by Whitney Marie Halaby ’14

Way back in 1999, the Board of Education first discussed a change in high school exam policy. This proposal became known as the double ‘A’ exemption policy. Ultimately, the policy was not accepted by Board members because the members felt that there would be more pressure to have other types of tests for seniors and also felt they did not have enough information to abandon exams. Seven years later, MCPS student Nathan Friedman launched a petition in defense of the Double ‘A’ exemption policy. The petition said that “Students who consistently perform at an outstanding level should not have to risk that grade by taking an exam. Under the current system, a student who receives two ‘A’s’ for his report card and a ‘D’ or below on the exam would drop his semester grade to a ‘B’. This is not representative of the students’ true effort and may simply be the result of a hard exam.” Friedman was right and the double ‘A’ exemption should be implemented in Montgomery County schools to assure fairness and reward students’ quality work.

The double ‘A’ exemption policy would provide an initiative for students to work harder during the semester; as students strive to succeed to excuse themselves from exams, their grades will improve. The ability to miss a week of school is a great reward for working hard all semester. The county is always trying to find ways to motivate students and yet they neglect to implement a double ‘A’ exemption policy, which would do just that.

The policy would also reduce teachers’ workloads, allowing them to grade their exams more accurately because there would be less to grade. Let us be honest, when teachers have 150 exams to grade, they are not going to grade each one to the best of their ability because of the time constraints to grade the tests. Therefore, if teachers have significantly less exams to grade, they can grade each one more accurately and efficiently. This could benefit even the students who do not receive straight ‘A’s’ because it would increase the fairness of exam grading. Teachers themselves would benefit in other ways beside just having fewer exams to grade. Increasingly, teachers are judged by how their students do on exams. Although it would seem like teachers would want students who received an ‘A’ both quarters to take a exam, in practice, most of these double-A students hardly prepare for the exam because they can receive a ‘C’ on the exam and still get an ‘A’ for this semester grade.

And then there is the danger of the one test ruining a student’s grade. I know from personal experience that an exam can drop your grade. In my honors English class, I worked hard all semester to get straight ‘A’s’. As we all know, we cannot really study for a county English exam. I went into the exam confident that I was going to do well because I had the grades to prove my knowledge. This was not the case. I got a ‘D’ on that exam, which dropped my average to a ‘B’. This grade does not represent my hard work and effort, but unfortunately this is what colleges will see. My ‘B’ was undeserved and unfair and not a reflection of my true potential and work ethic.

The double ‘A’ exemption policy clearly has the potential to benefit students and teachers in MCPS. It is like a parent telling his her kid if you show me you are responsible by doing certain things and you work really hard, then you’ll get a new laptop. Just as a parent rewards his or her child’s good behavior with increased trust and privileges, so must a school system encourage academic success with appropriate awards. With so many obvious benefits of enacting the double ‘A’ policy, it becomes clear that MCPS should immediately implement it, so that students and teachers will both benefit, which will help MCPS to become a better school system than it already is.