by Anika Mittu ’19

 Due to a Maryland state graduation requirement stating that students in the class of 2019 must pass the Algebra 1 PARCC, the English 10 PARCC, and the Government HSA exam, 103 Sherwood seniors still must pass at least one of these exams in order to receive their diploma next June.

 Previously, students only needed to take the Algebra 1 and English 10 exams. Students could graduate without passing either of these exams; the Government HSA served as the only exam that required a passing score for the student to be eligible for graduation. However, current seniors are required to pass all three of the exams. Some individuals have taken the exam on multiple occasions and failed, while others will take the exam for the first time in the upcoming months. Regardless of prior exam history, all students who must pass a state exam will attend testing dates in December.

In the event that a senior fails an upcoming state exam, a backup plan has already been set in place to assure that they can graduate with their peers in June. Assistant School Administrator Stephanie Gelfand has been working to implement Bridge projects, which are lengthy, county-designed assignments that assess a student’s mastery of content in one subject area that corresponds with a state assessment in English, Government, or Algebra. If a student passes the bridge project, they will be able to graduate high school without passing the actual state exam.

 Bridge Projects can only be turned in to the state of Maryland after a student has failed the exam at least twice. However, students who have only failed the exam once have already begun bridge projects, assuring that another failure in December will not dictate whether or not they can graduate. They can simply pass the completed bridge project to fulfill the same graduation requirement.

 The finalized bridge projects are sent to a higher MCPS office for grading, and graded projects are returned to the high school two to three weeks after submission. Sherwood intends on submitting projects by the end of February, providing plenty of time for students to receive grades and resubmit any changes in order to pass the project.

 To complete the bridge projects, affected seniors either leave class once a week to attend a bridge class or are enrolled in a daily bridge class, both of which reduce a student’s exposure to normal instructional time. The English 10 bridge project, which will have taken students 70 hours of class-time to complete by the time the projects are submitted to the county, serves as a prime example of just how taxing and time-consuming these projects can be. However, English 10 bridge teacher Patty Jasnow believes that the project’s focus on grammar, writing, analysis, and research allows students to learn useful skills that easily translate to other assignments. “The skills they’re working on aren’t totally separate from what they’re working on in English 10,” said Jasnow.

 The projects’ overlap with core content in each course allows the retesting process to minimally disturb class time. “All bridge teachers are working hard so we create little impact upon students and teachers,” said Gelfand.

 If a student passes the exam in December, they will stop attending bridge project classes. This is the ultimate goal, as it allows students to stop missing class. However, if they do not pass, they will continue attending bridge project classes in order to take another viable pathway to graduation.