my EOC) because normally in math, we do things quickly and don’t spend a lot of time on topics in the first place, but we do have time to ask questions and get the help we might need. But with online school, it feels like everything is sped up 10 times so by the time you come up with your questions, you’re already on the next unit,” Wolf-Hardy said.
Assistant Principal Summer Smith recognizes this faster pace and feels that the recent switch to block scheduling has had an impact.
“If we were in school, in a block period, you pretty much do two lessons a day. (That’s) what you have to do to keep up on pace,” Smith said. “So I think people would be feeling overwhelmed anyway, even if we were face to face, but I don’t know that anybody can separate (the effects of block scheduling from that of digital learning).”
“With online school, it feels like everything is sped up 10 times so by the time you come up with your questions, you’re already on the next unit.”
— Beck Wolf-Hardy,
CCHS freshman
CCHS senior Gabriel Stutz plans to take final exams in on-level Precalculus and advanced Macroeconomics and also predicts that students’ success on these tests will be impacted by online learning.
“I honestly believe that the online (learning) situation will make these tests harder,” Stutz said. “I really don’t care if the tests (are) online or not, I just think it’s sort of unfair to the students for our learning to have to suffer by being online all year and then be expected to come in and pass our finals with flying colors. This will have more of an impact on kids taking EOCs because the teachers can’t adapt those tests to fit what we have been able to cover.”
Currently, final exams are set to weigh 20%, the summative category 20% and classwork will weigh 60%. Stutz feels these final tests should be weighed less to compensate for online learning issues.
“I’m not a fan of the finals weighing 20%, because I feel that’s a large part of your grade to base off of one singular grade at the end of the (class),” Stutz said. “It can be beneficial if you get a good enough grade to bring your current grade up, (but) it’s just too much of a risk for too little of (a) reward in my opinion.”
Looking to the end of this semester, the administration’s focus lies in student safety and academic success.
“This is an unusual time and I hope that the community understands that (the administration is) doing the best we can do to keep students engaged and in school and learning and safe and healthy, and it’s hard to do all of those things at once. But we certainly are trying our best,” Boza said.
